Is there really no wrong way to pronounce a name?

[Evil_Gohan_Mixa_DJ]

There are right ways and wrong ways to pronounce all words, regardless of Language or Accent. I have a relatively strange last name "Leayr", which people have great difficulty in pronouncing correctly. It is pronounced "Lair" but I often put up with "Lear" or "Leer", even when I tell people it isnt that. I have the right to be annoyed when people are consistently pronouncing my name wrong.

 

[Evil_Gohan_Mixa_DJ]

There are right ways and wrong ways to pronounce all words, regardless of Language or Accent. I have a relatively strange last name "Leayr", which people have great difficulty in pronouncing correctly. It is pronounced "Lair" but I often put up with "Lear" or "Leer", even when I tell people it isnt that. I have the right to be annoyed when people are consistently pronouncing my name wrong.

 

[holy_secret]

My first name is always an issue for people who hear it for the first time. It's gone so far that I've started introducing myself through my last name. Even with that, people have problems hearing it correctly.

What?
B-R-A-V-O *Claps hands*

 

[ultimateownage]

You should pronounce it how they would, though sometimes people somehow pronounce their own last names incorrectly. Then, all you can do is sigh and ignore it.

 

[holy_secret]

My name gets mispronounced even by native speakers. Apparently it's hard to say, something I've never quite understood. And don't even get me started on english speakers! ^^ My name is Tove (yes it's a girls' name) and it's pronounced with long ooo's (as in Tooove) with a hard emphazis on the v. Everyone and their mother pronounce it like Toh-ve or simply Tohv, which sounds retarded. Oh, the joys of a rare name.

I never used to hear that name that often, and then all of the sudden three of them appeared in my life. Men hur fan kan man uttala det namnet fel?

 

[LethalBargi]

Well my name is in arabic and many english speakers cant say the letters in arabic so i just make do even though i get pissed off, and my name written in english apparently means 3 tooth in japanese...

 

[hyzaku]

Yup you can mispronounce a name. My last name is french/acadian in origin and is mispronounced at least half the time here in the US. My mother gets it worse though. Her father served in the army and tended to travel a lot. As a result she was given a very rare name (there are less than 20 people in the US with the same first name) from some place I can never remember. Almost no one here gets it right on the first try. It is sad because even a basic grasp of English (yes English) phonetics tells you how to say properly.

 

[Steve.CyborgCoconut]

Something people havn't considered is that way back when in the 1500's say, most people could not read or write but did have names. Originally most names would have their pronounciation constant and the way it was spelt would be a judgement call by the author, as was often the case in all early literature. This would apply even more so before the Doomsday book in England. Names preceed written language and therefore their pronounciation, in my opinion, is rather important and is denoted by the owner of that name. Especially with regard to sur names.

Another point of view, in stories on magic (Dresden Files particularly) names hold significance. They are how someone identifies themselves and the way in which they say their name holds meaning. Maybe someone else who's read Dresden Files can explain that a lot better than me.

 

[Bre2nan]

There's simple mispronouncing, and then there's completely missing the boat.

My name is Brennan, dammit!! Not Brandon, not Brenden, not Brett, not even Breann!!

Just use my last name, okay. That's Hickam, not Hickman, Hickett, not H.R. Giger, just Hickam, okay!!

Can't get that either, okay just use my middle name, David. Phew, that's better.


This actually happened when I went bowling with a school group like 5 years ago. Seems like Americans are the worst at this, they'll take whatever hackneyed stab at pronouncing your name that they feel like at the moment. All the Europeans or Canadians that I've met at least have had the courtesy to ask how it's pronounced.

 

[Brutal Peanut]

I've only have minor problems, but for some reason it irritates the hell out of me.

First name: Vanessa
I pronounce it: Vuh-Neh-Suh,...not VE-ness or VNessa.

Husbands name.

His name: Joshua
He pronounces his: JAH-shoo-uh,....not Josh-Ah, or Josh-Wa.

I never expect them to just know how to pronounce it. When I meet someone, I pronounce my name as clearly as possible without seeming insane. If they can't after that, then.....it irritates me.

 

[Eri]

There's simple mispronouncing, and then there's completely missing the boat.

My name is Brennan, dammit!! Not Brandon, not Brenden, not Brett, not even Breann!!

Just use my last name, okay. That's Hickam, not Hickman, Hickett, not H.R. Giger, just Hickam, okay!!

Can't get that either, okay just use my middle name, David. Phew, that's better.


This actually happened when I went bowling with a school group like 5 years ago. Seems like Americans are the worst at this, they'll take whatever hackneyed stab at pronouncing your name that they feel like at the moment. All the Europeans or Canadians that I've met at least have had the courtesy to ask how it's pronounced.

I've only have minor problems, but for some reason it irritates the hell out of me.

First name: Vanessa
I pronounce it: Vuh-Neh-Suh,...not VE-ness or VNessa.

Husbands name.

His name: Joshua
He pronounces his: JAH-shoo-uh,....not Josh-Ah, or Josh-Wa.

I never expect them to just know how to pronounce it. When I meet someone, I pronounce my name as clearly as possible without seeming insane. If they can't after that, then.....it irritates me.

There are lots of other posts similar to yours, in your cases though and some others, it isn't a matter of people pronouncing them that way because they think it's correct, they're doing it because they're stupid and don't know how language works. I can't imagine saying any of your names different than how you said they were supposed to be said, because that IS how they are supposed to be said.

 

[Haydyn]

I was wondering something along the lines of that. It had to do with demanding someone call you a specific name and refer to you by a specific nationality or you will be greatly offended and brand the other person a racist. Think about it, I could walk up to someone and demand they refer to me as "Zontar The Orange North American" and if they didn't they'd either be mispronouncing my name, or a racist.

There are ways to misspell names. I hate the fact that I can know someone for a year and they still misspell "Haydyn" on Facebook when the correct spelling is RIGHT IN FRONT OF THEM!

 

[Dogstile]

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.

Everyone seems to have ignored this part.

In terms of names, its never really been a problem. Nobody cares about how you should pronounce it in terms of /language/. They do however, care how they want it to be pronounced.

If you keep on mispronouncing it, then you're going to be told to STFU by said people. Simple as that really

 

[NuclearPenguin]

My name and last name don't get missprenounced, but they do somehow get my name to Sebastian and my last name to Blazer.

Come to think of it, Blazer is an awesome last name, I should start saying that instead.

 

[white_salad]

My last name always gets mispronounced. Or misspelled outright. It's Enstrom, but somehow people get Ingstrom, Armstrong, Enstorm, Instorm, and my personal favorite " Umstrang".

And my middle name. It's Anders, which I have been told is pronounced Ahn-dersh, but people always say Anders, with like a really hillbilly "A" sound. It's a small mistake, but I like my middle and last name. They sound a lot cooler than "Matt". Blah.

 

[DanielBrown]

We don't have this problem in Sweden as far as I know. Based on the Swedish names, I've never heard anyone pronounce them differently.
Probably because our names are rather simple. We mainly write it as it sounds.

 

[Illesdan]

My friend decided to start calling me (Jacob) as 'Yack-ub.' Don't bloody know why, but I couldn't care less. More power to her, as inane as it seems.

Your friend is going by German pronunciation of names starting with the letter 'J'. In German, the name Joseph in pronounced 'Yo-Sef'. Also in German, names beginning with the letter 'W' get the 'V' sound at the beginning, 'Witt' becomes 'Vitt' and so on.

I know, I married a German. Technically, we should be referring to ourselves as 'Yer-Gens''; but my husband and I like the way 'Jurgens' sounds just fine.

And, just because it so totally pisses my off to no end; I refuse to have anyone address me by full first name. I detest it so much. I go by 'C.J.', but my first name is 'Carmena'. It sounds exactly as it is spelled 'Car-Mee-Nah', but Goddamn these fucking people that go out of their way to put a spin on it. Or; you get the lazy fucks who ask for 'Carmen', and when they look at me, they act like they STILL can't figure out if they're addressing a man or a woman. Fuck me for my tall stature, short hair, deep voice, broad shoulders and pretty much no breasts. No, actually, fuck all of them.

I fucking hate people.

 

[Valkyrie101]

My friend decided to start calling me (Jacob) as 'Yack-ub.' Don't bloody know why, but I couldn't care less. More power to her, as inane as it seems.

That's how Jacob (or Jakub) is pronounced in Polish. Still doesn't explain why, but that's probably where it comes from.

 

[JoJo]

While my names easy to pronounce, one of my favourite names (the one I'd like to call my daughter if I have one) has two different pronoucations, it's Maya. It can be pronouced:

1) My-uh
2) May-ah

I personally prefer the second, which is also the way the majority of people I know pronounce it, however I believe that most Americans pronouce it the first way (as in the ancient South Amercian people). I suppose I could spell it differently if there's too much confusion, perhaps in the ancient Greek way "Maia".

 

[similar.squirrel]

The Hungarian and English pronunciations of my name are quite different, so no. There isn't.
As for my surname, most people can't be bothered to try pronouncing it. They usually give up at around syllable number two.