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!

And I've never heard anyone call it a Ka (pronounced 'car') so there we go...something new everyday n all that

It's Ka ...
.
I'm going to visit Paree ..

And as Kay Ay by Ford Croydon when providing one as a courtesy car

Assuming that Ford Croydon is a local dealership, I'd say that the advertisement which was commissioned by the parent company is the "official" pronunciation.

YABVU
Is that all that you have to worry about.
I thought they gave you a different name entirely.
They just don't pronounce it the way you want.
A bit petulant I think.

Sorry for Hijack OP.

It's important

Sorry OP, I think you're being over sensitive. They just have a slightly different accent to you, that's all. It isn't in my opinion a mispronunciation like for example being called Ghislaine and pronouncing it Shislane and them saying Gilane.

steff

But that's Croydon

Mammy is Irish I think - I have family who use it. I get that it has other connotations though, (US history?)
what other connotations though?

As a fellow northerner I know it as hel- en. Hel- in sounds daft!
This would rile me. I would have gone mental at them by now!!!

You remind me of a German girl I met once living in the UK who was called Ann and got quite irritated when people called her 'Ann' in the usual English pronunciation instead of her German pronunciation which was closer to 'Enn'. There was a hair's breadth of phonological difference in it but she insisted on correcting people she was introduced to. Most people she corrected couldn't even hear the difference anyway! Much ado about nothing to my ears as someone with an Irish name that is regularly mangled by everyone I meet!

You can correct as much as you like but in your case you're dealing with such a small, accent-based difference it's likely your ILs will never say it the way you want to, I'm afraid.

Actually, to me, Ka looks more like you would pronounce it like you would the ca in 'cat' for example. 'Car' just doesn't seem right (not saying it isn't btw).

So is what you are saying OP is that the correct pronunciation for your name has the second vowel sound pronounced in exactly the same way as the first? I think they're very slightly different the way I say it.

Feel for DH and I - his parents cannot pronounce our 4 year old DS's 'Th'-beginning name at all. He isn't a Theo, but think Theo pronounced TEE-oh every single time. And they've introduced him to their entire circle (not UK) as TEE-oh, so he gets cards from their friends to addressed to 'Teo Surname', and in one case a very nice personalised door nameplate to the wrongly-spelled name. DH has brought it up numerous times, but they seemingly can't hear the difference or can't remember if they do. Groan.

I am totally with CecilyP.

The second syllable of Helen is a schwa sound. Like heaven or seven. It's an unstressed syllable, so there is no 'E' or 'I' sound.

I have never ever heard anybody pronounce the second 'E' in Helen the same as the first 'E'.

Pronouncing Helen as Helin is quite common but it's like fingernails down a blackboard to me. I have no idea why people do it. Ive known loads of Helens over the years and not one of them has chosen to pronounce it like Heln but it seems that an annoying minority of people insist on calling them Helin.

My sister's called Helen. I had to think how i pronounced it and it's hell-in.

We're Londoners if it helps though Irish background. I think it's an accent thing.

Yabu. I have a similar name and I don't get irked by people pronouncing it differently.

It sounds like accent.

owl ive just tried claire with the e and i sound like my cousins in Aberdeen! Were i live it is often pronounced Clur.

It used to be Ford KA but they changed it to Ka, because people were pronouncing it wrong

I've a lot riding on this. I've been correctly my mum for about 10 years

As a fellow Helen I don't think I've had anybody pronounce my name incorrectly! I too am from the north of England and I pronounce it the same as you. Hell-in sounds plain weird to me but your ILs are probably not meaning to offend, it's just their southern accent.

It's my DD's middle name - hel-un... it has never occurred to me to pronounce it any other way in English (foreign relatives say hel-eyn).

YANBU. It's very bad manners to persistently mispronounce someone's name, particularly having been told about it, and even more particularly when it's in close family member.

I used to get mad when a ballet teacher persistently called a dd by the boy's version of her not at all unusual name. It was only once a week, but I wanted to slap the wretched woman - she's a GIRL, FGS! She had long hair and was wearing a pink leotard and pink satin ballet shoes!

Had to put it down to ignorance and stupidity.

Sandy during slavery, some older black females were called "mammy". I think the slave owners and their children called the female slave assigned as their nanny "mammy". I may be wrong as this is only from films.

On the Robert thing, in Wales some people would pronounce it Robat, and that's how everyone else would pronounce the name too. But if Robat met a Robert who pronounced their name Robert they wouldn't call them Robat.
Or the name Dylan, can be pronounced Dull-ann or Dill-yn and I'd pronounce it however the person in question did.
Do people honestly not do this?

Can't you just say 'It's Kelly actually' (or whatever it is) every time they say your name wrong? Repeat until it becomes painful.

I'm from the south east and know a few ladies called Helen. I can't recall anyone calling them Hel-in, it's always Hel-en.