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.

I work with 3rd level Ed across the country, Uni and apprenticeships, so it’s a good bench mark of general social trends.

My DD was at school with a girl who went by the same Elle-pronounced-Ellie name. I wonder if her parents realised?

Karen pronounced Care-en and she was a child speach therapist.

This made me laugh.
I have a either sex name depending where you live in the world.
It's a five letter name, 2 syllables, dead easy.
We will say its Marie for ease.
I get
Maria
Marya
Mairieeea
Mary
Mara
Annamarie
Marine
Marina
And on and on.
I now just answer to anything close or oy you.

Karen can be pronounced Care-en. It’s a valid pronunciation, I think. I know two.

@Luredbyapomegranate

How do you explain this so?

forvo.com/word/niamh/

100%

For years and years I pronounced it wrong and couldn't understand, why would you call your kid that

I know two Nadines. One is NAY-deen and the other is Na-DEEN.

I know two Naomis. One is Nay-OH-mi and the other is Nayomi.

I know several Karens. One Kah-ren and all the others Kare-ren.

All the Marias were pronounced Mar-eye-a when I was at school, but now I tend towards Mar-ee-a. Likewise I always used to assume Deirdre was pronounced Deedruh/Durdruh/Didruh (with the first vowel sort of swallowed) but am now more used to Deerdree.

I know umpteen Sarahs and Saras. All pronounced Saira. The only person I know who calls herself Sah-ra spells her name Zara.

I've heard Sorcha prounced so many different ways in Ireland that I'm glad we don't have any in the family - they'd never agree.

I used to know a french Guy; he pronounced it Gwee but the G was hardly there, just a hint, with the mouth open ready for the W. The ee was quite short but not as short as i.

On spellings I know lots of Carol/Carole s. All pronounced the same. Also Ann and Anne.

I met two Louis s at once. One introduced himself as Lewis and one Lou-ee.

Venus - pronounced Vee Noos

I used to work with a Cheryl who pronounced the “Ch” as you would with “Chalk” and “Cheese”

I don't get the Evan / Ifan thing - surely Evan is pronounced Evv-un because it isn't a Welsh language word. And Ifan is Ee-van. If you want to be called Ee-van why would you go for Evan instead of Ifan 🤷‍♀️

Anyway I used to know a Helena who is Hel-EE-na rather than HELL-en-a or Hel-AY-na. Unusual and I found it hard to remember. I guess it's like St Helena the island, should have thought of that at the time.

And I knew a Rhiân who pronounced it Rhian but maybe that's a bit niche. Basically a decorative to bach a bit like a PP mentioned re fadas.

I suspect it's already been said but Onions pronounced O'Nyons is a Shropshire thing.

@LizzieAnt

Explain what? The middle one is a neev-uh the other two are Neeve. I said Neeve was standard, not that nothing else exists.

Anyway I used to know a Helena who is Hel-EE-na rather than HELL-en-a or Hel-AY-na. Unusual and I found it hard to remember. I guess it's like St Helena the island, should have thought of that at the time.

I'm in Ireland and I've never met a Helena here who wasn't pronounced Hel-EE-na 😊

Interesting - maybe she is from an Irish family, thank you!

They're all Nee-uv to my ear @Luredbyapomegranate.
This explains a lot!😅

your ears need a clean out!

to mine too!

It’s Nee uv. Fact.

@Bovrilly , Evans is a very common surname, and it's from Ifan's son. A lot say it as Efans or Ifans (f is said as v).

Not someone pronouncing their own name wrong but thread has reminded me of secondary school. One of my best friends was a Sarah. Start of a new year, new teacher who was absolutely adamant that she was Sara, and Sarah 'wasn't a real name' It ended in a bit of a stand off with friend refusing to acknowledge 'Sara' was her and after a few days teacher caved and started saying 'Sarah'. The whole thing was bizarre!

That’s a perfectly valid pronunciation.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8536213.stm

It might be the same one as my original surname. No fucker pronounces it properly.

Okay I have a birth name that fits this exact category everyone is speaking of.

I myself have always had a issue with my name because it is not spelt the way it is pronounced and when asking my mum why that was the case as a child she responded that the person at the registry office wrote it down wrong and then wouldn’t allow her to change it!

i was always annoyed because if that was me I would take the next chance I had and correct that spelling! As a result I was ridiculed in school simply because nobody called me the right thing as it’s normal to go by the spelling if your reading it as opposed to what you know it is! In secondary school I changed my name on the school systems more than once as it was such a big issue to me (little did I know if your exams in school don’t have your birth name on them it is not valid so what a waste that was!).

Buy yes my mum and family taught me my name was said one way my whole life and then since on the outside nobody knew about it I had to always go through the embarrassment of it being mispronounced but I always corrected them saying my mum clearly couldn’t spell🙄