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've seen:

Linsey
Linzi
Lynsie

I don't like any of them, they look trivial.

@MsFrenchie you can't take a name like Siobhan and decide you'll pronounce it Seeban. Or Soresha for Sorcha.

Yes, its your name. But you just can't.

And making up spellings for names isn't great either.

Sara Cox imo confuses the Sarah/Sara thing. She pronounces hers as Sairer, whereas every other Sara I have met rhymes with Lara/Zara.

Thanks, I always thought Sara was Sarah 🤔

Charming display of good old English exceptionalism.

'We can pronounce your names as we want, so shut up'.

Yes, I heard that Gooey joke some years ago!

My cousin is a Ralph (an actor also) He was christened and named Rafe, but he uses the more common Ralf pronunciation these days. It doesn't make Rafe wrong though.

NAY-oh-mee is a new one on me too, I'm afraid.

Maybe it's a regional thing.

And that's not small minded. It's an appropriate response to cultural appropriation.

Absolutely agree!

I knew a Melanie who insisted on it being pronounced Mel-ay-nee instead of Melann-ee obviously I said it how she wanted it said but I had to think about it every time in case I said it the usual way.

Air-ron is a perfectly normal and acceptable pronunciation of Aaron.

Many years ago I worked with someone called Tamara. She insisted it was pronounced Tam-A-Rah.

Hopefully the hyphens help with the pronunciation! It always used to grate but luckily I was just a Saturday girl so didn’t see her a lot.

🤷🏽‍♀️

Emilia is not pronounced the same as Amelia or Emelia. I find it strange when 'i' is made to sound like 'e'.
Even Eleanor, so common, but often said as Elena.
I have a friend called Mhairi, pronounced Vari but have heard some women with the same name called themselves Mairi. It is so interesting.

I'm on the receiving end of this one with my surname (married name). If I tell someone my name but they see it written down, they automatically change it to a different pronunciation which has a different spelling. Same thing happens when I spell it out, they write different letters to the one I am standing there telling them. Go figure.

As I'm long divorced I want to change my surname (when I can be arsed with the multiple admin) but not back to my maiden name (NC with my family). So if someone can come up with a foolproof surname that can't be misspelt or re-pronounced, I'd be very grateful!

I work with a Caitlin who says it as it sounds. She's from Yorkshire.

Isn't that how it's pronounced?
What's the alternative?

@BalloonsAndWhistles
Tam-A-Rah is a correct pronunciation of Tamara.

Unless that's a long A (as in abcdefg...).

I'm a Sarah and I have a friend who is Sara. We both pronounce our names exactly the same. Like Sara Cox!

I wonder if you know my Mom

Sara and Sarah are pronounced the same (not like Zara) in every country I've ever lived in.

I lived abroad as a child, NKOTB were massive at the time. Everyone in school (English ex pats) pronounced Joe McIntyre's name as 'MC-IN-TREE'. I am Scottish. My parents soon put me right.

English classmate whose surname was Dougherty. Insisted the correct pronunciation was DOE-ERTY.

Cousin's friend called Lois. Pronounces it as LEWIS.

My daughter goes to school with a Philipe, pronounced Phillip, again, no foreign connection, presumably the parents just wanted a fancy spelling lol.

My mum always tells about a kid she taught called Aaron which the parents pronounced Aran, "that's a type of jumper not a name'" according to my mum.