How to professionally and politely correct people’s pronunciation of my name

[Anonymous]

It comes up frequently that people mispronounce my name (if I haven’t been given the chance to introduce myself first). I don’t want to cut them off mid-sentence but I also don’t want the mispronunciation to linger. It’s especially awkward during meetings with multiple people.

How do I navigate this? Thank you.

[Anonymous]

First time you get to speak, you introduce yourself. “Hi, thanks, I’m LarLAH from marketing, thanks for having me”. Don’t cut anyone off mid-sentence.

[Anonymous]

“Hi, it's nice to meet everyone. I’m LarLAH from marketing, thanks for having me”

[Anonymous]

OP, I so feel your pain. I have an unusual name and people often mispronounce the vowels in the middle (as in, they say the short “a” versus the long “a”).

The advice above is good if you have the opportunity. I also have colleagues who will take the opportunity to direct questions to me during a meeting and pronounce my name correctly. Sometimes that doesn’t work and I have to step in and be blunt about it. It’s always awkward and there’s no getting around it because people feel bad. But it is what it is - I’d much rather follow up someone’s question to me with “oh, it’s [my name]” than have it mispronounced forever. That’s just awkward for everyone.

This might be why I have given my kids very common names, ha ha.

[Anonymous]

I have an ethnic name that is often mispronounced. I am often torn about it. I love my heritage but I will make more money and get promoted more if I keep my mouth shut so it is a weird conundrum.

[Anonymous]

As a “mispronunce-er” out of pure ignorance, please shoot me an email and I will try to do better. I am currently working on this for a Thai-ancestry colleague where I didn’t realize that I was emphasizing the wrong syllable.

[Anonymous]

I have trouble pronouncing hard to pronounce name or spell them. I had people who work for and with me no clue how to say or spell their name.

People should have a work name one guy at work has like a 40 letter name. Something like sdullalllahhh muddalllllahh.

[Anonymous]

I know someone who put the correct pronunciation in their email sig

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have trouble pronouncing hard to pronounce name or spell them. I had people who work for and with me no clue how to say or spell their name.

People should have a work name one guy at work has like a 40 letter name. Something like sdullalllahhh muddalllllahh.

Or you could try. If you can pronounce Alexander and Elizabeth, you can do long names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I so feel your pain. I have an unusual name and people often mispronounce the vowels in the middle (as in, they say the short “a” versus the long “a”).

The advice above is good if you have the opportunity. I also have colleagues who will take the opportunity to direct questions to me during a meeting and pronounce my name correctly. Sometimes that doesn’t work and I have to step in and be blunt about it. It’s always awkward and there’s no getting around it because people feel bad. But it is what it is - I’d much rather follow up someone’s question to me with “oh, it’s [my name]” than have it mispronounced forever. That’s just awkward for everyone.

This might be why I have given my kids very common names, ha ha.

This is OP and I also gave my kids very simple, phonetic, almost impossible to mispronounce names

[Anonymous]

OP again and my name is a “Western” name but more common in Spanish-speaking countries and people just use a short a for the three long a’s in it.

It’s gotten so old. I don’t want to alienate people but I am starting a new job and will make sure to clearly pronounce my name to every new person I meet. That said, my previous boss mispronounced my name after over a year and a half of my working there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I so feel your pain. I have an unusual name and people often mispronounce the vowels in the middle (as in, they say the short “a” versus the long “a”).

The advice above is good if you have the opportunity. I also have colleagues who will take the opportunity to direct questions to me during a meeting and pronounce my name correctly. Sometimes that doesn’t work and I have to step in and be blunt about it. It’s always awkward and there’s no getting around it because people feel bad. But it is what it is - I’d much rather follow up someone’s question to me with “oh, it’s [my name]” than have it mispronounced forever. That’s just awkward for everyone.

This might be why I have given my kids very common names, ha ha.

This is OP and I also gave my kids very simple, phonetic, almost impossible to mispronounce names

That’s what I thought when I gave DD a 4 letter name. It still gets mispronounced.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP again and my name is a “Western” name but more common in Spanish-speaking countries and people just use a short a for the three long a’s in it.

It’s gotten so old. I don’t want to alienate people but I am starting a new job and will make sure to clearly pronounce my name to every new person I meet. That said, my previous boss mispronounced my name after over a year and a half of my working there.

OP, I’m of South Asian descent, and have a name with a ‘j’ in it. I guess I could pass for Latina, so often have my name pronounced with an ‘h’ instead. As posters upthread said, I make a point of introducing myself so everyone knows what it really should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have trouble pronouncing hard to pronounce name or spell them. I had people who work for and with me no clue how to say or spell their name.

People should have a work name one guy at work has like a 40 letter name. Something like sdullalllahhh muddalllllahh.

I have trouble respecting people like you. How little IQ and EQ do you have to have to not be able to take 3 minutes to learn to string some syllables together so you can properly address the fellow human beings around you?

There is ZERO excuse for misspelling a name. It’s ridiculous how often people do this when 99% of the time, the correct spelling is abundantly clear from the person’s email address or signature block (not to mention the staff directory that you can’t bother to look at).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know someone who put the correct pronunciation in their email sig

I think this is a good idea.