Does it bother you? And do you begin to regret the name choice because of it? How do you get over it?
And if you don’t have a child, do mispronounce YOUR own name often?
I am not a parent, but I am a child with an unusual name/spelling for the United States. My name is [name_f]Aine[/name_f] (pronounced like [name_f]Anya[/name_f]), and never once has someone gotten it right on the first try! It doesn’t bother me, though: As long as someone is making a good-faith effort, it’s a conversation starter to correct them politely and explain the origins of the name. I love my name, and unlike many people I know I’ve never wanted to change it! I’ve asked both of my parents, and they both say that they’ve never regretted the choice, nor has it bothered them.
People mispronounce my own name ([name_f]Brynn[/name_f]) ALLL the time. It’s not common at all for people my age or really where I live at all. I get [name_m]Bryan[/name_m], Brine, and [name_m]Byron[/name_m] a lot.
No, I’m named [name_f]Grace[/name_f], which is a common name and a word, so not really going to be mispronounced. Sometimes I wished I seid have a more out-there name though.
We named our little boy [name_m]Killian[/name_m] (pronounced Kill-ee-un) and never expected to have such a problem with people pronouncing it. We even opted for the more phonetic spelling using a K instead of the traditional C because to me it looked like ‘Silly-un’. But almost no says it right the first time around: nurses, his daycare teachers, people on the phone, etc. We hear [name_m]Kellen[/name_m], Killun, Killayne, and some people skip it altogether and just say his last name (and they pronounce that wrong too, even though its spelled exactly how it sounds). I didnt bother asking people about it before he was born because i didnt see how you COULD mispronounce it. No regrets, but really??
Everyone mispronounces my name. It’s [name_f]Celes[/name_f] - after the Final [name_f]Fantasy[/name_f] character. It shouldn’t be so hard after hearing me say it and listing other words it should rhyme with. Often times people will say it as “[name_f]Celeste[/name_f]” without the te. I get why people would think that (as I do believe that is meant to be the correct way…) but even after I, along with numerous others who know me, tell them it’s actually more like [name_f]Elyse[/name_f], rhymes with “police”, it’s [name_f]Celes[/name_f] like “geese” not [name_f]Celes[/name_f] like “guess”, it never ends. There are only two people I can recall whom have ever pronounced it right on the first try after reading it – My 9th grade math teacher and [name_m]Julian[/name_m] Richings, the actor. I even have a friend of almost 8 years who STILL says it wrong!
I’m treating this as if it bothers me but it doesn’t really… After two decades of correcting people it’s gotten old, lol. Nowadays I just let it be after the first try.
I have no children but my name isn’t the traditional spelling of [name_f]Erin[/name_f]. It’s spelt [name_f]Eryn[/name_f]. It’s very rarely mispronounced, some people ponder over the pronunciation when they see it written on paper, but usually get it right first try. It is never spelt correctly though, ever.
Growing up, my mum was never bothered by it, and nor was I. My younger sister has a more confusing spelling for a simple name, but my mum and sister are both used to it now. My sister answers to the other pronunciation (her name is a spelling variant of [name_f]Keira[/name_f] that looks like [name_f]Kyra[/name_f], but pronounced like [name_f]Keira[/name_f]) and sometimes it annoys her, but we’re all adults now so over it if it ever annoyed us.
My daughter’s name is [name_f]Kiersten[/name_f]; we chose that spelling because we thought it would clue people in that the first syllable is [name_m]KEER[/name_m], just like tier is TEER. Silly us. We got KER-stin & [name_u]Kris[/name_u]-tin & even [name_f]Krista[/name_f]. She finally chose [name_u]Kit[/name_u] as her nickname when she was 7, & she still goes by that w/family & friends from high school. Now that she’s in college, she tends to use [name_f]Kiersten[/name_f] more because that’s what shows up on all of her official records, & she’s found that people mis-hear [name_u]Kit[/name_u] as Kid.
W/my own name it wasn’t an issue of pronunciation but spelling…I can think of a dozen ways to spell my name & there are probably more if I thought longer. If it’s someone I don’t know it doesn’t bother me if they spell it wrong, although if it’s someone I know better I get frustrated that they can’t be bothered to get my name right (it’s not an issue of dyslexia w/my name; it’s just that people don’t pay attention).
ALL the time. But we knew it would happen.
Senia gets [name_f]Sienna[/name_f], [name_f]Senna[/name_f], Seh-Nee-ah, See-nia. MOST people tend to get it right or almost right ([name_f]Sen[/name_f]-ya) and it doesn’t bother her that much, she just corrects them, and she’s happy to go by [name_f]Sen[/name_f] if people struggle with it, although she prefers using her full name, as do we. But [name_f]Sen[/name_f] works well too.
[name_f]Apolline[/name_f] gets ah-poe-[name_f]LINE[/name_f], Apoll-eye-nee is one she got recently which was a new one. She goes by [name_f]Apple[/name_f] which again, is easy enough.
We screwed ourselves with Theoden because we pronounce it [name_u]Theo[/name_u]-den whereas most people would say [name_m]Thay[/name_m]-o-den, due to LOTR.
With Hesperia we knew nobody would have a clue and we were totally right. It takes a few tries for people to get it and even then they forget and have to ask again. They usually end up using a nickname for her.
They don’t really bother me too much. Literally every name ever has such issues, my name is [name_f]Amelia[/name_f] which you’d think would be pretty simple but even I get all kinds of mispronunciations. We have just learnt to accept nicknames. When picking our children’s names we did make sure they had some nickname options anyway, so its all good.
most people often pronounce my name with two syllables rather than three, dan-YELL vs. dan-ee-el or dani-el
i find it does annoy my mum and when i was younger i was quite confused on how they got the dan-YELL pronounciation but now i just go with it
New[/name_m] [name_m]Roman[/name_m]]My daughter’s name is Adaleia ([name_m]Add[/name_m]-a-lay-a), and I kinda set her up for this, but only my parents have said it right- after they were told. Everyone says Aid-a-lay-a or Aid-a-lee-a of [name_m]Add[/name_m]-a-lee-a or even [name_u]Adel[/name_u]-ya and Adall-ya. It doesn’t bother me, so I’m hoping it won’t bother my daughter.
[INDENT]As for my name, well, I have no idea why/how it got mispronounced. [name_f]Angelina[/name_f] seems so simple, right? You have no idea what crazy things I’ve been called. [name_f]Angela[/name_f], [name_f]Alina[/name_f], [name_f]Gina[/name_f], Angina, Angelna, Anelna, [name_f]Anela[/name_f], Anelga, Angenla, Angia, Anginla. And more. This would bother me when I was younger, but I don’t care anymore.[/INDENT]
People manage to pronounce my name correctly, but I have to spell it out every single time, because there’s a much more common spelling of my name. Everyone spells it [name_f]Caitlin[/name_f], but I spell it quite differently
I don’t have any kids yet. I’d rather not share what my name is but it was a top 10 name when I was born and despite that, I do have to correct people on the pronunciation a lot since they often mishear it as another, similar-sounding name.
I don’t have kids, and people don’t tend to mispronounce my name having seen it written down (occasionally I get EE-ona instead of EYE-ona, but that’s understandably and easily corrected), and here in [name_f]Scotland[/name_f] I really get no issues with it.
As soon as I step over the border into [name_f]England[/name_f] though, or go abroad, people have no idea what I’m saying. It gets misheard for loads of different names. Maybe it’s an accent thing, because [name_f]Iona[/name_f] isn’t that uncommon in [name_f]England[/name_f], but nobody ever hears my name correctly, which is gonna annoying since I’m moving there in a few months.
My name is [name_f]Chrys[/name_f], or to family, Chrysi pronounced [name_u]Kris[/name_u] or [name_f]Krissy[/name_f] but I usually get called [name_m]Cyrus[/name_m] (s-EYE-russ). And I always have to spell it.
The odd thing is that my last name is Skrine (skr-EYE-n) but usually hear Screen. [name_m]How[/name_m] hard can Skrine be?
My youngest is called [name_f]Anouk[/name_f], which we pronounce the [name_m]French[/name_m] way: ah-NOOK (rhymes with [name_m]Luke[/name_m]).
People have mostly been fine with it, but we have got quite a few puzzled looks and alternative pronunciations: ah-NUCK (rhymes with book) being the most common — fair enough, it’s the Dutch way. We also get UH-nook, AAH-nook and ah-NOO-ka.
Quite honestly, it bothers me more than I thought it would, because I don’t really like the sound of the others and they mostly sound really awkward to me. But I still love her name, properly pronounced!