s/o Do you mind how your name is pronounced?

[Hunter's Moon]

My name has never been mispronounced. Though, it is misspelled quite often, even though it is the most commonly accepted way of spelling it. 

 

My maiden last name always stumped people. It is only 5 letters, and rhymes with Flynn. I have absolutely no idea why it tripped so many people up. Perhaps they thought it couldn't be that easy. 

[Ripley]

 

My maiden last name always stumped people. It is only 5 letters, and rhymes with Flynn. I have absolutely no idea why it tripped so many people up. Perhaps they thought it couldn't be that easy. 

 

My SIL's maiden name is six letters and rhymes with Flynn - and it's a stumper also.

 

But it's spelled Nguyen. LOL

[Liz CA]

I think my name sounds very ugly, so it doesn't matter to me if someone mispronounces it.  One can hardly make it sound worse! :laugh: I had a friend in jr high who called me Adrienne for the longest time.  I never corrected her because it just didn't matter.  I knew she was talking to me, so that was fine.

 

While I'm not bothered by it, the French pronunciation always throws me off.  That just does NOT sound like my name at all. It sounds almost nice.

 

I always liked the name "Audrey." If had had a girl, it would have been high on the list. :)

 

[Rachel]

I get called Ruh-shell on occasion, I don't like it but it's not a huge deal.

 

It does drive me nuts when people add an extra syllable to my oldest son's name. Most people don't struggle, it's not an unusual name, but my MIL does. I let it go, he can correct her if he wants.

 

My husband's grandfather pronounces my husbands name wrong, we kind of think it is cute. It has probably driven my MIL nuts for years.

[Matryoshka]

No, definitely not for ah and aw, those are different sounds to me. But I don't say father and bother any differently. Would father be more like "fawther"?

 

If you said 'fawhter" I'd probably not even notice in conversation, but when I say "ah" in Father I'm at least thinking a different sound - actually I'm thinking the proper sound of the a vowel (which is pretty much not used at all in English, at least not US English).  I do pronounce them differently, but the difference is definitely less than if I just said 'ah' vs. 'aw' (as I say them out loud to the point of nonsensicalness to figure this out for sure ;) )

 

For those of you who speak, say, Spanish, I mean the vowel sound a (which is nothing like either short or long a in English)  That is not the same sound in pot, or Don/Dawn.  And if I say 'ah' for the dentist, it's definitely different than 'aw, that's cute'.  It is the sound of 'a' I use with 'r' in 'car', which is different from the 'a' combined with other consonants such as 'sat' or 'pass'.

[Veritaserum]

If you said 'fawhter" I'd probably not even notice in conversation, but when I say "ah" in Father I'm at least thinking a different sound - actually I'm thinking the proper sound of the a vowel (which is pretty much not used at all in English, at least not US English). I do pronounce them differently, but the difference is definitely less than if I just said 'ah' vs. 'aw' (as I say them out loud to the point of nonsensicalness to figure this out for sure ;) )

 

For those of you who speak, say, Spanish, I mean the vowel sound a (which is nothing like either short or long a in English) That is not the same sound in pot, or Don/Dawn. And if I say 'ah' for the dentist, it's definitely different than 'aw, that's cute'. It is the sound of 'a' I use with 'r' in 'car', which is different from the 'a' combined with other consonants such as 'sat' or 'pass'.

To me the Spanish /a/ is the same as/really close to the vowel sound in Don, Dawn, father, pot, ah, aw, etc. :)

[Matryoshka]

Car and core are different but, to me, Lauren and Lauren use neither of those vowel sounds - instead, it's a short 'o' like 'lorry'.

 

Now you're losing me. :lol:  I don't think I can put a proper short 'o' before an 'r' - "or" together is always, well, "or", which is the same as "ore".  So, Lori/Laurie/lorry - all identical (except I don't have much occasion to use the word 'lorry' much around here. ;) )  I can actually see exactly what you mean if I imagine a Brit saying 'lorry', it's just hard to make my mouth do that.  Actually, as I'm imagining British English in my head, I think our or/ore is somewhere between your long and short o's ... I think it's not just that your 'o' in lorry is shorter than what we say, but that your 'o' in 'core' is longer.  I think we've mashed them together...

 

And hey, since I've already 'fessed up that here short 'o' = 'aw', that would put us back with "Law-ra"...

 

Now curious, do the Brits say 'or' (like this or that) and 'ore" (like Iron ore) differently?

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

To me the Spanish /a/ is the same as/really close to the vowel sound in Don, Dawn, father, pot, ah, aw, etc. :)

 

:iagree:  I studied Spanish for years and DH is Latino, and I hear the a in casa the same way I hear Don, father, pot, etc.

 

I'm starting to think analyzing linguistics would be less fun that I imagined :lol:

[Veritaserum]

 

However, in my accent "aught" has the same sound shown for the /ah/ at the beginning of "art." :)

 

Edit: Here are the Spanish vowels in IPA:

 

[Matryoshka]

:iagree:  I studied Spanish for years and DH is Latino, and I hear the a in casa the same way I hear Don, father, pot, etc.

 

 

Ah, but is it the same sound as in Dawn?  I've been thinking maybe we pronounce the 'o' differently in our part of the US...?

 

I don't pronounce "Don" in English like 'dan' in Spanish is pronounced.  It's quite different, actually.

 

"Cause" has the 'aw' sound - does that vowel also sound like the 'a' in 'casa" to you?

 

[Matryoshka]

 

However, in my accent "aught" has the same sound shown for the /ah/ at the beginning of "art." :)

 

Yeah, not here.  'aught' (like in caught) has the 'aw' sound.  Art is the "ah" sound.

 

 

ETA: Didn't see this at first...  Yes, the 'a' in 'art' is the one in Spanish.  "Aw" is the one in 'aught' above; it doesn't exist in Spanish.

 

I say Dawn, Don, pot, and Boston with that upside-down 'c' IPA thingy.  Thank you for all that clarity!! :D

 

[Veritaserum]

Ah, but is it the same sound as in Dawn? I've been thinking maybe we pronounce the 'o' differently in our part of the US...?

 

I don't pronounce "Don" in English like 'dan' in Spanish is pronounced. It's quite different, actually.

 

"Cause" has the 'aw' sound - does that vowel also sound like the 'a' in 'casa" to you?

 

All of those, including the Spanish, use IPA [É‘] in my western American accent. See the chart in my post above yours. :)

 

Edit: I can't think of any word that I pronounce using IPA [É”].

[athomeontheprairie]

I don't mind when people mispronounce names, but I have a Alexander and a Patience. why do I need to spell those names for you? especially Patience, really? do people never write that word?

[Matryoshka]

All of those, including the Spanish, use IPA [É‘] in my western American accent. See the chart in my post above yours. :)

 

Edit: I can't think of any word that I pronounce using IPA [É”].

 

So, using those IPA symbols, how do you pronounce Dawn and Don?

 

[Upward Journey]

I am Lara. Pronounced Laa rah. I can handle Lora for a while from people that I will have a short term association with. Lair-ruh grates on my nerves.

 

I generally correct people the first time,

 

Hi I'm Lara

Hello Lora

Lara

 

After that I only correct someone if we are going to have a long term friendship.

I expect my friends to show me the respect to learn my name correctly. All have so far.

I totally cannot hear the difference between Laa rah and Lair ruh. The sound exactly the same to me.

[T'smom]

I don't care about mispronunciations or misspellings, BUT I do care when people adamantly insist that my "real" or "full" name is something else. My name is a common nickname of a different name. But it is not my nickname, it is actually my name. I surprises me how many people will argue with me. Especially when I was a kid.

 

My dh's name is not very common but it rhymes with a common name. People call him by the common one all the time. Usually, he doesn't bother correcting them, unless he will be seeing them on a regular basis. Not very long ago, we had a guy come to fix our furnace and he called dh by the common name. I talked to his wife later and she said the guy was embarrassed that he had called him the wrong name and e hadn't corrected him. He noticed it on the check we wrote. But EVERYONE gets it wrong the first time and it's just not worth correcting on a one time interaction!

[Matryoshka]

I totally cannot hear the difference between Laa rah and Lair ruh. The sound exactly the same to me.

 

Car vs. care - surely they don't sound the same to you?  Air has the long a like in care, the Laa is referring to that IPA 'a' like in art and car.

 

[Alice]

Mine never gets mispronounced but I do correct people who call me Alison. I’ve had people say “but it’s the same name.†No. No it isn’t. 

[Arcadia]

The romanised version of my Chinese name is often mispronounced which is not surprising.  My Chinese name in Chinese characters is always correctly pronounced as there is no ambiguity.  I have never been bothered by all the variations in pronounciation of my romanised Chinese name.   People who I come into regular contact with like my kids' teachers would ask me how I want my name pronounce though because my family name is romanised too.  Hubby prefers his name pronounce a certain way but is okay if people use other common variations of pronunciation.  My kids names have two common pronunciation so they accept either or.

 

The only problem I had was when friends cut me a cheque and they spell my name the way they pronounce it which ends up with either my family name misspelled (a instead of e) or an extra g for my name.

 

[Veritaserum]

So, using those IPA symbols, how do you pronounce Dawn and Don?

 

They both use [É‘]. :)

[ErinE]

My first name is never mispronounced. Occasionally, it's misspelled when I tell it to someone (almost always as "Aaron"), but I have one of those generational names that people tend to know.

Rarely, but I get "Ir-win", "Ee-rin", and "A-ron" from people assuming the traditional boy spelling.

 

I pronounce it "Air-in" which led to the nicknames "Erin Baron" and "Airhead" when I was younger.

[LMD]

My name is a common name with an uncommon spelling - it's frequently misspelled and mispronounced.  It doesn't bother me.  A lot of people ask before they attempt.  If they hear before they see then they'll spell it the most common way, if it's a one-off interaction I don't bother to correct.  I generally introduce my name as 'with an e' and people give me this look  :huh:  :confused1:  :001_unsure: , then I just spell the whole thing and they go  :blink:  :wacko: .

 

:D

 

My maiden name was an uncommon spelling of an uncommon (for Australia) and difficult to spell/pronounce welsh name!  I'm  used to having to spell everything.  Come to think of it, even my middle name is not the most common spelling of that name!

 

But then I'm a pretty laid-back person.  I'm just happy you're talking to me!

[Jean in Newcastle]

Rarely, but I get "Ir-win", "Ee-rin", and "A-ron" from people assuming the traditional boy spelling.

 

I pronounce it "Air-in" which led to the nicknames "Erin Baron" and "Airhead" when I was younger.

The problem with trying to separate Erin from Aaron is that some of us (like me) pronounce both of them as "Air-in".  Perhaps there is a slight difference in the end of the name but if so, it isn't really intentional!  

[mommymilkies]

Bother and Father have been pronounced the same after the initial consonant everywhere I lived.  I can barely tell the difference in the recordings-it must be a difference between British and American English.  

 

Yes, I do get annoyed when people pronounce my name wrong.  If it's someone I have just met, I'll brush it off after I correct them.  And I do correct them. I have a less common French name and it annoys me when people say it wrong carelessly.  That's probably just me being biased after being teased relentlessly in school with people mangling my name, though. If someone I know consistently mispronounces my name badly (not just from their accent, but a true mispronunciation), I will likely get very annoyed with them. My name is Desiree (I can't make the accent marks on my keyboard for some reason).  I really hate it when people call me Dez-i-REE/Dehs-ur-A or a thousand other very strange ways. 

 

This is acceptable: 

 since the true French is harder to say.  I wouldn't blink if you pronounced it this way and have started saying it this way to people because most people I've met can't say it like the links below. 

 

I will probably be super pleased if you can say it like this: http://www.forvo.com/word/d%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e/  or   http://www.forvo.com/word/d%C3%A9sir%C3%A9e_nosbusch/#de

 

ETA: Oh wow.  Didn't realize the video would pop up like that so big!  Sorry about that!

[Matryoshka]

The problem with trying to separate Erin from Aaron is that some of us (like me) pronounce both of them as "Air-in".  Perhaps there is a slight difference in the end of the name but if so, it isn't really intentional!  

 

Yeah, how do you all get "air" out of "aar" is beyond me.  And "on" isn't "in". As I said, I think it's the boy's name being pronounced incorrectly, so whatever.

 

The girl's name is from the Gaelic name for Ireland, so the first syllable is from "Eire", hence the 'air" - someone Anglicized it oddly, huh? 

 

I've also heard EH-rin, which I don't like as much, but doesn't bother me.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Ah, but is it the same sound as in Dawn?  I've been thinking maybe we pronounce the 'o' differently in our part of the US...?

 

I don't pronounce "Don" in English like 'dan' in Spanish is pronounced.  It's quite different, actually.

 

"Cause" has the 'aw' sound - does that vowel also sound like the 'a' in 'casa" to you?

 

 

No, for me, Dawn and cause definitely have an -aw sound. They're different from pot, father, etc.

 

My kids are probably wondering why I'm sitting on the couch mumbling to myself :lol: I'll have to make DH speak some Spanish to me later to see what I hear. I can maybe see the a in dan or vamos being slightly different, but now I've been thinking so much about all of this, I think I'm starting to lose a little clarity.

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

I really hate it when people call me Dez-i-REE/Dehs-ur-A or a thousand other very strange ways. 

 

So is the difference between the pronunciation in bold and the one in the video (the correct one) the fact that the correct pronunciation has the emphasis on the first syllable? Or do you mean people call you something like "Dehs-ur-uh"? That would be weird!

[mommymilkies]

So is the difference between the pronunciation in bold and the one in the video (the correct one) the fact that the correct pronunciation has the emphasis on the first syllable? Or do you mean people call you something like "Dehs-ur-uh"? That would be weird!

Yes, like Dehs-ur-uh or a short a at the end. Seriously.  I'm not even sure how they come up with that.  It's not like they know people with a similarly spelled name pronounced that way.  They usually admit they have no clue.  That's perfectly excusable and we giggle together.  On the other hand, I have a family member who seems to purposefully say my name as wrong as is possible.  They don't like me very much anyway.  :glare: They also pronounce my 6 yo's name wrong every.single.time.  It's only been 6 years, you know. Her name isn't even hard!  My hard of hearing Hillbilly (and proud of it) Grandma calls me Dayz-uh-ray. :)

[ILiveInFlipFlops]

Yes, like Dehs-ur-uh or a short a at the end. Seriously.  I'm not even sure how they come up with that.  It's not like they know people with a similarly spelled name pronounced that way.  They usually admit they have no clue.  That's perfectly excusable and we giggle together.  On the other hand, I have a family member who seems to purposefully say my name as wrong as is possible.  They don't like me very much anyway.  :glare: They also pronounce my 6 yo's name wrong every.single.time.  It's only been 6 years, you know. Her name isn't even hard!  My hard of hearing Hillbilly (and proud of it) Grandma calls me Dayz-uh-ray. :)

 

Oh goodness! That's annoying. My grandmother can't seem to figure out how to pronounce our Latino last name, no matter how many times someone tells her. We let that one go awhile ago!

[sassenach]

My name only has one pronunciation, so I guess that makes life easy.

 

Well, I say one, but my Mexican mil calls me chah-non (hard ch, long o), so I guess that's 2, lol.

[aggieamy]

I don't even remember my name ever being mispronounced (except when I lived in Australia, but that was to be expected). Sometimes people will call DD the wrong name even after they've been corrected; that does bother me because it indicates that the person really doesn't care whether they call her the right name or not.

 

We are strangely enough running into this with DS.  We gave him a super common name (or so we thought) with the traditional spelling.  His name is John.  We are alarmed at the number of people that call him Jonathan.  At least 5 or 6 people consistently call him that and we now have a mantra that even DD has started to repeat.

 

"It's just John."  Said kindly and repeated every time he's called the wrong name.  

 

My favorite was at Christmas when DH's side of the family all addressed his presents to Jonathan.   :huh:

[Paige]

My name is hard to mispronounce so I don't usually have trouble. I do mind when people give me a common nickname for it that I have never liked or used. (My name is not Paige) My DH's very sweet grandmother who was very old kept calling me by the nickname and I didn't correct her because I saw her rarely and she was old and hard of hearing. Now, the whole family on his side does it and even though she's since passed away, I feel uncomfortable correcting them. It still grates on my nerves every single time.

 

Sometimes people mispronounce DS's name. We don't correct them because the error is small and it seems picky, but for people we see regularly, I wonder what their problem is. Why would they continually call him X, when we always say Y???

[Laura Corin]

 

Now curious, do the Brits say 'or' (like this or that) and 'ore" (like Iron ore) differently?

 

Those are both the same, but this will blow your mind:  as a southern Englishwoman, I pronounce or, ore and awe exactly the same.  There's no 'r' sound in any of them.  Look for Topquark on Forvo and TinyEric here.

 

L

[Matryoshka]

Those are both the same, but this will blow your mind:  as a southern Englishwoman, I pronounce or, ore and awe exactly the same.  There's no 'r' sound in any of them.  Look for Topquark on Forvo and TinyEric here.

 

How did I forget that you wouldn't be pronouncing the R in those! :lol:  Silly me...

[mytwomonkeys]

I'm Amy. Hard to mess up. :)

[PeachyDoodle]

My name (Whitney) was fairly uncommon when I was a kid. I got an occasional Whitley but more often Lindsay or Courtney. My married name is not that strange, but dh's family does not pronounce it in the way most people read it. No one can spell it after just hearing it pronounced. I've gotten so I immediately spell it after I say it because otherwise I just get a blank stare. I have had a few people ask why we pronounce it that way, and I just say, "I don't know, it's not my name; it came with the spouse." If it didn't bother dh so much, I might go back to my maiden name. I have considered secretly changing my pronunciation to the one that makes the most phonetic sense... :leaving:

 

I hate to have my name shortened, especially by people I don't know well, but I will usually let it go. My ds has a name that is commonly shortened, and I insist on using his full name. If he decides to go by a nickname when he's older, that's up to him (but I'll always call him by his full name).

 

I have a friend who named her son Tylor (pronounced Tyler). She gets super aggravated when people misspell/mispronounce his name. Her tirades always leave me wondering why she decided to spell it that way. Some folks really like the uniqueness of an uncommon name; I get that. But why set yourself up if it's just going to make you mad when people get it wrong?

[Laura Corin]

How did I forget that you wouldn't be pronouncing the R in those! :lol:  Silly me...

 

Yes, so 'father' and 'farther' are the same.

 

Calvin and Hobbes both have an 'r', because their father is American, but still not a strong one.  Most Scots have a definite 'r'.  When Hobbes was in speech therapy here, his therapist said that had he been Scottish, she would have worked on his 'r', but as I was English, it was his normal.

 

L

[Word Nerd]

Yeah, how do you all get "air" out of "aar" is beyond me.  And "on" isn't "in". As I said, I think it's the boy's name being pronounced incorrectly, so whatever.

 

Well, it looks like we're in good company pronouncing it "incorrectly." ;)

The English pronunciation of the biblical Aaron's name was derived by anglicising the Latin during the Church of England's translation of the Authorized King James Bible in 1611 (possibly influenced by older English translations of the bible from Anglo Saxon times onwards). The modern Church of England Pronunciation Guide, the BBC pronunciation guide,^[4] the Mormon pronunciation guide,^[5] the Oxford English Dictionary^[6] and Harper Collins Biblical Pronunciation Guide^[7] all define this modern English pronunciation as /ɛərÉ™n/ ("air-run", where "air" is the same sound as in "dairy").

[aggieamy]

I'm Amy. Hard to mess up. :)

 

Me too.  I've never had it mispronounced.  

[Upward Journey]

Car vs. care - surely they don't sound the same to you? Air has the long a like in care, the Laa is referring to that IPA 'a' like in art and car.

 

Yes, that I can hear. In which case I would have written Lar-ruh and Lair-ruh. Sorry, I just wasn't familiar with aa representing the ar sound.

[BarbecueMom]

My name (Whitney) was fairly uncommon when I was a kid. I got an occasional Whitley but more often Lindsay or Courtney. My married name is not that strange, but dh's family does not pronounce it in the way most people read it. No one can spell it after just hearing it pronounced. I've gotten so I immediately spell it after I say it because otherwise I just get a blank stare. I have had a few people ask why we pronounce it that way, and I just say, "I don't know, it's not my name; it came with the spouse." If it didn't bother dh so much, I might go back to my maiden name. I have considered secretly changing my pronunciation to the one that makes the most phonetic sense... :leaving:

 

I hate to have my name shortened, especially by people I don't know well, but I will usually let it go.

I have the same name. I got used to my mom yelling, "Whitley!" all the time when she was flustered and irritated and couldn't keep my name and my brother's straight (Wesley). I've been called Windy a lot. Who would name their kid Windy, seriously?!

 

I actually prefer the shortened version, but only DH and my mom call me that.

[PeachyDoodle]

I have the same name. I got used to my mom yelling, "Whitley!" all the time when she was flustered and irritated and couldn't keep my name and my brother's straight (Wesley). I've been called Windy a lot. Who would name their kid Windy, seriously?!

 

I actually prefer the shortened version, but only DH and my mom call me that.

 

My dh is named Wesley! But everybody calls hims Wes. He can't stand NOT to have his name shortened!

[BarbecueMom]

My dh is named Wesley! But everybody calls hims Wes. He can't stand NOT to have his name shortened!

LOL, my brother goes by Wes mostly. But when he was in trouble, it was full name at full volume!

[KungFuPanda]

Okay, here's father (number 3).  And here's bother (number 2).  Can you hear that father is longer than bother?

 

L

I call shenanigans! Holding one sound longer doesn't make it a different sound that is formed in a different way.

[PeachyDoodle]

LOL, my brother goes by Wes mostly. But when he was in trouble, it was full name at full volume!

 

I still call him Wesley when he needs it... ;)

 

Our ds's middle name is Stephen. DH was fussing at him the other day and used his first and middle names. Later, ds got frustrated with dh and hollered, "Daddy Stephen!!"

[Laura Corin]

I call shenanigans! Holding one sound longer doesn't make it a different sound that is formed in a different way.

 

A 'long' or 'short' vowel is a description of its sound, not its duration as such.  Here are the OED sounds:

 

Father: /ˈfÉ‘Ëðə®/

Bother: /ˈbɒðə®/

 

Different vowel.  My mouth makes a different shape.

 

L

[KungFuPanda]

A 'long' or 'short' vowel is a description of its sound, not its duration as such.  Here are the OED sounds:

 

Father: /ˈfÉ‘Ëðə®[/size]/

Bother: /ˈbɒðə®[/size]/

 

Different vowel.  My mouth makes a different shape.

 

L

I'm sorry. I misread the explanation. I thought she said the sounds were different because you hold one longer.

[Hoot]

My name is simple to pronounce.  No one mispronounces it, but they always spell it wrong and call me the wrong name.  It doesn't really bother me.  I just kind of go with it.

[Violet Crown]

The Lorne/Loren discussion reminds me of a friend who moved here to central Texas after growing up in NYC, and was outraged to hear two male coworkers talking about going to see a "whore show" after work. After a while she realized that they were talking about a horror show. Similarly, I'm pretty sure I couldn't reliably say Lorne and Loren in a distinguishable way.

 

The most severe alternate pronunciation of my first name has come from the tongues of Scots, who give a completely different vowel sound to the first syllable, do something amazing to the 'r' in the middle, and reduce the second syllable to about half a syllable. It sounds so much prettier than the way I pronounce it!

[CAMom]

My name gets mispronounced a lot. It's Ronette: ron-ette. Simple? No. It gets most often mispronounced as ren-ette. But I also get row-net. My nickname on my high school basketball team was Row because my coach insisted on calling me row-net.

 

My dad's name was Ron. So-Ronette. I had some rude woman once laugh when she heard my name and say, "Well, good for you that your dad's name wasn't Stan!"

 

I do get called almost anything that begins with an "R" and I will usually answer. Most frequently "Rhonda."

 

It also gets misspelled all the time: Ronnette, Ronet, Ronett, Rhonette, etc.

 

My dd's name is Brenna. She gets renamed all the time! Our joke is to look for whatever the person at Starbucks writes on her cup. People call her: Brianna, Breena, Brenda, etc. The little 2yo she nannys for calls her Grenna. ;-)

 

Our last name almost never gets pronounced correctly. It's Norwegian. Last quarter, one of my ds's college instructors informed ds that we pronounce our own last name incorrectly. He's from Norway and told ds how it should be pronounced. Kind of hard to change it now. :lol:

 

I don't mind being mispronounced unless it's by someone who should care enough to do it right.