Choosing to pronounce name different

[mylittleyumyum]

Just waffling really, I was watching tv last night and there was a woman called Greta, but it was pronounced Greeta. I've always only heard it pronounced 'Gretta'.

It reminded me of a friend called Nicole, who pronounces her name as Nicoll and snaps at anyone who dares say it any differently. She maintains that as it's her name, so she will decide how it is pronounced.

A colleague recently gave birth to baby Freya, but pronounces it Friar.

Does anyone know of other instances like this?

@NancyPickford

I'm in Scotland and know quite a few Catrionas.

All pronounced 'Katrina'.

Of course they are . I blame outlander myself

@chrislilleyswig
Isn't it a bit rich to claim that those who don't pronounce Caitriona as you pronounce it don't know their Gaelic though, when you're using an anglicized pronunciation yourself?

I’m spelled Sharon and pronounced Share-on

I hate it. And what I hate most is the massive percentage of people who think it’s “just an affectation because I want to try and sound posh”

[quote LizzieAnt]@chrislilleyswig
Isn't it a bit rich to claim that those who don't pronounce Caitriona as you pronounce it don't know their Gaelic though, when you're using an anglicized pronunciation yourself?[/quote]
You need to work on your English comprehension.

Stop making things up and bore off.

@BathshebaKnickerStickers

I’m spelled Sharon and pronounced Share-on

I hate it. And what I hate most is the massive percentage of people who think it’s “just an affectation because I want to try and sound posh”

Can't you change the pronunciation back to the "other" one if you hate it? Maybe not much you can do about your family, I suppose! Genuine question, BTW.

Some parents give their children a surname or place name as a first name.
Just imagine if your parents decided to give you Featherstonehaugh or Kirkcudbright or Belvoir as a first name. Folk would think you were odd insisting your name was pronounced as Fanshaw & Kirkcoobray. & Beever/Beaver.

@chrislilleyswig
You can’t really blame outlander as I know a Catriona pronounced Katrina and she’s in her 40’s. It was overly effected though when I heard this woman ‘Katree-own-ah’, not just a slight ‘uh’ sound where the O is and so over the top with her pretend posh accent.

Well I always thought it was Cat-tree-ohna there you go

Naomi to me is always nair-me

Oh and a colleague called Sian, our boss kept referring to her as ‘See-anne’

@summerredroses

Since being a very young child nearly everyone has called me roweeeeena.

Rowena is not my name.

I think you've posted about this before? I'm inyrigued. So how should your name be pronounced?

There was a heated debate on here with someone called Bridget who was huffy that people pronounced it Bridget (Brigit). No idea how she wanted it to be pronounced unless she fancied herself as a Brigitte perhaps.

Have I? I don’t think so!

My name is a different one. Not very common but it is spelled and therefore pronounced differently.

Ciara.

I’ve heard a few Keir-ah / Key-a-ra pronunciations, but the singer Ciara is ‘Sierra’. Most strange.

@summerredroses

Have I? I don’t think so!

My name is a different one. Not very common but it is spelled and therefore pronounced differently.

Okay. That means there's another not-Rowena on here who feels equally passionately

Problem is charlotte when someone says something like that it’s hard to know what the insinuation is!

My apologies, I really didn't mean to offend but I was pretty sure I wasn't imagining it

Why is Nippon called Japan?

Bizarrely in English we say Nippon but the Japanese will say Nippon or Nihon. Both are written in Japanese as 日本.

And I completely disagree with the Sara/Sarah being the same name business.
Sara is Sar-ra
Sarah is Sair-ra.
Two different spellings of two different names.

The name that confused me was Rose of Sharon from The Grapes of Wrath. (And is that ‘roth’ or ‘rath’)
Firstly I was confused that the whole thing was one name and then I heard it on an Radio 4 adaptation pronounced Rosa-sharn. I guess it’s a bit like St John.

Re the poor girl named Niamh pronounced Nay-muh.

a) why would anyone give their daughter such an ugly sounding name

b) how many people give their children names they've only ever seen written down and never heard said? Is that a common thing? Surely if you've seen Niamh written down a lot but literally NEVER heard a child called Nay-muh anywhere, not in a playground or school or in the street - does it not make you think?

I know 2 Danielles - one pronounces ‘ Dan Eel’ and the other ‘Dan Ell’

I would saying dan yell ?

@AvoidingTheWineAisle Ciara is pronounced like Keira. But is the Irish spelling. And far prettier IMO. Basically Ciaran, without the 'n'
However it does cause much confusion in England, with lots of 'Chiara' or 'Sierra's.
If only I had known how difficult it seems to be to be pronounce...

“Meegan” drives me mad. It’s Meg (short for Margaret) an (short for Anne). It makes absolutely no sense to make the long e sound (or put a sodding h in it but that’s another matter...)

My family are partly Hungarian, and my cousins were given Hungarian names. Which the parents promptly anglicised, with the pronunciation, but not the spelling. So Terez has always been called Teresa, Margit, Margaret. And Ildiko couldn’t be anglicised but has always been known as Ildie.

And I completely disagree with the Sara/Sarah being the same name business.
Sara is Sar-ra
Sarah is Sair-ra.
Two different spellings of two different names.

No Flamingo you're wrong, sorry. Sara is (quite obviously) a variant of Sarah. From the Hebrew, meaning 'princess'. It can be pronounced either Sah-ra or the same as Sarah.

Here: nameberry.com/babyname/Sara

Nothing to do with American accents as pp said, they pronounce Sarah the same way over there. As people sometimes do over here - perfectly legit!

Never heard of the children's classic, A Little Princess, ? With heroine Sara Crewe - pronounced the same as Sarah. This is the film version set in New York:

And this is the 80s version set in London (as it is in the book):

No 'sah-ra's at all. I think that 'Sah-ra' is a more recent variation.

It is really that hard to accept that many names have more than one pronunciation?

@TracyBeakerSoYeah

Some parents give their children a surname or place name as a first name. Just imagine if your parents decided to give you Featherstonehaugh or Kirkcudbright or Belvoir as a first name. Folk would think you were odd insisting your name was pronounced as Fanshaw & Kirkcoobray. & Beever/Beaver.

Brooklyn Beckham was named because he was conceived in Brooklyn. People said at the time it was a good thing he wasn't conceived in Peckham.

Vietnamese mate called Bao

Pronounced Bow (rhymes with How)

Did people say it right, did they fuck

Bay-yow etc