Is there really no wrong way to pronounce a name?

[warprincenataku]

Basically it all boils down to the name's origin. Is it French, is it German, is it Asian?

Well-known painter Vincent Van Gogh's last name is often pronounced as Go, but I have heard it pronounced as Gof in arty circles. Some cultures say things differently mainly because of their alphabet.

A great example is here in Thailand where the name William, often pronounced Wil-Yum is changed to Wil-lee-yum, adding an additional syllable in there. The nickname of William is often Will or Bill. In Thai, there is no final 'L' sound on words. In the Thai alphabet the 'L' letter is pronounced like an 'N' at the end of a word.

Will becomes Win. Bill becomes Bin. Central becomes Centran and so on and so forth.

So basically, a name can be pronounced many ways depending on who's saying it and where the name comes from.

One of the worst pronunciation of my name 'War' I'm ever heard sounded a lot like '***hole'. That didn't even sound close!

 

[Anadinolin]

people often say my surname wrong, its spelled phonetically say it as you see it vanham job done

not "varnham" or put a dutch twist to it as a few of them say when i tell them they said it wrong....my friends mainly call me venom though cause i can neck snakebite pints without falling to the floor half hour later - that and their phones/spellcheck auto-correct to venom sometimes.

pleh!

 

[rokkolpo]

My name is Rick.

In Dutch that's pronounced with a rolling R.
Not everyone can do it, especially people speaking English.

I don't mind though, I have more nicknames than anyone I know of.

 

[hurfdurp]

Never mispronounced, always misspelled.

 

[SckizoBoy]

And you pronounce my name 'Ed'... or, if you're a good friend 'Fatso' (BTW, it's an ironic nickname, I'm stick thin).

Anyway, I seem to have lived a mispronunciation free life... o_0', but one think I enjoy is etymology. As I speak Japanese, I once addressed a teacher at school (Yamamoto-san) as Ms Hillwood (closest English equivalent), boy did I get a strange look. Also, one of my friends is called Liam (seemed to have seen that name a lot on this thread, though my mum keeps calling him Ian... I give her slack because English isn't her first language) and when he gets talking, I call him Guy to shut him up.

Liam = William = Guillaume = Guy

 

[The Wykydtron]

So my dream of my name being pronouced "Emperor Herpy Derpy Do VII" can still be realised?! Thanks OP your logic has given me hope!


Speaking of prounciation, pronouce my username correctly. It. Ain't. Happenin'.

 

[TheRightToArmBears]

There are; if someone tells you how to pronounce it and you still pronounce it wrong then that's just rude.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

Many people have the same name. Many of those same names are spelled differently. Anna, Ana, Catelin, Kaitlin, so on and so forth. Some of those look like they would be said differently from one or the other.

Anna is pronounced like "Ann-uh", would it not make sense Ana is said "Ay-nuh"? I saw a commercial earlier with a woman with the last name Hough. She pronounced it "huff". Wouldn't you think of saying it "O" instead of like tough? Names can be crazy.

Most people would say it's your name, it's pronounced however you say it is, but If that's the case, I could say my name was Bobby, but it is pronounced Jason. Obviously, that would be wrong. You can't change how a language is pronounced just to suit your needs.

Take note that names are not heteronyms, which are words spelled the same and pronounced differently, however, they also mean two different things unlike names, which mean the same.

As an example, my dad has a VERY Scottish name. Argyle. Pronounced Arr-guile. My dad Arr-jyle, Arr-jill, Arr-gill, Ar-guy...

My name is Devin, and I get "Davin", "Devon", "Devan", "Davan"... And no, this isn't the way people are writing my name down, this is how some people pronounce my name when reading it.

I don't believe my name is how I pronounce it, it should be as your expect the grammar to work. Argyle is a VERY popular Scottish name (so I'm told). I don't even understand people missing the l that say "Arguy"

I believe you're thinking of homonyms

 

[KaiRai]

Some American's thought my name was Sam. It's Liam. I was pretty offended by that. Also the fact that god knows how many Americans claim to have Irish decent and didn't even know how to spell it.

"L-I-A-M"
"Dude, how do you even pronounce that"

That hurts.

really you can mispronounce Liam? I could understand if it was Muiris or Ruairi to stay at my example Donnacadh, but Liam? Its not that rare or complicated.

This was my point exactly It's hardly a particularly exotic name.....And I had no idea you could misprounounce it too but the best they could come up with was Liom. As in lion, but with an M. Guess no fancy colleges for those guys

EDIT: Still on topic, but until my sister was 7 nobody could pronounce her name when reading it off a sheet. It's Ciara, the Irish spelling of Keira, just like Keira Knightley. For years people were prounouncing it Kee-are-a. Much to my parents frustration and deep regret of making their kids sound as Irish as possible without calling them Paddy.

 

[DasUberCow]

My name is Tove (yes it's a girls' name)

Norwegian? Oslo?

My name is Sigurd and i used to live in Britain... Suffice to say i had a nickname. Silent d motherfuckers! GARGH!

And people get annoyed when people seem to be unsympathetic or ignorant of people's names. Like if i told someone in Britain my real name and they look at me like i'm fucking retarded i'll get annoyed, but if they ask how to spell it and so "oh, cool, where you from?" or something like that it's all good. It's the dis-respect that comes with stuff like this which annoys, not the actual mispronunciations or whatever.

 

[monkey_man]

"ee" - "vo like arrowbow" here, and it doesn't bother me. And I cannot mispronounce names I do not know, And I only know my friends by name really, it's one of my flaws. Cannot remember faces or names.

[sub]Captcha: l4l eletsian
what the duck? What does it mean? Aliens perhaps?[/sub]

 

[Melian]

Norwegian? Oslo?

My name is Sigurd and i used to live in Britain... Suffice to say i had a nickname. Silent d motherfuckers! GARGH!

And people get annoyed when people seem to be unsympathetic or ignorant of people's names. Like if i told someone in Britain my real name and they look at me like i'm fucking retarded i'll get annoyed, but if they ask how to spell it and so "oh, cool, where you from?" or something like that it's all good. It's the dis-respect that comes with stuff like this which annoys, not the actual mispronunciations or whatever.

Swedish, actually. And yes, I agree, I wisg people would go for:"it's my name- accept it!" rather than thinking there's something wrong with their ears or my pronounciation...

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

You can't change how a language is pronounced just to suit your needs.

yes, but therein lies much of the confusion: many names have different national/ethnic/linguistic origins. f'rinstance, my name is of Hebrew origin, my brother's name is of Latin origin, my sister's name Germanic, my best friend's kids Celtic and Saxon, my old roommate Welsh, etc.

now, i agree with you in cases where people are just making shit up. but some of the examples you listed are completely legitimate, and not subject to criticism.