Following on from the name-spelling thread...

[ScatterChasse]

If you speak more than one language, or have friends from a different country, do you mind if in their native language they switch it to their form, IYSWIM?

I quite like it, for example when I'm speaking Spanish and my name is switched from it's English version to the Spanish. I feel like it's a compliment that I'm keeping up with the conversation well enough to be considered almost as if I were Spanish.

Do you like it, or do you wish they'd say your name how you'd say it?

I like it. Although I find it weird when my Swiss MIL anglicises all her nephews' and nieces' names. Perhaps I just like foreign names?

At school my French teacher was French, and I was called the French version of my name whether she was speaking to me in French or English. And my Spanish teacher did it too, but only when speaking to me in Spanish , so some days I had to reply to three different names!

Does she anglicise the actual spelling, or just the name HS? Thinking about it though, I would always refer to my dutch cousins by the dutch version of their name, which is different to what I like!

The rest of the class got French and German versions of their names. I was so disappointed to be told by both teachers that my name was so unusual that they couldn't possibly change it to something else.

Poor you onceamai :(

I never had a German version if it makes you feel happier...

I met a Spanish Patricia recently. Apparently that's basically the same in every language.

Funny enough, I change DD2's name when speaking Spanish as the English pronunciation sounds so peculiar in the middle of a Spanish sentence.

But I used to think it really strange when living in Spain and the Spanish papers called our royal family "Isabella" and "Carlos". If we said King John-Charles instead of Juan Carlos it would sound very odd and quite presumtuous.

presumptuous

My three DC all have hebrew names and the pronounciation is very slightly different in hebrew. When we are in israel they always use the hebrew pronounciation - I think thats nice. But the difference is very slight.

My name is a biblical name and the original hebrew sounds very different (starts with different sound and very different etc) I would think it odd if someone used it.

Yes, it becomes almost as if you're translating the name.

I'm sitting here trying out different sentences with different forms of my name, and especially in Spanish, once you've changed it, it's much easier to keep the flow of the sentence. I suppose that's why it's done.

It's just that Isabella and Elizabeth sound so different - far from a mere matter of pronunciation or accent.

It's a completely different name here, which makes it even odder! Isabelle would be Isabella too, wouldn't it? Whereas William and Guillem seem just pronunciation.

Doesn't Juana translate to Jane, Joan and Joanna?

My name goes from a -y ending to an -ia ending, so not a huge change.

Over here (Brazil) foreign names don't get translated but they do gain a Portuguese pronunciation. So, for example, my bil Charlie gets called "Sharli"... Though if you take the trouble to explain correct pronunciation, Brazilians love to make the effort.

When I was engaged to a Spanish speaker I planned to name our children names such as David, that would be spelt the same in both English and Spanish but would be easy for both families to say. It didn't happen as we split up.

My ex-husband was Chilean - my name is Isobel, and MIL's was Isabel. The way she and FIL said my name (like hers) was so much nicer and more musical than the way anyone else says it.

My name is sadly untranslatable without changing it to another accepted-in-England-as-a-completely-different-name variation.

I'm having nightmares trying to find names for the DC that work in all the languages I want without huge changes in pronunciation.

I got married in Spain and the priest used the Spanish version of my name throughout. I loved it!

I think it's just the pronunciation Scatter but then they're spelt similarly if not always the same (Iris, Simon etc). Wasn't till I saw Rachel written down that I realised how it was spelt! My DH is Andy here and Andre there though.

Mine is one of those non-translatable ones, so people stick to the original in Spanish or Catalan whichever language. We did choose a name for our DS that worked in several languages, but had to compromise - the abbreviation is the same in the languages we were testing, the full name, alas, is not.