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.

Deidre in Coronation Street was pronounced “Deer-dree”. I have known Irish and Flemish where it’s pronounced “Deer-dru”, which I really like but wouldn’t have used for my DD in case everyone used the Coronation Street pronunciation!

Sorry, missed that had already been discussed above!

I say...
Peppa = peh-pah
Pepper = peh-pur

Aye! It's one of those impossible names like Milngavie pronounced Mull-guy.

I know how it's pronounced, but God help me get the spelling of Dee-Ell right.😂

@Bovrilly , it will be down to the local accent. The stress always falls on the penultimate syllable. The 'eri' bit in aceri (acres) and Ceri is the same in both.
There is no reason for it to change as the stress hasn't changed. E only has two different sounds generally - eh as in pet, get etc and a long e (ê) which doesn't have an english equivalent. It is long in hen (old), but add a syllable, it becomes short as in henoed or heno.

It used to be quite common for children to speak Welsh at home until they went to school. I know people who did, then spoke nothing but English afterwards.
That's probably why someone like the Thomases might have been recorded as bilingual.
Quite a lot of people claim to speak Welsh when they speak their local Wenglish.
Like my fluent friend.

I work with someone who pronounces his name like that but then found out it's actually short for Guillerme. Not Guillaume.

I used to work with a woman called Karen who wanted everyone to call her Care-ren
Ridiculous
I never did i used to watch her get mortified at correcting me (and everyone else) as she knew it was spelt "Karen"

She liked to think she was a cut above everyone else for some reason

I know work with a Lisa who on the phone called herself "Leesa" but again we all ignore it and just call her Lisa 😂

I know work with a Lisa who on the phone called herself "Leesa" but again we all ignore it and just call her Lisa

How are you pronouncing Lisa that it doesn't sound like 'Leesa'?!

@lastminutedotcom22 wtf? Lisa is prounounced Leesa… how are you saying it? 😂😂😂

as this thread has proven; Karen can indeed be pronounced Care-en. It’s fairly common.

I have a friend Yvonne and her mum pronounces her name like that. Nobody else does!

Lisa is pronounced Leesa (soft S)
Or are you pronouncing it as Lyza Liza short for Eliza?

I met a tiny Amelie - she introduced herself as her mum said it:

Ay-MEAL-ee

I haven’t read the whole thread yet, but my unusual Welsh name might be on there somewhere. Two different Welsh people have told me how they’d normally pronounce my name, and they each pronounced it differently. So I’ll stick with the pronunciation I’ve always used. My surname is also Welsh and my granddad spoke a bit of the language, so it is part of my heritage.

Names evolve. Just look at how many different variants of John there are: Yochanan, Younan, Ioannis, Jan, Juan, Giovanni, Johan, Sean, Ian, Ewan etc. I don’t think it’s helpful to call this process “cultural appropriation”.

I know plenty of people with mixed heritage who try to find a compromise between two or more cultures. For example my friend’s daughter is half British, half Lithuanian. She has a name that works in both countries, but it’s pronounced differently in each. My friend favours the Lithuanian way, which is tricky for Brits to copy. Her husband has opted for a hybrid pronunciation somewhere in-between the two standards.

I'm a Sara and get so fed up with Sarah's who spell their name Sara. Yes Sara Cox I'm looking at you.

I worked with someone with a sister called Sarah but pronouncing it Sara. She said her parents just didn't like excess letters, thats why they spelt her name Debra. Funeral, changing her spelling didn't change the name entirely!

Lachlan ... people can't pronounce the "ch".

Care-en is the most common pronunciation in the Southern US.

My grandma, who was born in rural Devon in the 1920s, had a friend called Penelope, pronounced Pea-na-lope (last syllable rhymed with soap).

Most of the locals (including Grandma) left the village school at 14, so I believe their knowledge of classical Greek would have been limited.

Danielle is widely pronounced as both 'Dan-yell' and 'dan-ee-yell'.

That's right. Also Dan-we-ell. I've also seen Danyell, that spelling, for a boy before (rendering of Daniel).

Dan-ee (not we) ell

Well, but you can though. There's no law. Who's going to stop you?

The Niamh pronounced Neeve (or an approximation of this) was a friend of my dd2. Born of Irish parents in the US. DD called her neev but when she was over I called her nee-uv thinking that was how her parents probably pronounced it but school in the US etc made it Neev. When I met her parents I realised her mother from co. Meath and her dad from Kerry (and a fluent Irish speaker) both used the pronounciation Neev. So I did too for this child.

What on earth is standard Irish? Leinster Irish? that is funny.

13 pages in, battery about to go, 3am sleep or else; I can't wait to contribute this gem from a neighbour, years ago.
New baby girl, arriving home: she's called Sade (spoken- Shar-day) after the singer, said neighbour.
My congratulations card was singled out for spelling: "its Charde", she said. 🥴
Also, a relative called Sara, found the South called her Sair-uh, & the North Zah-rah.
And, yeah, it's OK to defend traditional names. Ignorant arrogance & tabloid obsession with celebrity has fueled the surge of ridiculous names. I believe the French have a list of names to choose from...

Charde is a French name, but that's not what neighbour was going for.
Oh well, I'm a tired and petty cat. Miaow.

This is a huge hazard as a teacher, popular name spelt and pronounced in all different ways. As is miah, meah, maya. (I would say Miya, mee-ah, May-ah but no it's never that straightforward!) Each and everyone of them takes offence if you say it wrong!

I had a customer who told me her daughter was called;
'Why vone ay' That is exactly as she said it.
Me, 'Could you spell that please?'
She said;
Y v o n n e
Yvonne.