Why do some 'Brits' feel the need to re-name anyone anyone with a 'funny foreign' name with an anglised version?

[bauble99]

We've just taken on a Polish guy to cook/serve and tidy up the kitchen afterwards in one of our nurseries.

He came to the interview with his (Polish) wife because he was worried that his English wouldn't be good enough for the interview (it was.)

He has all of his paperwork in order, a 'Food Hygeine' cert and a CRB check from his last job in an OAP's (elderly care) home. Although, crazily, we need to do another CRB check as a new employer, even though the last one was only done 4 months ago. Sounds like a bit of extra income for Mr Brown?

Anyway, his name is Jacek, pronounced 'Ja-sek' - not difficult, eh?

The staff, not the elderly folk (I could maybe understand them not getting to grips with his name) decided that they would call him 'Jack.' because 'it's easier.'

We, of course, will call him by his name.

We also have a Pakistani Nursery Nurse called Afsha who was called 'Ruby' - because "Afsha's a bit hard to say, innit?"

No, her name is Afsha.

Lots of people call DD Serene. Which she blimmin well isn't by any stretch of the imagination Doesn't bother me though.

Is she Serena?

The baby dragon is Seren - rhymes with Seven I believe

Cfrau, how did they try to pronounce your name then?

Even Jane has its pitfalls
My own relatives insist on spelling me as Jayne rather that Jane on their birthday/xmas cards
So even plain Jane has it own cross to bear

Bronwen sounds beautiful, I'll have to put that one on my list for this baby if its a girl.

I have a problem with my name - people mispell it if they hear it first and mispronounce it when they see it written. But I can't say it upsets me. Once I've told someone how it's said I might get a trifle pee-ed off if they still said it wrong but not much. I think some names can be pronounced several ways and if someone knew a person with one pronunciation first they will naturally assume that is the normal way.

I suppose though what is really being discussed here though is for example giving someone an entirely diffrent name. Like changing Kayer to Kevin.

my friend is German and her name is Claudia. The Clau is pronounced to rhyme with cow.

She loathes and detests being called the English version because she said that some word in German sounding like "claw" means toilet (iirc).

Anyhoo - she introduces herself as Clow-dia and gets called Claw-dia for her pains. When she feels like she can be bothered, she'll politely say: "Can you call me Clow-dia?" A baffled smile is often the reply

I get called all sorts of things too. Elkeee, Anelka, Alka, Alkie (last to usually followed by a giggle. The worst one though is one of my tutors who keeps insisting on calling me Elk. I AM NOT some sort of huge beast . But anyway, with some people it really doesn't matter how many times I say its elke (pronounced elka).
Oh and my surname really sends people loopy. Like many dutch names it's DE space something. A surname in 2 pieces is often just too much for people to cope with!
But I agree it's not just the English. My own mum is the worst for mispronouncing foreign names and she's not English.
Oh and somehow this thread also makes me think of chinese/italian food. Where I'm from they use the original name rather than something that describes it (e.g. crispy shredded beef or cheese and tomato pizza)

belgianmama -I'm english and living in Belgium and have constant problems with people saying and spelling my name. But that's just what happens when you live in a foreign country.

I dated a truly lovely dutch guy for quite a long time and his name was Jeffrey but pronounced as if the J was a Y. My family refused to call him anything other than Jeff. He also had a last name with two parts that they couldn't get their heads around. It used to make me so angry, although I don't think it ever bothered him.

English people often mispronounce our surname.

I can't see why, b/c it truly is pronounced the way it is spelled.

But we can always tell when it's a sales person on the phone b/c they mispronounce our surname.

I have to admit that I have been known to refer to the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as Mr DinnerJacketMan and I can't refrain from calling Julia Sawalha Julia Sawallawallawallawalla...but not to their faces

This has reminded me of the recent episode of the Archers, where Christopher Carter has invited his new friend "Nisha" to tea, and Susan gets all worried and makes a curry specially, only to find that she is actually called "Venetia" and is a very posh girl from a local upper-class family

Don't worry I'm sure he gets called much worse than that. I can think of some pretty colorful names for him.

Expat - I know exactly what you mean with the salespeople, and we have a pretty straightforward surname.
I don't get bothered by my names being pronounced wrongly, by strangers or by much older relatives. (First is simple enough, but there are a few versions on the theme). Colleagues and friends always get it though, which is the main thing.
By the way, my husband calls me Lara Croft much of the time, reminding me of the karate-days, pre DD, before the extra 10lb came on that I'm just too fond of wine and kettlechips to remove.

Why is it that people of a foreign background let people do it?

It is defintely not just a British thing.
The Chinese do this in parts of Asia to other races, mainly because it makes it easier and they choose to do so, no one forces them. I was shocked when I found out my friend though he was a Mike to everyone, was never given Mike as his name, that was the name he adopted and his real name was never hard to pronounce!