Someone mispronouncing sons name

[Neodymium]

Would you consider this rude? To be fair I have not corrected this person, who we speak to regularly, as he is representing my son in a professional way. But despite hearing how my husband and I pronounce his name, he pronounces it in a different way. It didn’t used to bother me but it’s starting to get to me. Like he thinks he knows better than us and we are too ignorant to know how to say it.

for reference it’s a name starting with J that can be pronounced is a Spanish way with a ‘ya’ sound (not what we do) or with a J sound which is what we do as he is named for the English origin. In fact it is more common with the J sound but it is an uncommon name and so I think that he just thinks we are wrong and he’s trying to correct us.

Not sure if I am being unreasonable here to be slightly annoyed.

Perhaps the professional just feels sorry for little Jalapeño and is trying to lessen the embarrassment for him?

Is your son bothered? If so, let him correct this person and if not, let it go.

I listened to a couple having a long discussion about Jal-a -peen-ohs in the shop recently.

Jordy. Wasn't the footballer pronounced yordy?

Is it a Spanish name, which you/ English speakers pronounce in an English way, but ultimately it should be pronounced the way he does? I've come across a few people who have given their kids Celtic names but say them more anglicised- I always pronounce it correctly- if you use a name from a different culture, then sorry, I pronounce it the way it should be pronounced, and assume the incorrect pronunciation is an accident (or ignorance)

I don't understand why people get so offended when a name is mispronounced. It be different if they were doing it to be rude.

I get offended by things when they are meant to be offensive.

the origin of the name is actually English and then it appeared as a Spanish name later. But it’s a very old English name that was Spanish-ised not the other way round.

so in that sense you could argue the Spanish pronunciation is wrong. the Spanish version of the name is also typically spelt differently.

it’s not a case of us saying it incorrectly.

Probably Jaime.

But the Spanish pronounce that as hy-may, don't they? No Y sound.

As a fellow pedant I do understand the need/want to be right, but I think in this case it's outweighed by the need to not be an arsehole. It's really bad form to deliberately mispronounce someone's name. Remember, it's not their fault they were called that.

You'd also have to be very sure of yourself on knowing the origins of every name and how it's meant to be pronounced in its mother tongue, or you may unknowingly be committing the same crime against non-Celtic names.

Correcting someone's pronunciation of their name is just extremely rude.

The pronunciation of my daughter's very traditional name has a few options. There have been threads about it here (not started by me) and there is a regional accent element to it. She has had people who insist on pronouncing it "their way", the worst being teachers, as the power imbalance meant correcting them was an issue. As an adult she just ignores it. People can't spell her name and as I said it's traditional and spelt the more common way (their are two spellings).

Exactly - this is the vibe I’m getting. Smug superior ‘you are too dumb to know how you should pronounce your own child’s name’. He clearly thinks he knows better than us when in fact he doesn’t.

yes he is a professional and yes he is helping my son but not out of the kindness of his heart - he is being paid to do so. Quite significantly though. So it’s not a case of being indebted to him.

i have now told him today in a message how it’s pronounced, as he mentioned how he was speaking to others today. I said wanted to clarify so that others would know how to correctly say his name. He responded to the other content in the message but completely ignored the name part. Will see what he says next time we see him I guess!

Have you noticed all the people though, saying the j sound is not Spanish?

Is it Elijah?

🤣

Have a card ready with summary of the provenance/history of the name written on it
Now you've told him, if next time you see him he carries on you can give him the card and say pronounce it correctly please. 😁

I think it's Elijah. Which can be pronounced with a hard or soft j. If that's the case, then it isn't an old English name it's a Hebrew name technically.

Do you not think your being grossly unfair to this guy who is pronouncing it how most people pronounce it and you haven’t even corrected him???

how the hell is he supposed to know he’s saying it differently to what you want???

I was wondering what it might be. Not that Elijah is so vanishingly rare that everyone reading MN would recognise her!

He’s not a fucking mind reader 😅
If you’ve not corrected him, get a grip. He probably has no idea he’s doing anything wrong if you’ve not pointed it out.

Yes, that won't make the OP look like a complete tit 😄

Just keep correcting them

I've known a:

Javier (Jav-ee-air)
Javier (Hav-ee-air)
Javier (Yav-ee-air)

I'm glad they corrected me nicely

My dd does a sport and several parents have complained about how the young helpers are pronouncing the names, rather than just getting the child to correct them. This is leading to the helpers avoiding helping the students so they don't get more grief from the parents. Try to encourage your dc to correct them each time rather than going in all guns blazing.

OP, if this was going to bother you, why did you give him a name that could be pronounced multiple ways?

I've got a Jago, who is now 17 and at college has a tutor who calls him "Yahgo" - he's too embarrassed now to correct him as it's been a while, but his advice would be to do it straight away!