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.

Not since 1993.

I used to work with a woman called Karen who wanted everyone to call her Care-ren

That’s a valid pronunciation, and not uncommon. I know a couple.

Not rtft but I know several Scandinavian people who pronounce it this way. I believe it's a popular name over there.

I recently met a Canadian man called Ian, pronounced eye-an. I asked him about it and he said his mum felt it made more sense as Brian was pronounced that way 🤷‍♀️

on the earlier comments about accents, an American woman called Cara joined my organisation (which is a company in Australia and NZ. I’m Scottish). All the Aussies and Kiwis were calling her Keh-ra and corrected me when I referred to her as Cara. I avoided saying her name after that as it seemed to me that Keh-ra was simply the way the name sounds in her American accent. Like the pp’s reply re Dibby/Debby or Harry/‘Arry it seemed strange to alter my accent to match hers.

Yes I used to know a number of women who were care-un. Also car -un. Even if ca - run is the just popular pronunciation it's ignorant to say it's the only one.

That reminds me of hearing the name Gary by Americans. It seems to be pronounced more like Gairy (and slightly drawn out) but I think it’s more down to accent than actual pronunciation.

They sound the same in my SE accent.

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...

Yes, the bar is set pretty low in the UK, where the registrar may only refuse to register names deemed to be potentially harmful or offensive to the child.

I'd like to volunteer my services for a year (not really, but...) or alter the guidelines to include bad spellings (you'd have to know your stuff where names are concerned) for example the number of Pheobes registered is ridiculous, though I like to think (as mentioned earlier in thread here) that the older/adult child makes a change or the parents later make an amendment on being told.

I've said before but I know of a child whose parents gave her a name where their regional accent, including the child's, make it sound like she's called 'Bore' and it's caused some consternation among other parents. That sort of thing ought to be considered also, and the impact on the child who has to wear these 'names' and live with them.

I can't help as I say it both ways depending either on how fast or casually I'm talking or what I'm told by the name owner.

Mostly Dan-yell as I'm a bit common!

That was the whole point if the original post.

Ah so it’s a Scottish tradition. I always wondered why my elder Scottish relatives all seemed to go by names they weren’t officially given at birth. 😁

Good, wood, woof, book, look all have a shorter o sound in my accent something like "guhd"

Tool, school sound more like an "awl" sound

Roof, tooth have the long ooo sound

This is my DH name. Scottish now living in England. He thought the "Ch" would be the issue and he'd be Lack-lan. There is an alternative lock-lan pronunciation. Fair enough but I know people think we are pronouncing it "wrong" and will continue to deliberately use the "correct" pronunciation. It's infuriating and so rude!

She's English. She's convinced saying Edith as ee-dith is wrong and will vehemently correct other British Ediths on how they pronounce their names 😬 My DH is Spanish and says it eh-deet as well, so I'm guessing she must have got her pronunciations from a country like Spain/France/somewhere like that 🤷 Just wish she's let up on the 'You're saying it wrong' to Ediths who call themselves ee-dith 😅

She should have given the teacher a copy of Stevie Nicks’ record Sarah that should have shut her up 😁

The Helen / Ellen thing is more a pronunciation treating it like it has a silent H.

Never came across anyone who's completely different Agnes going by Jenny or Hugh going by Ian.

What I have came across is people having English "formal" names but being known by the Gaelic form. So a John known as Iain, Malcolm known as Calum, Roderick known as Rory.

I'm Scottish. I know a few Iains (or Ians) who are actually called John. Internet tell me 'Ian is the Scottish version of the English name John' 🤷

I've heard a few off pronunciations of Iain too, but I suppose if you've never heard if said it's an odd one to try and read out loud.

That’s how they sound for me - I’m from the SEE originally but live in Edinburgh now, have done for many years so my accent is a hybrid - the oo sounds different in mine too.

Are they going by their middle names rather than their first names?

My stepdad’s entire family do that. They give the family names as the first name and then use the middle name they actually wanted for their child. So officially they are Agnes Jennifer Murphy but everyone knows them as Jenny Murphy.

The funny thing about that, if the little girl was named after the singer, is that Sade is a shortened version of her middle name. Her first name is Helen which she goes by IRL. Sade was a stage name only!

So the Italian pronunciation (near enough).

Welcome to the room. It's in the Bible so of course it's a real name 😹 I was named after my great grandma but confusingly she was known all the time as Sally.

Yes, or in American films the name Craig seems to be pronounced more like Creck!

Her real name is Catherine so I guess her pronunciation was down to her own personal choice when she changed her name. I prefer the Kate Lyn pronunciation myself.

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

Standard Irish is taught in schools @Pallisers, (sometimes with some of the local dialect mixed in depending on the teacher). It's based on the dialects of Connacht, Munster and Ulster.
Spellings were simplified and a standard grammar chosen.
The Irish language dialects native to Leinster have died out.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Caighde%C3%A1n_Oifigi%C3%BAil