To think people should just pronounce her name the way she has asked them to?

@TessSaysYes subtle difference?

It’s her name!

Accidents happen and people do mispronounce names (it sounds like this has gone way beyond reasonable mispronounciation) she is absolutely right to correct people, it is common decency to get someone's name right (I have a dd with a reasonably common name but with a double letter instead of a single lette, it's not a ridiculous version at all, used to drive me crazy when EYFS misspelt it repeatedly, no matter how many times I pointed it out! She is now 16 and will often blame this unseen person with a name very similar to hers for all sorts 😉)

If you were a German speaker and you saw the name - and assumed that every name was pronounced according to German pronunciation rules, with no awareness of or care for people from non German-speaking countries with that or any name - you would by default.

Exactly the same way the vast, vast majority of English-speaking people do when talking about the famous composer - knowing full well that he was German - yet still always pronounce it as 'Bait-HOE-vuhn'.

David is pronounced Dar-veet in German

Getting someone’s name right is a basic courtesy. Making fun of someone in these circumstances is definitely a microaggression and likely racist when you add the stereotypes on top. I wouldn’t be standing in a pub listening to this without challenging it.
HR can’t really do a lot about pub conversations outside of work, but can be made aware if it spills into the workplace. But you do have the choice to say something or leave.

Chap in my office mispronounces my name all the time, because he’s just like that. I have stopped correcting him now. Instead I just call him Colin. His name isn’t Colin, nothing like Colin but if he cannot use the correct pronunciation, it’s said as it’s spelled and an English name, I won’t bother to say his name correctly. He says names are not that important. Is that so, Colin? Colin is plain rude, in my opinion.
May I suggest Eva tries the same tactic. I know it’s as petty as hell but sometimes you just have to.

I have a German friend Andrea.
In German it's And-ray-a, in English it's And-ree-a

I have a friend whose parents are German and Argentinian. She is Laura.
Lor-uh in English, & Lau-rah in German and Spanish.

I think these names were chosen knowing they were known in both languages, even though they are commonly pronounced differently.

I first got to know Andrea when I was living in Germany and then when I moved back to England I sounded a bit of a twat calling a friend of my son's And-ray-a
see also Ikea which I pronounced Ik-ay-ah but no one in England says it that way.

Apart from the obvious element of racism/xenophobia, deliberately mispronouncing or misspelling any woman's name is often used to make it clear that they are so insignificant, the person man can't possibly be bothered with using their actual name; bonus points in their head if it can be substituted with a male alternative.

Easy win for people to a) at least try to say it properly, b) set up an autocorrect if the name has diacritics.

Who pronunces David as ‘Darfid’?

I agree. I kind of get people's reticence if it's a long Czech or Polish name that looks to an English speaker as nothing but consonants; but if you can say the English words 'ever', 'shaver' and 'wafer' (depending on the individual's own name pronunciation), you've already got it right there!

Interestingly, 'have' is an extremely common word in English (the Scottish word 'haver' very much less so), yet I don't think I've ever heard anybody pronounce the actor's name as 'Nigel Havvers' with a short 'a' sound, as one would likely naturally assume. Possibly because he isn't at all perceivably 'foreign'...?!

That’s you obviously but others do because it shouldn’t be difficult to show some decency and pronounce someone’s name the way they have asked you too. It’s their name, it’s bare minimum manners and it’s ridiculous people choose not to do even that, barring specific difficulties not I don’t mind nor should they, being lazy, or not caring.

Not the thread but I always thought it was pronounced Ny omi because I've never heard it spoken. I've learned something today.

To the thread, some people might not know but those who do and don't say it properly are ignorant and mean spirited with it.

I correct people every time they shorten my name or mispronounce it despite being told 100 times, I don’t care if they think it’s rude of me to do so (the irony!).

On the few occasions where people have persisted in email of getting my name wrong despite being corrected, I usually drop or change a letter in their name in the next email I send to them.

Amazingly, the follow up email always comes back with my name written correctly.

It's very rude, but extremely common amongst many monoglot English speakers, who have no awareness and cannot possibly fathom that not every name/name variant of non-British origin will be pronounced in the 'standard' British way.

Most English people don't even have the faintest idea of Welsh pronunciations, let alone most non-British ones - even the same sounds as are common in English and not just the more linguistically challenging ones. We met somebody who had done a full three-year university course living in Bangor, and even he still pronounced it like the similar word meaning a firework or a sausage.

Vincent Van Gogh has been dead for over a century, and achieved worldwide fame in the time since; yet I don't think I've ever heard a British person ever even make the faintest attempt to pronounce his name properly. The Americans have heard the wrong common British pronunciation and substituted it for their own (equally wrong) US pronunciation.

David Hasselhoff is very popular in Germany. They wouldn't dream of pronouncing his name as 'Darfid' - because they don't have the same national lack of awareness in that respect that the vast majority of British and American people do and they are fully cognisant of the fact that he isn't German.

It's a disgrace.

It's a bit like shortening somebody's name repeatedly, even although they always go by the full name. If the person has repeatedly told them the correct version, it's just rude.

I worked with a Swedish woman named Berit. We did struggle with her name initially (it's pronounced Bee-rit) but we all made the effort to get it right.

Last night I went to the pub with some colleagues and some people were making fun of how much she corrects people with her name (she isn’t rude it’s just if they say her name she responds with the correct pronunciation). They were also talking about the fact we have others in the world place who’s names get mispronounced and they just let it go. They also noted it’s hard as the name is pretty popular in the uk and pronounced a different way. It wasn’t a nice conversation, and it spiralled a little into stereotypes of the country etc. I called it out, noted that it was really inappropriate to talk that way about someone and left. I’m unsure as of yet if it’s worth reporting to HR.

She's German, isn't she? I know a German Eva - in fact I didn't know it was pronounced Eh-va in German until I met her. Unlike your dickhead colleagues, I was able to process that information and say Eh-va ever since.

I actually think that is worth reporting to HR. It sounds a little like bullying - multiple colleagues ganging up on her to tell her she's wrong for wanting her name to be pronounced correctly - with a side order of prejudice.

When they say it's hard for them to pronounce her name correctly, are they admitting how phenomenally stupid they are? It isn't remotely difficult to say "Eh-va". The only reason they aren't doing it is because they don't care, because they don't respect her enough. If Eva was responsible for their next promotion I can guarantee you they'd find a way to say the syllables "Eh-va".

Exactly.

I worked in a very multicultural town, and though I tried really hard, it was close to impossible for me to prove some names exactly as pronounced in their own language. But Eh-va isn't remotely one of those kinds of names. There's no excuse for getting that wrong.

This is a very common microaggression. Report to HR

YANBU. It’s really fucking rude to repeatedly get someone’s name wrong.

It is important and they are being twats.

(Also, and this is entirely irrelevant, in my head, Eh-va is a lovely name and Ee-va is not. Gavel.)

Eva pronounced “her” way isn’t even that unusual in the UK. Sometimes name pronunciations can be hard for people to remember, but if they’ve remembered well enough to spend an evening mocking her for it, they could put the effort in to saying it right in the first place…

It is rude to not even try. Having said that my own mum can't pronounce my own daughters name right (there is an S making a Sea sound in it and she says it like a Z / Zee sound). Have tried for years and she can not hear the difference. I had to just let it go now it is the weirdest thing! But not done maliciously. I think some people really have an element of tone deafness. But for the whole team to act this way is horrible. Please continue to use her name the right way and correct others on her behalf too.

Good for her for standing up for herself.

It’s incredibly rude not to pronounce people’s names as correctly as possible, and the pronunciation she’s asking for shouldn’t be difficult for most English speakers anyway.

While i think its rude to deliberately mispronounce someones name i also don’t understand why people get so hung up on how their name is pronounced! I have one of those names that is spelled one way and pronounced another, i genuinely couldn’t give a shit how people pronounce it.