Do you know how to properly pronounce your surname?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The proper pronunciation of your name in the US is whatever you want it to be. You and the generations after you no longer live in the "home" country.

OP here — so true. My dad’s maternal cousins pronounce their name
Stevens. When people ask if they spell the name with a ph or v, the cousins will tell them neither. They spell it Szczepanski (and for our friend upthread, in the old country the government spelled it with a ń). The obituaries for this family are given with both their spelling and a phonetic English one (they are agnostic about the English spelling. Different strokes for different folks.

Anyone who has been around can easily pronounce this name. Basically you make the first consonants into an SH sound. Just pronounce it confidently and smoothly and most times you’re right.

Except cz is more like ch in English

Yes but this name is Sz. Like Szymanski and a host of names that anyone over 30 should know how to pronounce if they actually met a few people in their life. It’s like Nguyen. If you don’t know how to pronounce that in the US you haven’t met enough people.

and my cousins pronounce the latter Stevens.

It’s not Szymanski (Simon), it is Szczepanski (Steven). So, sh-ch.

[Anonymous]

This forum made me laugh. It reminded me of the numerous page forum on how Erica Gonzalez says her last name on the news.

[Anonymous]

What if your name is Smith?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if your name is Smith?

But spelled Smythe?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if your name is Smith?

How do you pronounce it? Some people like to pronounce it and Smythe with a long i. Some pronounce both with a short i. Don’t assume anything. And don’t judge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This forum made me laugh. It reminded me of the numerous page forum on how Erica Gonzalez says her last name on the news.

I missed that one.

[Anonymous]

There's the 'old country' pronunciation and the american pronunciation to make it phonetically easier to understand. Not a big deal. If I care to know you well, I'll correct you at some point. If I'm with a rare associate or at starbucks, I won't.

[Anonymous]

Names change. Naming conventions change. Otherwise I'd be something like Stefánsdóttir instead of Stevenson.

[Anonymous]

I don’t gaf how anyone pronounces my married last name. It means little to me and my in laws themselves pronounce it wrong. It’s polish.

I lived overseas for a few years in Germany and Germans all pronounced my name incorrectly. But that’s okay. I started introducing myself using their pronunciation. I have a typical American name but it’s not a saints name so there wasn’t a German equivalent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Names change. Naming conventions change. Otherwise I'd be something like Stefánsdóttir instead of Stevenson.

Though you gotta admit, Stefánsdóttir is pretty awesome looking name!

[Anonymous]

I find it interesting that most of the respondents seem to be of European descent and/or have European names.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What if your name is Smith?

In Massachusetts Carpenter is Cahpintah...so you never know!

[Anonymous]

My husband’s last name is Spanish and has a ñ that we gave up trying to get anyone to pronounce. Then one of our latino friends posted our name with the ñ on Facebook and a bunch of others picked up that it’s different. So we get called both pronunciations now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My husband’s last name is Spanish and has a ñ that we gave up trying to get anyone to pronounce. Then one of our latino friends posted our name with the ñ on Facebook and a bunch of others picked up that it’s different. So we get called both pronunciations now.

Awesome!