to want in laws to correctly pronounce my very ordinary name?

[DrSeuss]

I have a very ordinary, English-of-Greek-origin name. Spelled in the traditional way, couldn't e simpler, really.
For over twenty years, ILs have mispronounced it. For twenty years, I and my husband have periodically corrected them. Not a huge thing, granted but it grates every time they say it wrongly.

AIBU to slightly mispronounce their names just a little, e.g. Sarah becomes Sorah, Jim becomes Jom? Childish, I know, but it is pretty much the only thing I have asked of them in twenty years! Other family members ask for and receive special food despite having no real grounds for this or meals served at a particular time despite having no children. I'd just like them to say my name without me mentally wincing!

you need to change your name...

'Bob '

is very difficult to pronounce incorrectly...
...just saying

NotYoda - it is a Ford Kay-Ay, never heard anyone call it any different .
My FIL says crips instead of crisps and birningham instead of Birmingham.
And I never say something-I always say summat

I think YABU and being hard work/high maintenance.

They aren't pronouncing it WRONG. They pronounce it differently to you.

It would be different if you were getting called another name entirely so Lie-za instead of Lee-sa 2 different names and that's ever so important in school but it's literally the same name just with their particular twang.

I have 2 friends from a European country who can't say my name and call me a slight variant that they CAN say, and I don't care because they love me and I love them.

Josh

Nooooo! You've missed the "joke", and everyone you know has, too!. Maybe

The comments I made about food were intended to illustrate that while other family members are quite difficult guests, I ask for nothing particular and go along with whatever people want to eat, do, visit, watch, drink etc. I only ask for one thing which I never get!

I think you are being unreasonably fussy.

Ford Kay-Ay???

Hell-in? Who says hell-in? I'm from the south of england too and that makes no sense to me. Then again, I don't say hell-en either.

I pronounce the second syllable in Helen the same way I pronounce the last syllable in heaven and demon and devon and damian and gammon. Am I saying it wrong?

I think the problem is that it is much harder to say a common name differently for one person than it would be to get a difficult name (like the Gujarati one mentioned) right.

Getting a difficult name right is just a question of imitating a set of sounds, but to say a name you are used to differently, your brain has to have a fist-fight with itself every time in order to override the default pronunciation whose supremacy in the neural network has been established by decades of repetition.

(I am 52 and have never heard (or at least noticed) Helen being pronounced your way.)

Im amazed so many say hellin.
Where I am (north of England) we all say Helen.

Only once have I heard hellin (which sounds terribly prim to my northern lugs)

As a fellow Helen I hate to say it but the way you pronounce it is wrong to me Hell - In (high heels)

I guessed it would be Helen. Posh friends all say Hellin. It is an accent thing. If you are Northern I am sure you don't say their names in exactly the same way that they do.

My NI friend calls my BiL "Jum" -- Jim - And I can never pronounce Diarmuid correctly (Deer - Mid)

Scots family pronounce Mary something like Meer- ry

It's life.
YABU

In that case, OP, in the standard English pronunciation of Helen, the second 'e is an unstressed vowel or shwa. It is actually quite difficult and effortful to pronounce it as an 'e' as I egg without putting a stress on the vowel. So I now think YABU to notice a tiny difference in an unstressed vowel.

It's not "an accent thing"
It might have been "an accent thing" the first, second and third time they were corrected. It's not an accent thing any more!

YANBU!

At least you aren't the 'mammy' I'm mixed race. Have explained to white in laws it has derogatory connotations. But mammy I stay
I've never heard of this? Mammy is standard where I'm from, it's even in the reception class reading books. What is the derogatory meaning?

Flibbidy, I live well to the North, thank God. So pleased that there are people out there with the same problem!

It's the same as seven to my ear. Or heaven. Not Damian though

Are you saying seven should rhyme with hen too?

My head's near explosion point right now.

DrZeuss I knew as soon as i read your op what your name was!! Hellin is deeply deeply irritating. But lots of people do pronounce it like that for some unknown reason knobs

Josh

It's also pronounced "Car" by Ford, on adverts

Can't imagine how it would come out as Hel-in, it's spelt Hel-En.

In a previous job, spoke to 100s of customers a day from across the country, so can really understand how accents differ. However, it is really poor form not to pronounce someone's name the way they wish it to be pronounced. It cannot be that hard.

2dogs you do realise that about 5 million west midlanders use "mom" don't you?

Never heard anyone say ford kay-ay.
Surely it would be a capital a if that was how you were supposed to say it?

(and I say Hel-in, Hel-en really "sticks" and I struggle to get it out, but I'm sure it would start to come more naturally if someone (repeatedly) asked me to say it that way, because I would try until it was easy!

"I am sorry to say that I think I pronounce Helen as 'Hellun' which is even worse than your inlaws. "

Surely that's how OP pronounces it too? How else is there (apart from the 'detested' Helin)?

'Hellun' is definitely the standard way to pronounce it in English (similar sound to 'seven'). I have NEVER heard it pronounced any other way.