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.

Worked with someone who's daughter was naomi but said it was pronounced nay a mi

"Clara your name is Clara not fucking Claire Ah 🙄"

You are wrong, Clair-a to rhyme with Sarah is the traditional English pronunciation. Had an old auntie called this. Sorry about your (fucking) ignorance. Anyway, who are you to tell her she is wrong about HER OWN NAME?

How it's changed to fit in with different languages across many different countries. Spelling and pronunciation. There are huge differences between loads of names that were once the same name. These things happen over time.

@stacestation I don't know stace 🤣

I knew a Karen who told me her name was pronounced K air on. I'd never come across that pronunciation before.

Thank goodness there is one guy at least who knows how to pronounce it!

Arron = Ar-ron
Aaron = Air-on

I just say Dani now

"Oh I thought it was 'ay' as in Helen pronounced ay-len. I misunderstood, my cousin's name is pronounce ay-len, which is how é is pronounced in French"

no, @NippyWoowoo , in fact the original poster made the point that when the girl started French lessons at school it would be embarrassing for her to have a French name pronounced in a non-French way.

I was taught GCSE English by a Mr ‘Oh Nigh ons’ (onions).

DD10 told me her friend was called “ bra knee”. It’s Bryony.
Her Parents are vair posh.

Yes, Caitlin Moran is Kate-Lynn I think?

@Luredbyapomegranate No, they muddled 2 names. The Italian is spelt Chiara

Absolutely correct. Thank you!

But I believe that the owner of the name surely has the inalienable right to decide the pronunciation?

However stupid the end result…

No need to change your name any more. If you are Emma and want to be Sophie, just tell everyone that’s how Emma is pronounced.

Just because it’s your name, you can’t rewrite the rules on English pronunciation!

there are fairly hard and fast rules on how words are spoken

If your mum wanted you to be called Coyote, that’s fine, but you can’t spell it ‘Kate’ and then say that people are wrong when they don’t realise that you wanted to reinvent language every time someone reads it out

@CardiffMam , Since when has Sïan said as See-anne been a Welsh name?
It would need to be Sïán. It looks made up and a bitt ridiculous. Presumably they wanted the Si to not sound like Sh

As does St. Louis, Missouri.

Why is Siobhan pronounced the Irish way correct, though? It's a feminine form of John that came into Irish from the French version. So the only reason it would be more correct would be because it's older and more widely used.

Look, practically speaking, of course you're right that if you are the only person who says a certain combination of letters in a certain way you might have trouble. But if everyone in the Anglosphere started using Siobhan pronounced Showbin, it would be equally correct as Jean, Joan, Ivana etc etc.

I used to work with a Melanie but she pronounced it Melaynee. I don’t know if that was her or her parents choice of pronunciation.

I never grasped why Boris picked that instead of Alexander... but the day I understand de Pfeffle is the day I'll spoon my own brains out ....

De'Ath/De'ath/D'Ath ... derived from dethe which came from dyth, which is one of those 'job based names'... and it means gatherer or seller of kindling/fuel.

Boring but no his name almost certainly wasn't Mr Death and he stuck in an apostrophe to disguise it, its almost certainly been De'Ath for many generations of his family.

No she didn't. The character was American and had a rhotic accent (one that sounds the "r" sound). If she had been pronouncing her name as if it had an "r" in it, she would have said something like"Nat-ARR-sha".

What she actually did was lengthen the second syllable, as Americans often do with similar words like "pasta". I wonder if it's influenced by the original Russian pronunciation?

(If it hasn't already been said...) Sara Cox is actually Sarah but an early employer spelt it wrong and she decided to stick with it.

Also Carolina, as in the US States.

@HaveringWavering , she says it as Kat-lyn

I went to school with an Andrea. By the time we left, the pronunciation had chan----ged to Ondraya.

I thought that was how you say it🤷‍♀️