Hard to pronounce surname - do you have one?!

[Jamesonwhite]

I'm getting married later this year and will be taking DPs name. It is extremely hard to pronounce and spell. I'm undecided whether or not I will keep my maiden name as my name at work to make life easier (or will it just be more complicated having 2 names?!)

Anyone have a hard to pronounce surname? How have you found it?

I've got a one syllable surname but people seem to think I don't know how to say/spell it and try and correct me All The Fucking Time.

It's a similar correction as if I was called Smythe and people always try and tell me my name is Smith.

I have a long (9 letters) and unusual British maiden name that nobody can pronounce and I have to spell EVERY TIME. I've never met anyone with the same name, though they exist on Facebook. I use this name on pretty much all official stuff eg passport and driving license and work stuff.

My married name is 4 letters long but isn't British and is more unusual than the maiden name. There aren't any other people in this country with it who aren't in my immediate family. I also have to spell it every time but it's usually pronounced correctly because it's simpler. I use it only on stuff related to my kids.

Keep your name. You can just use your married name on stuff related to the kids if that bothers you, it's all perfectly legal.

Yes and it's a fucking nightmare. I have a very slightly unusual first name, so now I have spell everything all the time. And giving my work email address to anyone is a ballache.

Don't change it. I massively regret it.

My name is a British name and if you come from the area it originated from, you would be able to pronounce it and spell it easily. Unfortunately, it gets spelt in so many ways that we get excited when we get a new variation of it.
I get called out by my first name at appointments or usually when people struggle to get pass the first few letters I just stand up to spare them the embarrassment.

Mine shouldn't be hard, but no one gets it right. It's usually mispronounced as though it's an indian name so I have to correct all the time.

I do and I literally haven't pronounced my own name correctly for about 20 years - I just say what other people say ie how you'd expect it to be pronounced when you read it! But I do like it still (fake & real versions). I like being unique and everyone always comments on it, usually saying isn't it unusual and lovely!

Yes! Before I married DH, FIL told me to get used to spelling it out all of the time. 22 years later I'm still spelling it for folks.

I have a very tricky surname. My husbands is really easy. I kept mine as I like how unique it is and didn't want a normal, boring name!

DP has a child already so obviously I will be taking the name that my future step child already has

Don't really understand why it's obvious that you must share a surname with your stepchild, but okay!

My maiden name was very unusual and I hated spelling it out all the time especially as DM and DF saddled me with an unusual first name

Got married and obtained very common surname. Kept it after the divorce as I really didn't want the maiden name back!

I know plenty of women who either haven't changed their names or have one for personal and one for professional purposes. Up to you, OP.

Crinolinequeen - read the sentence before that one. I said it is important to me that we have the same name as a family. That is why its obvious- surely nobody would leave their step child as the only person with their surname in the family?

How would the child be the only person with their surname, doesn't the child share a surname with his/her father?

@CrinolineQueen I presume OP means either she will take his name or he will take hers. If he takes hers the SS will have a different surname

My surname is unusual; easy to pronounce but it isn't spelled at all how it sounds. It's French. It slightly helps that it's the same surname as a character in an American drama series from a few years back, and there was a running joke in the show about her surname. So some people get it.

But honestly it's not that hard. I'm used to spelling it or writing it down for people who need to know it. And people do remember you in interviews and whatnot.

Ah. Okay thanks, bianca, I see.

I was the opposite way around to you OP.
My maiden name is very foreign (immigrant parents, but I was born in the U.K.), and pretty impossible for English people to read/spell/pronounce. I spent my whole time at school spelling it out for teachers And it was very promptly shortened to an easy to pronounce nickname version of it on my first day in the Army
When I got married, I changed it to my DH’s (also foreign) but very simple surname. Easy to spell and pronounce, and doesn’t sound too out of place in the UK

Does anyone else cringe slightly at the term 'maiden name'?

Does anyone else cringe slightly at the term 'maiden name'?

No. Should we?

Does anyone else cringe slightly at the term 'maiden name'?#

What's the alternative though? Birth surname? Surname before marriage? Family name before getting hitched?

It does sound antiquated but everyone knows what you're on about if you say "maiden name".

Only if you want to.

I do because the word 'maiden' is synonymous with young virgins. Plus there's no male equivalent.

I'll just cringe at it by myself over here on the Long Time Since I Was A Virgin bench.

Yeah 'birth name' is what I say. No blushing young virgin deflowered on her wedding night overtone.

My married name is Irish but with a twist of Spanish to it, people always pronounce and spell it wrong

O’lay?

Mines just a normal surname. Nothing tricky about it at all. And yet I still get asked to spell it. Or better still call me a completely different name!

Mine shouldn’t be, but most people can’t say it!
For example: Crowden (not my name!), could be Crow-den (the correct version) or Crowd-en (how everyone says it). I wish I’d married an easier name.