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.

Have you changed it now?

So so weird you've asked this today!!!!was speaking to a lady who told me her name was what sounded like Helene (as in french). She then proceeded to spell it Elaine. She repeated it the same way: Helene.

<hi five>

In much of England soot and soon are not the same oo sound, soot rhymes with foot, Ditto woof and roof.

@Luredbyapomegranate , the Niamh ones in that Forvo link are Nee-uv, Nee-uv and Neev.
I look at Niamh and can't see how it's not 2 syllables

I am amazed at that, I am Welsh and speak (dodgy) Welsh and have never heard anyone pronounce Evan as Ifan or Evans as Ifans. It doesn't make sense to me to welshify your name by pronouncing it in a way that doesn't work in the Welsh language iyswim. I know people who have changed the spelling of their name eg Hughes to Huws or (like Rhys Ifans) Evans to Ifans, and then the pronunciation changes with it.

Sorry that was in response to @KirstenBlest

I know and Edith who pronounces it eh-deet. I'd say ee-dith. I quite like her way

My daughter has spent her life correcting people

It completely depends on what part of Ireland you are from. Neeve is a common pronounciation in some parts.

It will depend on how dodgy your Welsh is and where you are @Bovrilly . I can certainly remember people who were Evan on paper but Ifan in daily life.
Evan isn't a natural sound to a mother-tongue (almost monoglot) welsh speaker.

You couldn't write the Evan (Evvun) sound phonetically in Welsh.

Is she French?

They really don’t..

So some of these comments are just a big ignorant.
Irene is originally pronounced i - RAY - neh and the anglicised version is EYE - reen. Because it's been in the UK so long the anglicised version is accepted but I work in a very Greek Cypriot area and there are a thousand who pronounce it the original way.
The same with Eleri - it's ELL - eh - ree.
Those are correct pronunciations.

Then there are names with several legitimate pronunciations such as Lucia (Lu-CHEE-uh, Lu - THEE - uh, Lu - SEE - uh, Loosha) or Sofia (so-FYE-uh or so-FEE-uh). Julia can be Yulia. Kirsten can be cheer - sten. Benjamin can get ben-ya-meen.

And then there are names where the pronunciations are incorrect. I'm not saying that those people should not be able to pronounce their names how they choose but they have to understand that most people will say it in a way they perceive as wrong eg Ciaran is Kieran not see-AH-run
Siobhan is shevaun (more or less,) not see-oh-ban
Sian is sharn not see-ann
Henri is ong-ree (not quite but close enough) not Henry
Elle is not Ellie

Bit not big

No it isn't, the French pronunciation of Guy is Ghee (a U after a G in French followed by an I or E usually just there to signify a hard G but isn't pronounced, like in Guillaume (ghee-yom).

The middle European version of Edith is Edita - Ee-di-ta (from memory that’s right) so it sounds like your friend’s might be a French version as Pp says

A common mispronunciation.

Danes pronounce Edith as ee-dit, with the "ee" a bit longer than in English, and the "dit" is like a very short "deet."

I always liked the name Edith anyway, but there is a character in a Danish show I'm watching who has the name and I love how they all pronounce it.

I grew up pronouncing it like this. It wasn't until Cheryl Cole that I knew there was another way. I now would guess at the sh start if I met a new Cheryl but I think there are plenty of people who still uses the first pronunciation.

Yes that's exactly my point, Evan is an English word not a Welsh word. I don't get why people would go for Evan and then pronounce it as if it was spelt completely differently. Why not pick Ifan in the first place if you want it to be pronounced like Ifan 🤷‍♀️

Big Welsh presence on this thread. I think every other Sarai know pronounces it Sarah.

Also every Dylan ever.

Sara!

@HaveringWavering Then there are those stupid phonics reading books that insist that oor ore or and aw were supposed to sound the same. Stupid RWI reading books!

The third one also sounds like Nee-uv to me. The uv bit can often be gentle. It's said at the back of the throat if that makes sense...sorry, I'm not a linguist so don't have the correct terminology!