Ever met anyone who (you thought) pronounced their own name wrongly?

[ErmineAndPearls]

Inspired by a few posts on the Secret Confessions thread. I once met a woman called Leigh. She insisted that everyone must call her “Lay”. Also, a whole family whose surname is Onions, but they pronounce it “O’Nyons”. Like, just own it or change the spelling. There are more.

Niamh I would pronounce as Neeve. Irish living in Ireland
However there are different Irish pronunciations - Ulster Irish impossible to understand for me as I was taught by Munster and Connacht Irish teachers. So Irish names in Ireland will be pronounced differently too.

I would have pronounced Sarah and Sara the same

Every Sara I’ve ever met has been Zara.

I read Sara Cox's autobiography and, if I recall correctly, she is actually Sarah on her birth certificate. Can't remember why she removed the h for work.

"A dog's woof sounds like wuff to me, if I were to start barking I would be wuff wuff wuffing. The teacher preferred to rhyme her name with roof."

But @Friffle , "woof" is already an onomatopoeic word! Pretty sure the vast majority of people do read it as rhyming with "roof", rather than taking it as their cue to do an authentic animal impression!

How do you pronounce Cock a Doodle Doo?

Doesn’t Cawra rhyme with Dora?

If I understand correctly, when you are talking TO "Mairi" you address her as "Varry" but when you are talking ABOUT Mairi you refer to her as "Marry"?

And Mairi would never say "Varry" unless she was talking to herself.

Is that right?

Well, not if you're speaking in English, no.

I can imagine it might be irritating, but if someone wants to call themselves a Welsh/Irish/anywhere in the world name and mispronounce it, well, is that wrong ? Is it wrong full stop to choose a name “out of your lane” ? Perhaps name appropriation will be the next sin….

@Maggit - I’m an Olwyn
i was named after the ‘Dream of Olwyn’

who knew I was a wheel 🤣🤣🤣

Not RTFT

Many of the names become anglicised, and if they are names you are familiar with it really grates to hear the anglicised versions.
Irish, Scottish and Welsh names are often misspelt and mispronounced.
I've seen Meave and Marsali a few times in the last few days.
You have very little chance of having Caitlín pronounced as it is in Ireland now because the Katelyn pronunciation is mainstream

In which accents does woof rhyme with roof? I used to know a guy from Ohio who pronounced roof as ruff but I can't think of any others.

My grandma was called Olwyn, from what I know she had Welsh roots.

Of course it's bit a rule book, name etymology, but it's a good guide.

I think it's a given that some people will, and do, use 'unique' pronunciations and spelling variations of standard names and that will never change.

But if they're changing the pronunciation, for example, a name where the pronunciation has been the same for centuries then they can probably expect to be corrected, especially when they try to insist their pronunciation is the correct one.

People who pronounce Peppa pig as Pepper Pig…….. why?

It was Dream of Olwen, surely.

'Not' not 'bit'. Stupid autocorrect!

I would have pronounced Sarah and Sara the same

NC has obviously outing. My name is spelt Sara. But my parents named me the Arabic pronunciation of Sara. But sometimes if I introduce myself I would pronounce my name how it should be. I’ve actually had two people that I can remember tell me, after asking me to repeat, that it’s pronounced Sarah, in the case English way. So just because names are spelt a certain way, doesn’t mean that the traditional pronunciation is the correct way.

The pp said she knew a Helene pronounced Helen-ay.

Adding the accents to the first two Es doesn't create an 'ay' at the end (in French).

I think that's correct, Ralph Fiennes pronounces his that way.

What a horrible thread.

Isnt that a normal pronounciation!

@Capri3 These is just accent though

Madlin is just a variety of RP pronunciation where some of the word gets swallowed, the same people say medsun rather than medicine.

Arry rather than Harry from the other end of the scale, with some London accents (and others) you hardly ever say the h at the start of words so Arry sounds normal rather than wrong

I've never understood why a guy with an attractive given name like Alexander would voluntarily choose to call himself the monstrosity that is 'Boris'. Likewise James Gordon Brown plumping for Gordon. Politicians are strange folk.

I knew a Mr Death, who shoved an apostrophe in his name so it looked like this [D'Eath], and pronounced it Dee-Ath.

Now of course I completely understand why. But it's hardly as though it's fooling anyone. And I have to wonder exactly how his ancestors earned their undesirable moniker!

My friend once taught ‘Arry - with the apostrophe.

I have a cousin called Sean, pronounced See-un. He hates it when people call him Shaun.

I cant actually believe everyone's just ignored my comment and not offered to help. Come on posters, how do you pronounce my name? Danielle??? I genuinely don't know. 🤣

Surely Peppa and Pepper are pronounced the same in non-rhotic accents, i.e. most people in England?