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.

During my Days working in the local Hospital outpatients department, l often came across a fair few Surnames that the Patient would pronounce entirely differently to the popular way, and the way they were spelled.
They were many, but a couple for example were Higginbottom, pronounced Higginbotham, with an emphasis on the ‘both’ in pronunciation!

Smith pronounced Smyth, with an emphasis on the the I sound , and some hilarious ones, including a Mr Shytie! Sometimes we would just take pot luck, others we would ask who we thought may have been the person we were looking for what their name was, and try and match it from There!

Yep Natsku got it right. Tuula with a long U ("Toola") and "Leesa" for Liisa. Maybe this Tuula was speaking English when she referred to herself? I have a standard, short, Finnish name but when I speak English I have noticed I pronounce the vowels ever so slightly differently because it flows better. A bit like if I speak English and I'm talking about, say, Helsinki, I always pronounce it the English way (Hel-SIN-ki), as opposed to the Finnish "Helsinki". It feels a bit weird but flows better, if that makes sense.

In fact there are many different accents in Irish, as in any language.

It feel weird to switch between the different ways of pronouncing things so I often do the same, like if I'm talking Finnish but need to use a word in English I find myself saying it in a kind of rally English type way (then I notice what I'm doing and laugh at myself)

Oh gosh I’m one of these parents! I’ve a Maya (I only knew the Maya Angelou spelling) and are correcting May-ah frequently which confused me till I met a family with a girl with it pronounced liked that.

also have an Enid pronounced En-id (as in enter) the welsh way rather than the English. It’s a middle name so not an issue as only used by family.

Explained way back! 😅

Public notice;

Gooey didn't happen
Whyvonnay didn't happen
De'Ath is a real name

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

It is De'Ath=dee-ath.. It's a very old surname and has been pronounced that way for a very long time. Centuries ago maybe it was Death, but certainly no-one of that name these days will ever have had an ancestor over the last couple of centuries who's pronounced it anything other than dee-ath. So it's ridiculous to sneer at them.

Well, there aren't as many accents in Irish as there once were, unfortunately. Irish as a first language survives in only a few small areas of Ireland.

I'm fully aware my name is pronounced incorrectly. But, it's what my parents wanted so what can I do?

My husband pronounces our surname incorrectly. I've recently started saying it how I think it should be pronounced and he hates it.

So, that's both names. Both.

There are two Yvonnes in my family. One i-vonne, and one EE-vonne. Both are right because both are the names their parents gave them. It's ridiculous to say otherwise.

I consider myself to be a bit pedantic about words and language, but the tone of many of the posts in this thread is really sneery and unpleasant (and often many of posters are completely wrong anyway).

I had a customer in the South East who pronounced there name Car but it is actually a Scottish/Northumberland ( from where I hail) name Ker pronounced K-ee-r . I did point it out to them that the local Duke was a Ker and he pronounced it K-ee-r!

Siobhán can be pronounced Shevaun Shevonne, depending on Gaelic dialect Can also be pronounced as Shoon in certain areas in Ireland depending on dialect. The ‘bh’ can make the ‘v’ sound in English. My favourite one is Aisling pronounced Ashling, but Canadian mother corrected my pronunciation with Aysling!

I worked with a man whose surname was Grocock.

He said it was pronounced Gro-co.

He eventually started writing Gro'co.

I don't understand why someone would go his whole life with a surname which makes people laugh.

My DS went to school with a boy called Arry. I kept correcting his pronunciation as I thought he was dropping the 'H' until I realised he was saying it correctly.

Knew a woman who referred to her DD as Ellen. Transpired that her name was Helen.

No one pronounces their own name incorrectly … the correct pronunciation is how they choose to pronounce it

I also knew a See-anne sp Sian. I always assumed her parents had seen it written and thought that was how it’s pronounced

That's not unusual. It was the norm in Victorian times. Actors Rafe Spall and Rafe Fiennes spell it Ralph.

Oh yeah, I definitely do the rally English too when I'm talking to my parents and need to use an English word. 😂Or if I'm in a Finnish bar/restaurant and order something that has an English name, I just have to say it phonetically because otherwise people would think I'm a bit of a twat.

My uncle was a headteacher. He interviewed a couple who wanted to enrol their son Gooey. They spelt it Guy. Obviously never heard it pronounced.

I taught a lad with that name and everyone called him Paddy.

Interesting the many, many permutations of this story, even on this thread alone.

I think this must be getting on for 15/20 people who have told this story about someone they know... I think he was having you on!

I worked with a woman whose name was spelled Renée (think Allo Allo) who pronounced it Reenie.