Do you have a child who continually gets called the wrong name?

[Ailaena]

DD gets this all of the time, and even though the word is unusual for a girl's name, it is not a totally made-up, freakishly bizzare word - it is a somewhat common word in addition to an actual name that has been around since Greek mythology.

 

Once upon a time, for a very brief period, my dd attended a public school. One day she was late and had to talk to the secretary and get a pass. The secretary argued with her about the pronunciation of her name to the point that dd was nearly in tears. In fact, she was so shocked by this that she can still recount the story word for word and it happened almost 10 years ago :P

 

When we verbalize the word, people mishear it. When they read the word, they mispronounce it; and it will never cease to amaze me the amount of "educated" people that do this (drs, teachers, etc). Like someone else said, I think it's possible that people don't really pay attention and just see what they want to see, or expect to see. By now, it doesnt bother either of us any more and I have ceased judging people based on their mispronunciation of a word ;)

 

 

 

And before you think otherwise, I did not have a say in her name. However, I would have likely named her something equally as random and bizarre like Aoife or Calliope or Yvette. Or Tatyana. Maybe Astraea. Possibly a name with a random apostrophe somewhere. Or even Lemonjello:lol::lol:

[KidsHappen]

I never get my kids' names right. :blush: I have an Asia and for some reason that just perplexes the hell out of people. We always have to say, "Just like the continent." I also have a Rhianna. No one ever got her name right until the pop start showed up with her misspelled name but at least people pronoun my dd's name right now.

[nukeswife]

My dd gets it a lot. Her name is Annika (Ah-nih-kuh) she gets called uh-NEE-kuh all the time and it drives her crazy. The only time she doesn't have this issue is when we are visiting my inlaws in North central Iowa, an area with high population of those of Scandinavian descent.

 

My oldest is Everett, pretty simple right, nope he gets called Everest all the time and he usually responds with "I was not named after a mountain" He prefers Ev, short e sound, but usually then gets called Eve.

 

My youngest is Lucas and other than constantly telling people, he's a Lucas, not a Luke, he's had no trouble.

 

I know if my mom's family you better not shorten the names, my mom is Diana, and my grandmother would yell at anyone that would call her Diane.

 

I know many moms say they themselves call their kids by other names, I think it's a thing we all go through. I know it's been a long, rough, day when I start calling my kids Festis, that's the pug's name.:001_huh: :lol:

[HappyLady]

I grew up with a name that no one could pronounce so I was determined not to give my kids names that couldn't be easily spelled or pronounced. Yeah, my DD's name gets screwed up all the time and I still for the life of me can't figure out why! :glare:

[SKL]

It's funny, because my younger has a fairly common name but it's often mispronounced AND misspelled. I used the traditional and very sensible spelling, but everyone wants to give it a more trendy/modern spelling. My other kid has better luck despite her very uncommon name. But often, people just call both of them a combo name - of the "Brangelina" variety. Drives them nuts. :D

 

Myself, I call A: "E - er - whatever your name is" and I call E: "A - er - whatever your name is." Makes perfect sense to my kids.

[Oakblossoms]

Escher. Everyone who is church going calls him Ascher. And still others think it is Usher. He has speech problems, so it doesn't help. He now says it is Escher with an E. we get give a lot of art appreciation lessons;)

 

Porter had a friend at school who called him quarter. His parents were hesitant to use his name. We had a good laugh over it.

[Oakblossoms]

Ugh and I forgot. Ocassionaly, some perfect stranger will get their panties in a bunch because we pronounce my oldests name with a soft G. We pronounce it just like the Pakistanian man he was named after pronounces it. But, white people will tell me no, it has a hard G:001_huh: and, they know because they love the author with the name etc, etc.

[Mama_Rana]

Ugh and I forgot. Ocassionaly, some perfect stranger will get their panties in a bunch because we pronounce my oldests name with a soft G. We pronounce it just like the Pakistanian man he was named after pronounces it. But, white people will tell me no, it has a hard G:001_huh: and, they know because they love the author with the name etc, etc.

 

That reminds me. My younger son's name is "correctly" pronounced by Brits with a short vowel, but I chose to make it a long vowel because I also chose a rarer spelling and the long vowel sound made more sense, plus we just preferred how it sounds.

It's not usually a problem [once people get past the "it ends with an M not a B"], but we do have one British friend that I had to gently correct with a "Yes, I know we're wrong, but we say ... ". :D

[Chelli]

My Levi is often called Eli.

 

Silas is often called Cyrus.

 

:iagree:Exact same problem here.

 

My other kid's names have no issues, and I really didn't expect my son's would either. :confused:

 

I have a REALLY weird name (spelling, not pronunciation), so my one rule for our kid's names is they had to be normal spellings and pronounced normally as well.

 

It gets tiresome having to spell your name and correct the way people pronounce your name your. entire. life.

[Chelli]

When I introduce Noel, people often call him Noah.

When I write his name, they almost universally call him Noelle.

Once people "get" that he is named Noel, they then they spell it Nole.

 

 

I've finally gotten to where people will ask for my name. When I tell them they say, "How do you spell that?" I tell them just to spell it so they can pronounce it correctly and not to worry about the actual spelling. :001_smile:

[DarlaS]

I have two. There is Wade, who gets called Wayne a lot (or Dwayne. How do you get Dwayne from Wade??) and Alana (Uh Lah Nuh) who gets Alayna. That's somewhat understandable.

 

The other two boys are frequently mixed up by me even though they are 6.5 years apart. The 15 year old is Kyle and the youngest is Evan. I frequently joke that I should have just named them both Kevin. :tongue_smilie:

[JeneralMom]

My mom is Carolyn, and almost no one ever says her first name and always calls her Carol. It always bugs her but she never bothers to correct people. I despise being called Jenny and do correct people, but have given up trying to get people to stop calling me Jen because it doesn't matter how many times I correct them they all fall back into it.

 

My Xavier gets his name pronounced like Zavier which bothers him because we pronounce it with the X (like Exavier).

 

Cordelia gets Kerdellia alot, and no one spells Lorelei's name right.

 

If we have another girl we would name her Persephone, but I met a Persephone recently who said she spent her life telling people her name was not Stephanie.

[Parrothead]

Yes. Makes me crazy.

[justLisa]

Not really the same, but I have a Joseph and he HATES when someone says "Joey." It makes me cringe as well. He just very seriously says, "It's Joseph, thank you ." :lol:

[JessReplanted]

My daughter's name is Elliana, and people often read it (at the Dr.'s office or wherever) as "Alaina". :glare: I can't stand it, but I just correct them, and usually just tell people to call her Elli.

[tori@thehomefront]

I have a ds15 named Rolande, pronounced ROW-land, but a lot of the time people leave off the e. And doctors always say ro-LAWN-duh, even when they know us. I never thought adding an e would be so problematic.

[SweetBean]

My two boys are often called by the wrong names, and people switch my daughters names. This is particularly odd since my daughters are 16 years apart in age, one is white the other black. It's not like they can't tell which is which. :lol:

[Lab1]

All the time! Christine gets called Christy or Christina all the time!

 

Everett gets called Emmett a lot, Ev or misspelled Everette. We haven't had Everest yet, but I know its comming!

 

Then I cursed my little one with a favorite that no American can pronounce or spell! I spelled it the modern phonetic spelling which helps if they see it written. I get asked all the time if I made it up! I named him Alister. People want to write it with an extra l or spell it properly if they have been to England. At least he doesn't get Al-is-stare like he would if we went with the proper Alistair/e. I almost didn't use it after it was used in Harry Potter and Twilight, but no one has ever made the connection yet. I just say its a traditional name that has been used recently in literature and people accept it.

 

My name is always mispronounced! I don't know why an au gets an O sound in names, but I'm always called Lora and I go with it. I never correct people unless they ask.

[ThisIsTheDay]

My name is always mispronounced! I don't know why an au gets an O sound in names, but I'm always called Lora and I go with it. I never correct people unless they ask.

 

I think this is more geographical. My sister's name was almost Laura. My dad, who grew up in the east, pronounced it "LAW-ruh," but my mom, who grew up in the west, pronounced it "LOR-uh." So they compromised with Lori, and they both pronounced it the same.

 

I grew up in the west and pronounce Laura "LOR-uh."

[myfunnybunch]

Yes. But he has an unusual name. He has been called Olly, Tully, Tally, Ally, and....Polly. :confused::confused:

 

People often call me Karen. It happened often when I was growing up, because that's my mother's name, but it still happens with people who do not know my mother or her name.

 

Cat

[lllll]

TMI

Edited June 23, 2012 by ksva

[AndyJoy]

There is this one lady who gets mixed up and calls my son Keegan rather than Keaton. Occasionally someone mishears his name as Ethan. Most of the time we have no problems.

 

I have been called Angela or Amanda many times throughout my life instead of Andrea.

[Elfinlady]

My Scarlett gets Charlotte fairly often.

[Ellesmere]

.

[Alphabetika]

My daughter Kenzie gets called MacKenzie a lot, once even on an engraved plaque on an award. People just assume that's her full name. It doesn't bother her, though if it's someone we'll be forming a relationship with, she'll say something like, "It's just Kenzie."

[Alphabetika]

as a kid I was always called Rachel.

 

My name is April.

 

I guess I look more like a Rachel????

 

My dd Melanie gets called Melody a lot. I figure that people just mis-hear her name.

 

When I was in first grade, my teacher told me, quite frankly, "You don't look like an Erika, you look like a Sonia." And that's what she called me for the rest of the year. I didn't know any better to correct her, plus I remember thinking, even at that young age, I wonder what makes a person look like a certain name?

[Alphabetika]

Yup.

 

My ds is named Declan, and while people in California didn't seem to have any trouble with it, people here in MN mispronounce it ALL the time. Since we moved here, I constantly have to correct people. (It's a saint's name and a family name...*sigh*)

 

Love, love that name!

 

ETA: I am loving this thread so much because I find out that people here have used my favorite names! Sullivan, Silas....happy sigh....

Edited June 19, 2012 by Alphabetika

[nukeswife]

All the time! Christine gets called Christy or Christina all the time!

 

Everett gets called Emmett a lot, Ev or misspelled Everette. We haven't had Everest yet, but I know its coming!

 

I've never known another child named Everett, my son always gets... "Oh, I had a Great, Great, Great Grandpa named Everett" or they assume because my dh is in the Navy that we named him after the Naval base which we didn't. We've never had him called Emmett. When you say they call him Ev, do you mean with a short e or like Eve from the Bible. I have had to constantly correct family that his name does not have a letter e on the end of it.

 

PS: I love your little guys name, wish I would have thought of it for our youngest. He became Lucas because that was all dh and I could agree on. DH wanted to name him Agamemnon but I figured that would get butchered by most people in spelling and pronunciation. I wanted Elias, but dh didn't like it.

[rutamattatt]

My Jude isn't often mistaken for something else, but the name almost always needs repeating at least twice. I didn't think it was all that unusual...:001_huh:

 

He had a Sunday School teacher who called him "Duke" for a month. And once in awhile people think he is saying "Dude" and they give him that cool wink with the fake gun shooting and refer to him as "Dude". :001_smile:

 

My Calvin is often called Kevin. He corrects them. Immediately.

[LibraryLover]

I read the subject line and thought, what? *A* kid? *All* my kids get called the wrong name....by me :lol:.

 

:grouphug:

 

Not that I am proud of it. lol

 

We don't have many problems out in 'the world." It seems it's only Mom with tongue issues. Ack. I confuse the pet names as well. ;)

Edited June 19, 2012 by LibraryLover

[MommaOfalotta]

YES and it drives me crazy! My daughter is named Kallie (like Callie, Kali, etc) and she is always called Kaylee..

 

Sooooo annoying. When someone reads her name right I get so happy:lol:

 

9 times out of 10 its Kaylee:glare:

[elcmum]

My ds doesn't, but dh does and I did as a child. I had people try to tell me my real name was Pauline. Um, no, it's just Paula. I would loved a nickname, but Paula doesn't lend itself to nicknames.

 

My poor dh has a common Irish spelling name. I can't believe the number of people that don't know how to pronounce it.

 

My best friend is a Paula. I call her Paula-Bear (like, polar bear.)

 

I guess you might have to have an Aussie accent to get away with it, though. :)

[elcmum]

DD12's name is the Slavic version of Lydia -- she is constantly addressed as Lu-DEE-jah.

 

DS7 is a Camden -- and like a previous commenter, he also gets the gamut of Cameron, Caleb, Callum, you name it.

[Tohru]

Yes.

All 3 of my children, my husband, and me often get called the wrong name.

It happens.

Accept it.

Be amused by it. :)

[Laurie4b]

Not my kids, but me. My name is Laurie. I have been called Lori, Laura, & Laurel with fair frequency throughout my life. I just answer to any of them. Sometimes I try to tell people, sometimes not. It doesn't always make a difference if I tell them!

[Perry]

My Bryn is almost always called Brian when people are reading her name. I've been tempted to start spelling it Brynn to see if that helps.

 

She gets called Brianne and Breanna occasionally.

 

FIL called my dd Claire "Clara" until she was about 6 years old.

 

Oh well. They're all nice names.

[Aelwydd]

No, my son's friends and acquaintances all refer to him as "Jackson." I'm actually surprised no one has shortened it to "Jack."

[Dobela]

Not my kids, but me. My name is Laurie. I have been called Lori, Laura, & Laurel with fair frequency throughout my life. I just answer to any of them. Sometimes I try to tell people, sometimes not. It doesn't always make a difference if I tell them!

I am Laura and called Lori, Laurie, Lauren, Laurel... I pronounce it to rhyme with car-uh, but usually most will call me Lore-uh, including dh which irritates me so much he now just calls me Honey. I gave up somewhere in my 30s trying to correct people. As long as it is close and not deroggatory, I can live with it.

[beaners]

I am Laura and called Lori, Laurie, Lauren, Laurel... I pronounce it to rhyme with car-uh, but usually most will call me Lore-uh, including dh which irritates me so much he now just calls me Honey. I gave up somewhere in my 30s trying to correct people. As long as it is close and not deroggatory, I can live with it.

 

So do you pronounce it like Lara? Like Lara Croft? The only Laura I can think of that I know in real life pronounces her name so that it rhymes with Dora. She and I are both originally from the Northeast.

 

Every time we have one of these name threads, I sit here and try to say the names the way everyone describes them. My daughter just asked why I was making fish faces at the computer.

[Laurie4b]

So do you pronounce it like Lara? Like Lara Croft? The only Laura I can think of that I know in real life pronounces her name so that it rhymes with Dora. She and I are both originally from the Northeast.

 

Every time we have one of these name threads, I sit here and try to say the names the way everyone describes them. My daughter just asked why I was making fish faces at the computer.

 

The only person I know who pronounces her name Lor-ah spells it Lora. I had always thought Laura rhymed with car-uh!

[TravelingChris]

My youngest's name is Natalia, pronounced- Nah tah lya with the accent on the tah. What is strange is how it is mispronounced here :Nay tay Lee Uh, since I have never encountered that name anywhere. She is used to people getting it mistaken with Natalie (the French name).

 

Now people often get my name and my older daughter's messed up- we both start with the K sound. Mine is Christina and hers is Kathleen. So people who know us both often get our names confused. I answer to most variations of my name- Christina, Christine, Chris, or Tina. I have never been called Chrissy or Christy, though, so I wouldn't respond to those.

[Walking-Iris]

My ds is Micah and he's always getting called Michael or Mike by people who are mere acquaintances. It's an easy mistake I guess, but man, it rubs me the wrong way every time.

[beaners]

The only person I know who pronounces her name Lor-ah spells it Lora. I had always thought Laura rhymed with car-uh!

 

That's so funny because these boards are the only time I've heard of it not being pronounced that way. I just checked the baby name book next to the computer (we are running out of time to pick a middle name for our next baby) and it lists the name both ways.

[Dustybug]

My Gabriella gets called Gabrielle a lot, but that isn't too much of a change. My DH's name is Alec and he CONSTANTLY gets called Alex.

[beezus]

My Bryn is almost always called Brian when people are reading her name. I've been tempted to start spelling it Brynn to see if that helps.

 

She gets called Brianne and Breanna occasionally.

 

 

 

I doubt it would help much. We have a Brynne and she gets called Brian, Bree, Breanna and Brianne all the time, and apparently we've complicated things further by adding the "e" because she gets called Brine a lot as well. At the time we were contemplating names I thought people would view it like Lynne. Most people don't seem to have a problem saying "lin" instead of "line" there, but I guess the extra consonant at the beginning gets them flummoxed. Who would have thought a one syllable name could be so confusing!

[J-rap]

Yes. My daughter Clara is always called Claire, even when we remind me people. Even her own siblings forget!

 

We call our daughter Esther "Etty." People often get that one wrong, but I don't blame them. Most people haven't heard that nickname.

[Carrie12345]

We don't really have that issue with names, but people never remember which of my dds is which. They ARE close in age (13 months), but one is tall, brunette, and olive toned while the other is short(er), blonde, and pale. And their names are nothing alike. :001_huh:

[Veritaserum]

I am Laura and called Lori, Laurie, Lauren, Laurel... I pronounce it to rhyme with car-uh, but usually most will call me Lore-uh, including dh which irritates me so much he now just calls me Honey. I gave up somewhere in my 30s trying to correct people. As long as it is close and not deroggatory, I can live with it.

 

I'm a Laura-rhymes-with-car-uh, too. :) I grew up in California and most people said lore-uh if they read it or they spelled it Lara if they heard it. Here in Utah people seem to default to Lar-uh or they ASK how I pronounce it, which is a nice change. :) Dh's family is from the East Coast and they had a really hard time learning Lar-uh. The name doesn't exist there, apparently. Lara is Lair-uh (or more of a short a sound) not Lar-uh.

 

I have and Audrey that got called Aubrey until Audrey became more popular. Addie got called Abby.

[Rene Austen]

My Cecily (sess-a-lee) is ALWAYS called siss-a-lee (Cicely?? Sicily??) until people get to know her, and often even then. She is very good-natured about it, and I don't care because I think her name is lovely, lovely, lovely. . .but it bugs my dh to pieces! He will always say, "No, it's CECily. Sicily is an island off the coast of Italy." :tongue_smilie:

Edited June 19, 2012 by Rene Austen
Spelling

[speedmom4]

My daughter, Caroline, gets called Carolyn or Carolina ALL the time. I understand both of them but it is a little frustrating at times.

 

My name is Elise and people constantly called me Elsie growing up. I was NEVER happy about that one. :001_huh: Also no one could pronounce my maiden name so I just accepted it and stopped correcting people.

 

Elise (not Elsie) in NC