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

[Farrar]

I think it would be awkward not to correct people.  I mean, my name has an "r" at the end that is essentially not pronounced.  It's a weird name.  But if I'm sure I'll only ever interact with the person once, then maybe I don't bother.

 

The number of people who mispronounce my name on a regular basis was high when I was a kid and entering new school classes with teachers who saw my name on a sheet first.  And then went down a bit.  And now has gone up again as people "meet" me through the internet first sometimes.  Oh well.

 

There is a mispronunciation of my name that I don't mind a bit.  FAR-ar.  And a mispronunciation of my name that makes my feel a negative physical reaction.  far-RAR.  But I can't fully explain that.

 

 

[Lady Florida.]

I've been called Windy a lot. Who would name their kid Windy, seriously?!

 

 

Well someone did because there's a song about her.

 

"Everyone knows it's Windy. And Windy has stormy eyes, that flash at the sound of lies...." :D

[Angie in VA]

My first name? It doesn't get mispronounced, but sometimes I get Amy or Andrea. 

 

My surname? Quite often. It amuses me mostly, but it usually annoys me. When letters are pronounced that aren't even IN my name, sometimes I'm feisty and say, "Where is that letter in my name? Just point to it." (Since the offenders are usually salespeople who read it.)

 

That reminds me, I'm going to PM you. 

[Word Nerd]

 

 

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. ;-)

 

 

 

Speaking of Starbucks names, I saw this story today: What's Your Starbucks Name?

[CAMom]

 I've been called Windy a lot. Who would name their kid Windy, seriously?!

 

 

I have a step-sister named Windy. So, I know exactly who would name their kid Windy.  I've known several others as well. :-)

[MooCow]

Very few people are able to look at my name written down and say it correctly. Heck, I think I was nine before I figured it out.

[Jean in Newcastle]

Dh's name is Filipino and is not common in this country.  It is close to a product name.  There is one person who thinks his name is the product name.  Sort of like calling someone named Duncan,  "Dunkin".  

[Rosie_0801]

Rosie is a stupid name for a grown woman, but *don't call me Rose.* I have always hated being called Rose. I don't like like being called by my full name, but there have always been a few people who I didn't mind it from. The next door neighbour, another neighbour's brother and a few other people who are exceptions to the rule for no sensible reason at all.

 

Different accents generally don't bother me. The old Italian guys I used to work with often called me Rossie.

[BarbecueMom]

I have a step-sister named Windy. So, I know exactly who would name their kid Windy. I've known several others as well. :-)

Is it short for Winifred or something similar? I thought of that after I posted. I was always a little sensitive about the Windy thing, since a great aunt used to call me that intentionally. Apparently, I talked a lot.

[Jackie]

Doesn't bother me. No one mispronounces "Jackie" but "Jacquelyn" often gets pronounced Jack-lin as opposed to Jack-kwe-lin. In my case, however, I most often tell people to call me Jackie and that may make it easier for me to ignore how my full name is pronounced.

[LucyStoner]

FTR, I don't hear a real difference between Law-ruh and Lorr-uh, though with some American accents it would be very different. 

 

It's pretty hard to mis-pronounce Kathy. :lol:  When calling me by my full name, some people say Kath-a-leen instead of Kathleen. It doesn't bother me. Sometimes I wonder if putting the TH and L sounds together is difficult for people with certain accents. Usually people with strong southern accents are the ones who pronounce it that way. I only correct people if they have to write it for whatever reason, and they try to put that extra A in there.

 

 

My name, Katie, is short for Kathleen too.  I don't care how people pronounce it provided they don't just up and give me a different nickname.  I'm a Katie not a Kathy, Kat or Kate.  :lol:  My dad calls me Kate, no one calls me Kathy or Kat.  I do get the Kath-uh-leen and Kath-aw-leen thing sometimes but it doesn't faze me at all. 

 

I once had a co-worker who went postal if anyone pronounced her name, which she spelled Carolyn, "Caro lynn".  She wanted it pronounced "CaroLINE".  Or maybe it was the reverse.  Anyways, the way she spelled it didn't match the way she wanted it pronounced at all and people were naturally put off when she would nearly bite their heads off for saying what it looked like.  She was a bitter woman though, about many things.   She deeply resented that I was the lead/shift supervisor at 21 and she was still working an assortment of part-time, entry level, jobs. Honestly that part of her personality (hair trigger reaction to small things) may have been why she was then well into her 40s but still a very junior employee. 

[Tammi K]

I don't think it's fair to be upset if people 'misread' your name. I generally expect people to go with the most typical to their region way of pronouncing it. However, when I SAY my child's name, I expect people to repeat it correctly because then there is no excuse or rational for saying it 'wrong'.

 

We lived in Germany when one of my daughters was born. I loved the German way of pronouncing Claudia (Cloud-ee-ah) but knew that I would forever be challenging people's pronunciation so I didn't even try! We named he something completely different.

[Matryoshka]

My name is Kathryn. People sometimes add a third syllable in the middle (kathERine) when saying it. 

 

Weird.  I pronounce Katherine/Kathryn the same way, with just two syllables.  I guess I'm ignoring the 'er' in Katherine!  I certainly wouldn't add it where it didn't belong! :)

 

 

That sounds similar to my KathAleen issue, although your name is also spelled Catherine or Katherine  so the extra vowel is somewhat understandable. I've never seen Kathleen spelled Kathaleen. I'm not saying it never happens, but just that I've never heard of it.

 

Yeah, I know someone named Kathaleen.... pronounced Kath-a-leen.  Have no idea what her mother was thinking...

[Dandelion]

I have a very common first and last name, so no one ever mispronounces my name here in the U.S.  Growing up in Germany, there were all kinds of fun pronunciations.  My name is Julie, and people called me everything from Yoo-lee, to Choo-lee, to the French pronunciation of the name (which I rather like). 

 

DS's name is sometimes mispronounced.  If the person is someone we'll be seeing on a regular basis, I'll correct them.  

[Cafdog]

I had a grandmother who always called me "Sherry".  

 

My name has never been Sherry.  

 

Grandma liked her cocktails.

 

I let it go.  

 

;)

 

[Kathryn]

Weird. I pronounce Katherine/Kathryn the same way, with just two syllables. I guess I'm ignoring the 'er' in Katherine! I certainly wouldn't add it where it didn't belong! :)

 

I pronounce them all as two syllables also. I think a lot of people do, but there are a fair amount that use three.

[mrbmom77]

I'm Ginny and people call me all sorts of things - Gin, Ginger, Gina are common. I also get Jennifer a lot because where I live Ginny and Jenny sound exactly the same. So do pin and pen. None of it bothers me.

It's short for Virginia and you would be shocked how many people can't spell that. Really? It's two states, people. Many people leave out the third i.

[6packofun]

My name is Leigh.  There is only one acceptable pronunciation, so yes, when I am called, "Lay, Lehigh, Leah" or some such, I correct the person.  I would want to be corrected, too, if I were them and I do when I ask anyone their name.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

not now...LOL but my maiden name is FUQUA......that was a tongue twister in itself....I have heard it pronounced every way humanly possible......and my first name JULIE....JULIA....."jewel-ia"......"jew-lee"....doesn't bother me now.....kinda did when I was growing up.....

[Laurie4b]

I accept any version of Laurie. My dad says "Lar-ie". I say it more like it's spelled with a little tiny second sound in the vowels before the "r" .  I also have answered to Lauren (my given name, but I don't like i t), Laura, Lori, Lora, & Laurel. It doesn't really bother me.

 

One of my ds's has a name that my dad mispronounces. That does bother me! But he can't seem to say it right.

[JennyD]

My first name is never mispronounced, although sometimes I have to clarify that I am not, in fact, a Jennifer.  My one-syllable last name is sometimes mispronounced but always, always misspelled, so I always spell it out and double-check afterwards.

 

I am glad to see that people are, in the main, reasonably tolerant of these mistakes.  I teach at a university and this semester I have 2 Lauras, a Lara, and a Lorraine in one class.  Lara and Lorraine sit next to each other.  I am doing my best.

 

 

[Amber in SJ]

There really is no other way to pronounce or spell Amber so that was never the problem.  The problem was when I was a child my entire family called me by my first & middle names (hillbilly style) because they thought it suited me better.  For some reason this gave all the other adults in my life carte blanche to call me "Amber" plus a random second name because they thought it suited me better.  My ballet teacher called me "Amber Belle" for 13 years.  I was called "Amber Lynn" all through high school.  And I have an uncle who has called me "Violet" for my entire life.  None of those are my name.  I never quite understood it because I didn't really feel like Amber was a name of such gravitas that I needed to grow into it.  Maybe the problem is that there is no cute, short name for Amber.  IRL I have only met one other Amber.

 

My married last name?  Forget about it!  I have never met anyone who can pronounce it from the spelling.   When people mispronounce it I barely even notice.  Doctors offices and restaurants usually just say the first syllable and let the rest trail off into an audible question mark.  We know who it is.

 

Amber in SJ 

[Amber in SJ]

I know a woman whose name is spelled Wahneeta.  Her mom wanted Juanita but her dad insisted no one would be able to say it so they decided on what they considered the phonetic spelling.  She used to tell people it was the pidgin spelling :)

 

Amber in SJ

[Sisyphus]

My first name is easily phonetic, and only a bit uncommon. But it is regularly mispronounces or mistaken. I don't even notice, actually- I answer to anything ending in an "ie" sound. Julie, amy,Tammy, Sammy,Kimmy, Cammy, whatever, I will answer. My husband pointed out once a friend had been calling me Tammy, for like 6 months. That isn't my name, but I didn't even notice, lol. she felt so bad, and so I felt bad, because I hadn't corrected her over so long a time!

 

We lived in a country where my name was the word for an insect. I got many sniggers, and I am sure somewhere there is an Internet board where they have long threads that start "can you believe some dumb a$$ named her kid ANT?!" in that country. So I don't judge names, ever. One mans Phuc is another mans John, after all.

[CAMom]

Is it short for Winifred or something similar? I thought of that after I posted. I was always a little sensitive about the Windy thing, since a great aunt used to call me that intentionally. Apparently, I talked a lot.

 

No short for anything. Just Windy. :-)

 

Speaking of Starbucks names, I saw this story today: What's Your Starbucks Name?

 

I have been known to give myself a "Starbucks name." I like to go by Jill, Lisa or Linda. :D

[Berta]

I have a fairly common (for being born 48 yrs ago) name but the spelling is different by one letter. NO one can spell it correctly, and for some reason my two syllable name is pronounced with one syllable. 

[JeneralMom]

Doesn't bother me. No one mispronounces "Jackie" but "Jacquelyn" often gets pronounced Jack-lin as opposed to Jack-kwe-lin. In my case, however, I most often tell people to call me Jackie and that may make it easier for me to ignore how my full name is pronounced.

Maybe because I grew up in a French place where it is a common name pronounce Zhac-leen, I would only ever pronounce it Jack-lin. I've never heard it pronounced Jac-kwe-lin IRL. Interesting regional differences.

[mommymilkies]

Maybe because I grew up in a French place where it is a common name pronounce Zhac-leen, I would only ever pronounce it Jack-lin. I've never heard it pronounced Jac-kwe-lin IRL. Interesting regional differences.

I've never heard it pronounced as Jack-kwe-lin, either!

[Erin]

I know a woman whose name is spelled Wahneeta.  Her mom wanted Juanita but her dad insisted no one would be able to say it so they decided on what they considered the phonetic spelling.  She used to tell people it was the pidgin spelling :)

 

Amber in SJ

  I used to live near the town of Wauneta, Nebraska.  Pronounced?...yep, phonetically.  

Juniata was already in existance but is pronounced "June-ee-ET-uh"  (Yeah, supposed to be the woman's name, but someone goofed and misspelled it)

[Mom in High Heels]

My name is ALWAYS misspelled (thanks for that parents!), and almost always mispronounced if they see it spelled correctly.  Yay me!  I don't care how people spell it now.  If someone asks, I just tell them to spell it however they want, unless it's on a document.  It's just not worth the time to correct them.  I will correct pronunciation though.

[Kalmia]

I answer to anything. Family and friends pronounce my name or have called me: Lawrul (which is how I say it), Laurie, Lahrell, Lolly, Lorrel, and even Wahrul (just to be annoying). I particularly like my name any way a man with an Australian accent might choose to say it. I also used to answer to my childhood best friend's name, Darya, when we were working in her mom's barn as either one of us would probably do for the work she was about to assign.

[Hunter's Moon]

I had a grandmother who always called me "Sherry".

 

My name has never been Sherry.

 

Grandma liked her cocktails.

 

I let it go.

 

;)

Perhaps she was saying chéri, which is a French term of endearment, meaning sweetheart or dear.

[AndyJoy]

I am AN-dree-uh but I answer to ON-dree-uh or even on-DRAY-uh on occasion. People I see regularly figure it out quickly and the others dont matter. It did take one man I know about 3 years to get it right but he's just unobservant not rude.

 

I correct people who think it's Angela or Amanda or Adrienne.

 

The only mispronunciation that annoyed me was a college dorm mate. For months she called me ON-dree-uh despite frequent corrections from others (not me). She seemed oddly unapologetic and unconcerned about fixing it. It annoyed my best friend so much that she cornered her and demanded an explanation. Her answer was a mock-innocent, "Oh, where I'm from only HICKS say it AN-dree-uh." (says the dairy farmer's daughter, LOL). I never figured out why she disliked me exactly, but later I discovered she was in the habit of disliking people for no apparent reason. I will admit that my friend and I did call her (LAR-uh) instead of (LOR-uh) a few times and snigger when she cluelessly asked why we were saying her name that way.

[jenn-]

If people mispronounce my first name, they have been living in a hole for the last 40 years. Now both my maiden and married last names on the other hand... I used to just sit in classrooms and count the other Jennifers and raise my hand when they got to Jennifer "weird awkward pause". Now I just don't have to wait as far into the alphabet. Crazy thing with the married name is that if people didn't try to make hard, it is pronounced pretty much how it looks.

[Piper]

In Australia, my first name (not Piper) was easy for anyone to pronounce, and definitely recognizable.  Here in the US, no-one is familiar with it, nor can they understand it when I say it.  And after I spell it out, they think it says something else.  I don't mind - I've gotten used to it.  As long as they have the right name at least, I don't care if they say it the wrong way.  In fact, I've found the people saying it care more about hurting my feelings by saying it wrong than I do!  (Which is kinda sweet.)  What's that saying: "You can call me anything, as long as it's not late for dinner!"

 

However, if I'm in a restaurant and the hostess wants my name for the order, I give a really simple, false name, like "Kim" (or my dh's name, if he's there), just because it's a heck of a lot easier than going through the whole rigmarole that usually ensues when I have to give my real name! 

[IsabelC]

I have never had anyone mispronounce my name (Isabel has several spellings, but only one 'normal' pronunciation), but I have frequently been called other names that aren't all that similar (Ingrid, Elise, Elizabeth, and Elisabel, which I'm pretty sure isn't even an actual name lol). I'm not bothered; I just politely remind them of my name. Spelling, now that's a different matter. I don't mind spelling my name out for people, but I get slightly irate when I have clearly and carefully spelled it out and they still get it wrong. Or when I have written to somebody with my name at the bottom, and they answer with a different spelling of my name (because it really isn't that hard to just look at the letter/email and copy the spelling, especially when it's a relatively well-known name that you know has several different spellings).

[Mommyof4ks]

I grew up with a 12 letter, German last name, so I was just impressed when people tried to tackle it lol. It was no biggie if they could not say it right or spell it. I have bigger things to get upset about. :)

[ZeeMommy]

My first name, Alicia, is usually pronounced either ah-LISH-ah (which I prefer) or ah-LEE-sha.  I answer to either.  Sometimes I would get an ah-LEE-see-ah.  Went by A.J. for awhile (my initials).  Every once in  a blue moon I'll have a good friend who will shorten my first name to "Lish".  Last name has always been a little tricky, either single or married.  Single it would get mispronounced or misspelled.  Married it gets misspelled, since it is two words, no hyphen, and most people want to put an h in where it would go if you were spelling it in English.  (Father-in-law was originally from Guam.)  When someone asks me my last name, like at a business or doctor's office, I just start spelling it before I even say it.  Even then they still want to stick that h in the middle! 

 

I'm sure I've butchered many names at work, having to call people from the waiting area.  I have actually approached anyone with an ethnic name I'm unsure of before I've even attempted to call their name.  (Not much variety here up north!)  I had a coworker once call a man JEE-zus, instead of hay-SUS, even with an obvious Spanish last name!

[MyLittleWonders]

My name is next to impossible to mispronounce, but in America it has become the nickname for a longer name. In Norway, it is a perfectly fine name all by itself. I get very tired of having to answer the, "Oh, is that short for longer name?" Though my neighbor calls me by the longer name and I let him. For some reason I don't mind it from him. I remember the class ring company arguing with my mom when I was high school because they refused to put a nickname on my class ring. Um, I'd think my mom would know better than they if it was a nickname or not.

 

My Norwegian last name (maiden) is actually very easy to pronounce if you know syllabication rules. I think people would see if and get all confused. Once I would pronounce it, the light bulb would go on and it'd all make sense. My married last name is often mispronounced with a Spanish pronunciation. I correct people if it's someone who needs to know (I just tell cold callers that no one with that name lives here ;) ).

[cottonmama]

I'm a Laura, too.  It doesn't bother me, but I do have a preferred pronunciation (Law-ruh), which I've made a point of teaching to my kids.  (My dh sometimes gets it right and sometimes doesn't, but mostly calls me "My Love" anyway. :001_wub:  )

 

My MIL's name is spelled and pronounced "Lorra," so I like to make a distinction when it comes up.  But even before I met her, I would tell people I liked the "au" to be pronounced like "audience" not like "order."  But only if it came up... it's never been something I made a big deal over, but I do notice if someone gets it "right," and every now and then I comment on it afterwards.

 

For the record, my FIL calls both me and MIL "Lorrie" at times, and I don't mind, although it took some getting used to.

[Rose in BC]

My name is Rose. It must be too plain because I'm often called Rosa, Rosemary, Rosemarie, Rosita, Rosary, Rosie posie, ....I usually don't care.

[Belacqua]

I like to use NHL awards as my Starbucks names. My favorite is Lady Byng (but Vezina is kind of fun, too).

 

At restaurants, though, I prefer to use Dufresne. All because of a Mitch Hedberg joke about the hostess telling the Dufresnes that their table is ready and, when they don't answer, going to the next name on the list. Hedburg hypothesizes that the Dufresnes are probably in somebody's trunk and "you can eat when you find the Dufresnes!"

[Hunter's Moon]

I am always surprised that Starbucks spells my first name correctly. Stephanie has so many spellings, and people usually want to add an 'f' or a 'y'.

[TheRoadLessTraveled22]

My name gets spelled/said wrong all the time, although I try to go with the flow I don't want people to find out years later that they have been calling me the wrong name, so I usually gently correct them.

[Mbelle]

My name is a little different, so I don't mind the first time it's not pronounced correctly.  After that I do mind.  Especially if the person says..how about I just call you "nickname" or just go ahead and call me the nickname.  I find that quite presumptuous and over familiar.  If it's someone I will never see again, then I usually will not even correct as I really don't care.

[J-rap]

It doesn't bother me at all, and it doesn't bother me if people mispronounce my children's names either.

[poppy]

My last name is not phonetically obvious, it gets mispronounced often. I don't care. I don't understand people who get all worked up about it.

My mom sometimes calls me by the wrong first name- her friend's name, or now my daughter's name. That bugs me a little.

[ocelotmom]

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'm pretty sure my last name (which is German) is pronounced wrong, as my extended family seems to be the only ones who pronounce it that way. But everyone reading it pronounces it wrong from both perspectives, expect that I think there are people with my last name who do pronounce it the way it's most commonly mispronounced. 

 

I don't bother to correct people unless it matters.

[Ivey]

My hairdresser pronounces my name "ee-VAY", which I actually love and have decided not to correct. Apart from her (and now her co-workers), I don't think I've ever heard my name pronounced differently. 

 

I do mind when my kids' names are mispronounced, but they don't seem to even notice.