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.

Fina is the Italian version of Fiona.

How do you pronounce Fiona ?
A girl in my class slagged me over how I pronounced it.

Fee-o-na

That's the correct pronunciation.

ee-VONNE is correct

With a slight emphasis on the Vonne part

Interesting velvitkitty ! I have a lot of exposure to Arabic names personally and professionally and recognise what you are saying, but not as informed as you! One of the names you mentioned is in my family by marriage and I always thought it was pronounced differently than it is by my relatives. I think they anglicise it. Some of the differences will be in common (or less common, depending on heritage) speech sounds: R, H etc.

Believe the owner of the name. That is all.
My arsehole ex used to tell my friend that her grandson Aaron's name should be pronounced Airrun and that every single member of their family was wrong in pronouncing it Arrun. Idiot.

My grandfather always said, "You can spell your name S-H-I-T and say it's pronounced /JAHN-sunn/... and nobody can tell you you're wrong, because it's your name!

They certainly can and do!

He may have been an arsehole but I'm afraid he was right.

No, he wasn’t. There’s more than one way to pronounce this name.

Theresa is another name that is provinces differently

some pronounce Tar some Ter

many popular names are Hebrew is Yacob the wrong way to pronounce Jacob. It’s the same name

• pronounced differently

@mathanxiety and everyone,
So sorry for all the duplicate posts earlier. I'm not quite sure how that happened!😳

Depends where you come from , everyone i know in the West Country says Eve-On

Yes, I think the pronunciation of this name varies according to region.

This thread seems to be split into names that can be pronounced in a number of ways according to where you’re from (like Yvonne) and names where the owner has just decided are going to be pronounced in an arbitrary way (like Bucket/Bouquet and my Siobhan/SHOWbin). Name snobbery perhaps?

That would have been my default for pronouncing Oceananna (O she Anna). Would there be another way?

Many different pronounciations for the same name depending on region and country, but especially what the family intended when they gave the name is valid and don’t think you can say (or judge) how the recipient then says their given it is incorrect. I have also come across people who choose to mispronounce their given name though, for example Marian sometimes becoming Marianne.

given *name

Bellepeppa - another way is Oh she arr nah

I know two Tanias one pronounces it Tanya the other Tan eye ah, like Shania Twain.
I feel one is saying it incorrectly.

DS had three girls called Niamh in his class. All pronounced differently, Neeve, Neevah, and Neem.

This thread seems to be split into names that can be pronounced in a number of ways according to where you’re from (like Yvonne) and names where the owner has just decided are going to be pronounced in an arbitrary way (like Bucket/Bouquet and my Siobhan/SHOWbin). Name snobbery perhaps?

Region/country/dialect/accent/etc should be fine, unless it produces a name with negative connotations for the child (my example is a good one, in my opinion, of a child unwittingly called 'Bore')

Yes, the latter part deliberately pronouncing in some arbitrary'unique' way is what most people seem to have taken issue with. Possible snobbery, yes, as it could show ignorance, lack of education, or lack of taste in not using standardised correct pronunciation conventional, established names.

This is how I pronounce it - didn't know that it wasn't the correct pronunciation until I moved to England. Everyone I know from Belfast pronounces it the same way I do.

Oceanna would be pronounced like that but Oceananna? Ocean Anna? An extra ‘an?’

I have to say, the number of people who have come on this thread saying with absolute conviction that they know the person in the Gooey story has made me realise quite how little you can trust anything that anyone says on here.