The mispronunciation of name
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Anonymous
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Please tell me again about when you meet people for the first time and they can’t pronounce your name!! My name is 2 syllables and people butcher it.
“ What is your name again….Soo qui, Soo queee, Soo-kee” ? Why?????????? |
Anonymous
| I’ve known people for years who still get my name wrong but I don’t care at all. It’s not a big deal. |
Anonymous
Maybe you say your name too quickly or with an accent to it. I know people that say their name at “normal speed” rather than breaking it down more slowly even when they know it is a trickier one for Americans to pronounce. Also people who have no accent it seems then all of sudden have a very strong one when they say their name that makes it hard for me to understand it - also because it isn’t broken down into syllable sounds again. If people are asking it is because they want to get it right rather than just avoiding saying your name because they can’t tell how to pronounce it. |
Anonymous
| My name is a very common Gen X girl's name with three syllables. People have been knocking off the last syllable or using derivations of the actual name my whole life. It's mind blowing to me. I've tried to get over it since I was a kid but it still bugs me. |
Anonymous
| Asians and Hispanics can’t pronounce my very normal English name correctly. It doesn’t bother me. People have accents. |
Anonymous
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If it bothers you so much - change or adapt it to make it easier to pronounce.
My name gets butchered regularly (3 syllables, foreign) - I couldn't care less. If I see it's hard to repeat for the person - I tell them to just use first letter and be done with it. Some of my friends just started using nicknames like Ana for Anastasia. PS I shorted my DC when I signed him up for school sooo many years ago only for him to change it back to very hard to pronounce for most Americans (and he patiently corrects his acquaintances to do it right). But he actually enjoys conversations about it, not being annoyed. He does use short version in Starbucks and such for convince, of course |
Anonymous
Jennifer? |
Anonymous
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I think this type of thing happens to literally everyone, even those with super common names:
I have a very VERY common name and people often still ask me how to spell it. There is really only one spelling that is common. People also often call me a different but similar very common name- no idea why. For example (not my name but mine is this common): Jessica. How do you spell Jessica? Or- What was your name again? Jennifer, right? 🤷♀️ My DH has a very uncommon name- so uncommon that people just decide to switch it to something else (a common name that sounds vaguely similar) entirely! It is crazy. People are just weird. I wouldn’t take any offense. |
Anonymous
| It helps to give a rhyming word - “Suki, rhymes with Pookie” |
Anonymous
Or: Jessica, Tiffany, Christina? Christina makes sense they are just calling you Kristin/Christin? |
Anonymous
I asked two people before finally asking the person directly how he pronounces his name, and then I was like "You mean like [Country] but with an N in front?" and every time I'm walking down the hallway where he works, I say it in my head. He told me his wife's name and I couldn't even get my mouth to pronounce it before I forgot what it was. But I love when people are like, "I'm Gunilla, rhymes with vanilla" because I'll hear that in my head over and over and be able to get their name right. I am terrible with non-"American" names unless they're phonetic. |
Anonymous
There are thousands of other things to worry about. Get your priorities straight, princess. |
Anonymous
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This has to do with brain development & hearing/ language development in infancy & early childhood- basically if a child is not exposed to certain sounds they cannot discriminate hearing those sounds and speaking them as they age becomes more difficult as well. So you really can’t fault people for lack of exposure in early developmental years, and you either need to change your name to something simple for that person or be patient and know that some people literally cannot hear the subtle differences, especially if it’s a language they were never exposed to, and accept they may never get it right. Read this.
https://www.idra.org/resource-center/brain-development-and-mastery-of-language-in-the-early-childhood-years/ |
Anonymous
Exact same here. They always pronounce it as the male version. I correct once, then let it go. |
Anonymous
Yes, Christina. Here's what I've been hearing instead of that all my life: Christine (the big one) Kristin Kerstin Chrissie Chris (hate the most) Strangely enough when I just tell people they can call me Tina, they can handle it. But the three syllables of "Christina" throws them right over the edge. 
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