I Know How to Pronounce My Name!

[FenigDurak]

I've had the people who rant on and on about the Bible to me upon seeing my name. Usually they talk about the sanctity of marriage and love (lessons learned from the story my name is taken from).

I've had people try to convert me from Judaism to <insert asanine religion here> since my name is Hebrew in origin. I'm not Jewish.

I've had people argue with me on my pronunciation. I go with the old Hebrew long vowels as opposed to the American short, nasally vowels. Lay-uh vs Lee-ah

I've had people who excitedly ask if my parents were into Star Wars (they aren't) and if I'm into Star Wars (I am) and if that's what I was named for.

My name is Leah and I am a Princess.

[Bradester]

My first name is my great-grandmother's maiden name. It's the name shared by that TV family- y'know, that 'bunch' with three very lovely girls and four men who were all alone?

It's certainly not a common first name, more so among girls. I consider it a gender neutral name, but the female version is often spelled with an 'i' or 'ie' at the end. I spell it with a 'y.'

I was picking up some medicine at the pharmacy one day. The pharmacist looked at my prescription information, looked at me, and scoffed, "That's a boy's name!" Um, sorry?

Then there are the people who call me 'Brandy.' I LOATHE being called that. My boss (who I'm also not a fan of) called me that when I first started the job. I pointed out (politely) that 'Brandy' was not my name, and to this day he makes a big deal out of it. I'm sorry, but how is it a major issue to want to be referred to by one's given name?

[Bradester]

I would much rather they read it as they see it. My friend (who also has an uncommon name) and I were discussing this the other day, and we've decided that people like us are more careful with getting others' names right, just because we've had ours butchered so often.

I've always wondered if any male Brady's out there get called 'Brandy' on a regular basis, from roll call or whatever. That must really suck, especially in school.

That being said, I'm always polite when correcting people. I went to school with a girl who had a name that most native English speakers would have a hard time pronouncing. She would get furious when people said it wrong. She was a bit of a hag anyway, but that's a different story.

[Evil Queen]

Could be worse. I have a friend who's last name (oddly enough, we call him by his last name) is "Goralczyk" and pronounced "Grawl-check".

Mine is quite obviously german and when I tell them how to spell it, I sometimes get told "Shouldn't it have an 'I' at the end?"
No, it's been translated so it's easier to pronouce in America.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[LadyAndreca]

I have this problem a lot with my name. My first name is fairly common--just not among my age group. Most people I've met with my name are 50+, and the few my age use one of the other 15 spellings. (Yes, there are 16 spellings of my name that I know of, and it occurs in many languages, including Norwegian, Gaelic, French, Japanese, and Aborigine.) Most people are aware enough of this to ask for the spelling, to which I love to reply "Like the movie. But don't worry, I haven't blown up a gym since high school."

My maiden name is extremely uncommon, with only three distinct families in the US that we're aware of, and I'd say that 99% of people that saw it misread it as 'Anderson' and went "whew, easy name". My father had his name 'corrected' on official army documents several times over the course of his career, and had to fight to get them fixed. (Oddly, Mom never had that problem, only Dad.) He also actively encouraged me to correct anyone who did this to me and taught me that it's never rude to insist that I be called by my name.

When my family moved to Minnesota when I was in college--back to my Dad's hometown, the one his father and all his siblings also grew up in--the DMV misspelled my name, then misspelled the correction. My second letter to them (I was at college in NJ at the time) was rather frosty for that one...

My new name is French, and has a French pronunciation and an English pronunciation. I'd say there's a 50-50 chance of people guessing which one to use, but so far no one's been upset at being corrected.

[smileyeagle1021]

Could be worse. I have a friend who's last name (oddly enough, we call him by his last name) is "Goralczyk" and pronounced "Grawl-check".

Mine is quite obviously german and when I tell them how to spell it, I sometimes get told "Shouldn't it have an 'I' at the end?"
No, it's been translated so it's easier to pronouce in America.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

My grandma got that a lot, her last name was Hazen (pronounced Hay-zen... though in fairness, the most common thing she got was that it should be pronounced ha-zen... which really it should... if that were her family's real name... her parents never told her what the family's full name was... that was the name that Ellis Island gave them when they immigrated... apparently the pronunciation makes sense with the full name... oh well, some things we will never be able to find out). And the people who were trying to spell it would always add an extra letter between the a and the z.

Though with my name... I'm not surprised at people misspelling my last name (once again, it does have multiple legit spellings based on nationality)... but my first name... Michael... in the top 10 most common names... can people spell it... NO... even my elementary school misspelled it (Micheal), and a manager who misspelled it for a while (Mikel... I don't know either so don't ask)... and apparently I look Russian because I've had people try to spell it Mikhael (though there is now Russian in the family thanks to my cousins marriage... and I do kinda like that pronunciation...)
... and people wonder why I answer the phone "this is Mike"... mainly because (almost) every one can both pronounce it and spell it properly

[smileyeagle1021]

"Like the movie. But don't worry, I haven't blown up a gym since high school."

aah, I used to have a roommate who did the exact same thing (use that answer on how her name was spelled... not blowing up a gym... that I know of... )

[Bagga]

Me: "Listen, jerk. I can pronounce it with a Chinese accent and spell it phonetically using the Wingdings font if I want to. Because it's MY fucking name!"

[Evil Queen]

but my first name... Michael...

That's my Night Auditor's name too. Spelled the same way. To be honest, I only knew one Mike that spelled his name "Micheal," all the rest where the same as your name spelling. So I figured "Michael" to be the norm and my friend "Micheal" to be weird. :P

My first name has two spellings; being European, I generally get it spelled correctly until I moved to Texas, where the people here tend to drop one of the letters.

I still really like my complicated last name and am thinking of getting it legally changed back to the original spelling (there was an additional "ch" in it that was dropped when Great Grandpa Rudolf came to the US) out of spite for the grandbastard who gave the name to my father.

I love my dad, but hate his father enough to change the name.

[smileyeagle1021]

That's my Night Auditor's name too. Spelled the same way. To be honest, I only knew one Mike that spelled his name "Micheal," all the rest where the same as your name spelling. So I figured "Michael" to be the norm and my friend "Micheal" to be weird. :P
.

and I think you're right... people look at my last name though and assume that sense the last name is "weird" to them that the first name ought to be weird too...
morons

[BookstoreEscapee]

The guy reading off the list just paused... and I said, "Here!"

I did that every year on the first day of school and whenever there was a substitute.

I'm more astonished when people who don't know me pronounce it properly.

Same here. Usually they only get it right once, though. I swear no one actually hears me say it no matter how many times they ask me to repeat it.

[Teysa]

[QUOTE=RebeccaOTool;386824]I get all kinds of trouble with my name. S-H-A-Y-N-A is pronounced phoenetically (SHAY-nuh),

I feel your pain. I have the same name only spelled slightly different. It's not even that hard of a name, yet people manage to do a wonderful job of butchering it.

[Setsunaela]

I have been blessed with not one, not two, but THREE last names that no one says/spells correctly. Oh the joy.

1. Pre-adopted name: Frantz (said france.. fran.. ssss. how hard is that?) It's also the last name of my uncle, who is owner of the company i work for, therefore, Frantz _____. Lots of our checks are made out to "Fran's" It's a good thing our bank is forgiving, eh?

2. Post-adoption name: Hargis. (Said Har-giss) lots of people have issues with this name. I get Harris a lot. or Hair-giss or Har-jiss or something like that. Making things far more complicated than ever necessary, when I lived in NC, our phone listing was Hargis, RB, and right beneath was Harris, RB, and their phone number was our phone number with the last two digits flip-flopped. Joy.

3. My soon-to-be married name: Gilchrist. (said gil-chris-t) as my hubby-to-be puts it "I'm not jesus, and i'm not toothpaste." (not gil-cry-st, not gil-crest)

Add to that my poor little brother with the biblical name with a y and not an e, and all the many many "corrections" he's dealt with at school. I can't wait till he gets a job!

[Misanthropical]

My little guy's name is Jarod (pronounced just like Jared) He has had teachers "correct" his name. He knows how to spell his own name, thanks.

I have had people call him Ja'Rod. He almost missed seeing the doctor because a nurse came out and said Ja'Rod. It wasn't till she said our last name that we realized she was calling him back.

No, I didn't get confused when I named him. I spelled it that way on purpose not because I didn't know how to spell it.

My big guy's name is spelled with a "y" in it where most men have an "i" I wasn't trying to be fancy, I gave him my grandfather's middle name as his first name.

My big guy is very picky about having his named spelled right by others. I can't blame him, since if it's spelled the other way, it's not his name, even if it's pronounced the same way.

I named and spelled both boys name the way they are for a reason and not just to confuse people or piss my MIL off, no matter how many times she says I did it just to confuse and annoy her.

[portia911]

Now I want to know what it is!!!!!!