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.

I know two Cheryl's. One pronounced as sheryl the other Cheryl. Personally being northern I've only ever known it said with a sh sound even though it's spelled with a ch.

Tbf, that is somewhat close to the French pronunciation of Ghislaine, which is a French name after all.

There’s two separate spellings- Naiomi and Naomi. Naomi should be neigh-oh-me and Naiomi nye-oh-me. SIL is Naomi and she gets very angry if people mispronounce her name.

My Favourite was a lady in our local shopping centre calling her toddler back over to her Yvonne pronounced as Why-Vonnie

In English maybe, but apparently not in French. Or at least not in friends mums dialect.

this thread is insulting, it totally misses that there are differing pronunciations of names in different dialects and cultures. One is not more correct than the other!

NippyWoowoo
what’s so different about the location of England that causes Ralph to be a Rafe? Literally never came across another Ralph who pronounced it that way.

It’s posh people, not location.*

Your medieval peasants would have pronounced it that way. Pretty standard. Where does location come in? I think Ralph pronunciation is thought to have started in Scotland and US (a long time ago) if that's what you mean?

I went to school with a Jacque. Totally British family, no French links and possibly one of the most British surnames ever. He didn’t even pronounce it correctly and was just Jack, he changed the spelling to Jac in secondary school.

My DC know a Chiara who pronounces her name as kee-ar-a. It's Italian

In French it would be pronounced Mad-ell-en, with a very slight emphasis on the final syllable.

My mum's friend is Yvonne but calls herself EEV-on.

Growing up, I hated my name. People would insist it was pronounced Michelle-a.

It really isn’t. Yes my mother spelt my name wrong. But it isn’t pronounced like that.

this thread is insulting, it totally misses that there are differing pronunciations of names in different dialects and cultures. One is not more correct than the other!

Yes, with some names. But with other names there is only one correct pronunciation.

My brother was in a class with 5 Sarahs and 2 Saras. Just to make it extra fun one of the Sarah’s pronounced her name as I would pronounce Sara and one of the Sara’s pronounced her name as Sarah.

Db completely accepted this and didn’t seem to find it at all confusing. My mum at party invite time on the other hand….

Came on here to say the exact same!

I don't understand. Those are both accepted spellings of the name and they are pronounced pretty much the same. People don't over-stress the "t" in Alistair and it tends to come out more like a soft "d"

That's the correct pronunciation. It's gaelic.

Niall is Irish for Neil, so same name really, common here for older people to be christened Neil but called Niall

Sorry forgot to quote in that last post , this is the correct pronunciation

I wouldn't think it's "wrong" since it's "their name". If Kirstin's parents always pronounced it Keersteen or Mr. Maguire's whole family say "MacGeery", it's correct for them. When I was little I had an American friend whose Irish-language-origin surname was pronounced completely differently from any of the ways that name is pronounced in Ireland, but her whole family pronounced it that way as far back as anyone could remember.

What I would find odd is if someone was justifying the pronunciation in a way that was obviously incorrect - for example pronouncing Genevieve Jeannie-Bob, and saying that's the traditional French pronunciation. Also pronouncing the family name differently from the rest of the family ("it's BOUQUET!") tends to raise eyebrows.

I once encountered a Mrs Cow who corrected me to c-o 😁 (like co-operatre). I was thinking...yeah..sure..

But it is! Ralph Fiennes is a rather famous example no?

I know an actor called Ralph who insists his name is pronounced Rafe

Oh yes

It can also be pronounced Shona, Seona or Shaw-nay

@ErmineAndPearls Alasdair and Alistair are both correct spellings and there are a number of other variations too - like Alastair and Alaster

I know a Niall who pronounces it Neil.

that would be correct in Ireland wouldn't it.