To keep correcting people about my name?

[marathonrunn]

My name is Amelia as in Ah-me-lee-a.

On a daily basis people pronounce is Ah-meal-ya.

It does my head in. This is people I've known for many years doing it too. It's not my name. When I correct certain friends they roll their eyes and can't understand why it matters. It matters because it's not my name. It is a constant occurrence in the workplace and I'm constantly correcting people.

Should I give up or continue correcting?

Tbf I used to annoyed when ppl changed my name, now I just answer to it 🤣

I say Am - ee - lee - ah. I have a relative with that name but she’s called lots

Spot on. It’s a message from them that they don’t care enough to even say your name correctly.
Sorry you’re getting so much unpleasantness on this thread @marathonrunn . Whether or not some PPs care about people mispronouncing their name isn’t relevant to you wanting your name spoken correctly.

.. of different nicknames so I’ve no idea if this is the correct or incorrect way of saying it.

@AmyDudley
That's not always the answer; I get Janie, Janine, Jannie 🤣🤣even in emails where my name is clearly spelt 🤣🤣

I think the problem is I can’t tell just by the writing how different each pronunciation is.

My name can be pronounced with either a long or short a. I prefer it short, but 99% of people don't hear it and use a long a. I gave up in primary school!

You need to decide how much it is worth investing in this . it's a really personal thing. I think a lot of it comes from the prevalence of US pronunciation (eg Alicia being pronounced as Al-eee-sha rather than Al -ee -si -a)

I have a Scandi friend called Hilde (pronounced Hild-eh) who has given up correcting people who call her Hilda

I’m on your side OP! My daughter has a name with a subtle two-vowel sound, but it’s always pronounced as a diphthong. It’s very frustrating but not worth correcting imo. I just make sure I clearly enunciate and hope people notice the difference (they don’t!)

@malmi + @StrychnineInTheSandwiches

I give up 😂

I'm obvs shit at this!

How the hell do you type the sound r like i would say it? Londoner.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 😜

Change your name to Sam. There's only one way of pronouncing that!

Is never wish to be rude but id struggle with that name Great deal.

There’s barely any difference. If you want to keep your friends I’d stop making such a-meal-ya of it.

I think it's nice to be forgiving

It seems barely any different, is it honestly a problem? 🤣

You say that, but I have a friend called Sam and she pronounces it with a P!

I really do try hard to remember but occasionally I slip up and pronounce it Sam instead of Pam.

I'm thinking of how people typically pronounce "Amelia" and I doubt anyone pronounces the MEAL wholesale as in "a yummy meal", so "Ah-meal-ya" would probably be a very subtle difference from "Ah-me-lee-a".

I think it's to do with phoneme elision, which is a fairly common and natural speech pattern especially when people are speaking faster, and/or maybe them adding an involuntary schwa somewhere in the middle.

If it's just a small nuance due to universal speech patterns (not just in English), I think YABU.

Speaking as someone with a foreign name which doesn't exist in English or any Western language. You should hear how my name gets mangled by Westerners. I don't like that and don't think that's acceptable.

However, I'm alright with "close enough" variations, because people can't override how their mouths/accents naturally work. I don't want people feeling like they have to rehearse to death + walk on eggshells around me.

Moreover, Amelia is a very common name and it's hard for people to over-ride instinct. Despite not being Western, one part of my name is also a common name in a European language (sorry if this is confusing to read). I accept that it's instinctive for people of that nationality to read my name a certain way.

(Sorry, continuing) It's instinctive for people of that nationality to read my name a certain way, because they probably have way more friends and family with the other pronunciation for the exact same spelling. If you're the only one with that name (e.g. ethnically different name), then that's another story altogether.

From what I can gather the difference is so subtle that you’d need a microscope to see (hear) it. I can understand a Sara not wanting to be a Sarah or a Marnie not wanting people to say Mamie but I honestly can’t see what noticeable difference there is here. It’s a shame we can’t have an audible pronunciation comparison of the two to clarify things more.

It’s your name, and you’re absolutely allowed to pull someone up about it if they pronounce it incorrectly. Politely at first, but after they’ve had a couple of chances, all bets are off.

Having said that, if you did it to me and I knew you were as precious about it as you’ve stated, I absolutely would continue to use your name incorrectly just to wind you up. And the more wound up you get, the more I’d enjoy the effect. I have little time for people being precious about what I see as inconsequential, see.

“However, I'm alright with "close enough" variations, because people can't override how their mouths/accents naturally work. I don't want people feeling like they have to rehearse to death + walk on eggshells around me.”

That’s the thing, people usually get my name wrong, they try, it just doesn’t process and I can either make a big deal out if it over and over again - get annoyed and upset them, or I can just accept that they tried.

Very few people deliberately mispronounce someone’s name, especially when you’re talking about the different ways they say names like Amelia, they’re not being lazy or rude on purpose... that’s how they make that sound.

It’d be like getting annoyed about English accents not being able to say loch or Lachlan properly or some accents missing r out of words, they’re not doing it deliberately.

People constantly call my daughter who is Macy, Maisie. Now that's annoying

People pronounce my name wrongly every day and it drives me bat shit. They pronounce it how English people do on the TV. But it's an Irish name and I live in Scotland.

I am actually sick to death correcting it. I can totally relate.

Yanbu. Can't believe some of the posts you are getting.
If someone tells me how they like their name pronounced that's how I say it. What kind of unreasonable person thinks they are so superior as to ignore a request like that. Do your friends have very high opinions of themselves perhaps?

You need to clarify that the stress is on different syllables. Your preferred pronunciation sounds more Italian perhaps? I have one of these possible-to-say-in-different-way names, but I can't say it's ever bothered me.