To let people mispronounce my name?

[zagot]

I grew up in a country that isn't England. My name in my native language is very similar to an English name. I also grew up speaking English, and when people spoke English they sometimes pronounced my name the way people do since I moved to England.

In my native language, my name is Ann-ee-ya, but in English everyone calls me Anna. When I first came here I would politely correct it, but since then I've given up and just go by Anna. It's spelt Anja

My family back in my native country think I am trying to Anglicise myself. Does anyone else let people call them the 'wrong' name, and it not bother them? AIBU to let people?

Same, and it happens on a daily basis. Life's too short. Misspellings (also frequent, and it's an entirely phonetic name, so God knows why) are a different matter, cause issues.

Yeah I am not bothered

Are Amy and Amie pronounced differently? Is Amie pronounced like the French way (Ah-mee)?

@ISpyCobraKai How is your dd's name pronounced?

Anja is gorgeous. It sounds as if English people should be able to pronounce it correctly if you tell them what it should be (for you). Some names are very difficult for us to pronounce properly - I'm thinking of DIL whose Scandinavian name sounds totally different in her native language, so she does what you've done and calls herself an Anna-type name that comes more easily to English speakers.

It's not rude or disrespectful it's just some people find it really hard. I have a name that is constantly mispronounced if I got upset every time I would be upset every day! I just have come to the realisation that for some people reading names is tricky. And life is too short to get hung up on pettiness.

It's mad. Some people are very insistant that they be called by the correct name, or correct pronunciation of their name, and others will respond to any vague resemblance of their name. I'm in the latter camp myself. I get called by a few variations of my name. Doesn't bother me. Although, like PP glitterorange, I do feel warm towards people who get it right. Even though I don't hold anything against people who don't.

I knew someone called Lise-Anne. Some people called her Lisa instead. She didn't mind.

I know someone called Ann who hates being called Annie.

I've met more than one Niall who introduced themselves as 'Niall, not Neil, Neil is a completely different name and my name is Niall"

A world in which people solve problems sensibly instead of pointlessly moaning?

If only....

I can assure you, the mispronunciations of my name are far more numerous and comical than those experienced by the OP.

People pronounce my name correctly after I've corrected them, but I always have to correct them for this to occur. But I've had a lifetime of it and it doesn't bother me, and it's certainly not anyone's else's fault or deficiency.

I have a long name. Two perfectly normal names put together, no hyphen. It's Italian. No-one ever, ever, can say or spell it. It gets mispronounced, or truncated, or hyphenated. Everyone always remarks how lovely it is though, so I can live with the oddities it creates 😊

I met a Clara who had this exact thing. I met her through a uni club and they were all at pains for us to say her name right - "claire-a" -then a few years later I met her again with a different group and they all called her she "clar-ra". It actually felt quite uncomfortable.

It's your name OP, it's up to you. It's just a shame you are in this position. I'm surprised you get Anna though, I would expect Ann-yah.

So it’s petty to want to be called by your given name? That’s a new low.
I am obviously not talking about someone encountering your name for the first time etc. I’m talking about people who have been corrected and who continue to ignore/not bother/not care and not remember. It’s about making a small effort. It IS disrespectful. Everyone deserves to be called by their fing name!!!

I've lived in two other countries where the natural pronunciation of my name is very different from the way I pronounce it. I just answered to the word intended to be my name. No big deal.

As it's a moderately unusual English name, people here frequently assume it's something else that sounds similar. I answer to that as well.

In your case, I agree a change to Anya might (almost) solve the difficulty. But I do laugh at people who are all special about their name pronunciation - and pronouns, for that matter. If they know somebody's trying to address them, what's the problem?

How are Amy and Amie pronounced differently?

@Simianwalk but it is rude!
If you're standing in front of a woman, look at their name being Samantha and then say "hi Samuel"

If I did that to a customer they would be raging

No one can pronounce my name, but its cos my parents spelt it wrong.

So think something like - Sam, but spelt Sem. Obviously not my actual name.

So I will introduce myself as Sam but because the name is foreign to them they dont hear it properly and want to know how its spelt. No matter how many times I tell them it will just mean they end up pronouncing it wrong.

Or people will pronounce my name correctly but as soon as they've seen it written down anywhere e.g. email- from that day on I will be known as Sem- no matter how many times I correct them.

I’m trying to work out how Amy and Amie are different, is it AY-mee to Ah-MEE?
Sarah and Sera I’m really struggling to see how they’d be different.

My son's name is Welsh and people always spell it wrong despite it being one of the most common Welsh names. Mind you he has a speech impediment which means he can't pronounce one of the letters in it and I'm sure that floors him

I think it’s your name and you’re entitled to correct people if you want, or to not bother if you want.
My children have Welsh names and some of their non-Welsh friends at uni etc call them by nicknames or mispronounce them. They aren’t bothered so that’s all that matters.
I have a welsh name and I do correct people when they mispronounce it, because my name isn’t hard to say and the name they call me is a different name entirely which annoys me. It’s personal choice.

After 50 odd years of people pronouncing my name wrong i give up, even my brother does it.

Amy vs Amie is obvious pronounciation difference in my head?
Amy as in Amy Winehouse (everyone heard that) short end Y like in "grainy"
Aimee long and soft end like "Me (myself and I)"

Did I get that right?

I have this with my name, it doesn't bother me. I get a lot of different variations and spellings. I like my name and I like all the variations too.

I'm a Paula and I'm regularly called Paola (Pow-la) by foreign friends, it doesn't bother me, but one friend actually said Paola is easier to say than Paula, not sure about that 🤣

My SIL is German. She has a German name that is spelt the same as very common British name.

When BIL introduced us to her he introduced her as “British name” so we all called her that. At some point it occurred to me that the name is pronounced differently in Germany. I asked BIL and he said that when they first got together he mentioned the British way if pronouncing the name and she decided she liked it better and told him to call him that. So he does. So we all do.

All fine except at things like weddings, christenings etc when all her family hear us effectively butchering her name. I so want a “I know the name is XXX but XXX told us to call her XXY” - we are not just typical British people who can’t cope with a non anglicised name” t shirt to wear!

I have an unusual name. That's commonly mispronounced and mis-spelled. I usually get a completely different name over the phone! It's happened all my life and frankly there are more important things to be worrying about. I only correct people if it's important otherwise I just answer to whatever they've call me! 😂

I also don't think that I should be insisting that others go out of their way to spell and pronounce my name correctly. It's slightly tricky and people have their own stuff going on and their own priorities. I don't think we can be demanding that they make getting my name right at the top of their list! If they make an effort, great. If they don't, well maybe I am not the most important thing in their life at that moment!😀

You're lucky that the J in your name just gets ignored. I too have a J in my name that would be read as Y in my native language and I wish it were ignored as that would actually be very close to how my name is properly pronounced. Instead I get variations with the English J or H is actually awkward to say. It's funny as it's actually a rather international name and if people simply ignored the J they'd recognise it quite easily.

I understand why people make this mistake though and don't think anything bad of it, unless they insist on doing it after being corrected more than once. I don't bother correcting people I have one-off encounters with and most of the time hardly notice it anymore, but I do wish more people would bother to ask about the correct pronounciation of names they are not sure about. I always do.

DH insisted we gave our kids names from my culture. While I appreciate this, recently I've noticed they are appropriating the English pronounciation of their names despite my best efforts. They're not massively different (we made sure to avoid any obviously 'difficult' names) but still noticeable to me and not exactly what they were supposed to be. But as our kids are a product of both cultures I've accepted ultimately the way they say their names may not exactly be what they 'should' be.