That’s a real shame 
I bet you made a bigger difference to him than you realise by pronouncing it correctly (I love [name_m]Ismail[/name_m]!)
2 Likes
[quote=“[name_f]Gia[/name_f].berry, post:19, topic:345073”]
I always saw it as a matter of convenience rather than something that could seriously affect somebody’s education.
[/quote]
Me too — or rather, having the privilege of a simple, classic [name_f]English[/name_f] name myself I’m ashamed to say that I’d never really thought about it all that much. That’s what made me want to share this!
1 Like
My first name is easy to pronounce, so that’s good.
[name_f]My[/name_f] last name is one of those names that you know how to pronounce it, but ask just in case (same for spelling).
The only reason I’m talking on here at all is because, for some reason, my second and third grade teachers always called me Alita! Which is NOWHERE near my name. Doesn’t even share first letter. I mean, Alita was in my class, but we weren’t really friends at all, and we didn’t look alike AT ALL.
They also called me [name_f]Olivia[/name_f], and even though [name_f]Olivia[/name_f] and I didn’t look alike at all, she was my best friend, so I don’t blame them for that.
1 Like
Wow, what a beautiful name you have! 
Exactly this. I’m glad it hasn’t impacted on you personally too much, but it certainly could have and it sucks that some people aren’t even willing to make the effort 
2 Likes
I have a name that is difficult to pronounce when reading it and to spell. I don’t write it down as there are less than 150 people with the name worldwide in the past 120 years, give or take.
I had one teacher who gave out candy or a “prize” every hour on the hour if she mispronounced or misspelled your name during that time. I got something every hour on the hour for the full year except for one hour – I don’t think she tried during that hour. It didn’t add to my confidence in the classroom as she was the language arts teacher and I didn’t function well in a classroom to begin with – still don’t to this day.
As an adult, most people don’t get my name still. I go by a nickname, but for official documents, I still have to put my legal name. Makes it tough.
BTW: I get called by my last name more often than my 2 brothers and 2 male cousins (with the same last name) combined.
2 Likes
This feels well intentioned, but also sounds really humiliating for the students with so-called “difficult” names who, like you, got these “prizes” constantly
1 Like
It was. It was great for about a week of 4th grade (ages 9-10), when classes first started. After that it was extremely humiliating and hurtful that she was willing to learn everyone else’s name, but refused to learn mine. Especially for a language arts teacher where language and words were important as a foundation for her subject matter. 
1 Like
Smart move. Kudos to whomever thought that up. 
1 Like
@BookSneakersMovie You’ve just reminded me that when I was aged 5-11, I would have teachers and classmates who would confused me and my best friend at the time, [name_f]Katie[/name_f] with each other. So I would get called [name_f]Katie[/name_f] and she would get called [name_f]Carys[/name_f]. I found it really odd because we didn’t even look like each other, and even if we did, she was taller with yellow-blonde hair and I had brown hair. I can briefly remember a couple of occasions where the person calling one of us, by the wrong name, would get annoyed that we were ignoring them.
@anon68906791 When I was in high school, the system used for the register allowed you to add notes next to each name. I had quite a few teachers who would add a note of the pronunciation if they hadn’t learned it after a couple weeks or a note of their nickname if they preferred that over their full name.
Pretty much the whole younger generation can pronounce my name, thanks to [name_f]Sybill[/name_f] Trelawney from [name_u]Harry[/name_u] [name_m]Potter[/name_m] and [name_f]Lady[/name_f] [name_f]Sybil[/name_f] from Downtown [name_u]Abbey[/name_u].
'Course, there’s always the substitute teacher or person who says ‘Seeblee.’ It sounds a bit like see bee that way. Technically it’s [name_f]Sibyl[/name_f]. '[name_f]Sib[/name_f]-ull’
Name mispronounciation isn’t a big factor on my life, thankfully. I have a younger sister [name_u]June[/name_u], who’s name has never been mispronounced except for one person that english wasn’t their first language who said it Gune. Yeah. Like Goon. That was unfortunate for her, but she lived with it. [name_u]June[/name_u] has an easy name, so she doesn’t really have those problems.
But me. Yes. [name_f]Sibyl[/name_f]. Sometimes, I go by [name_f]Silvie[/name_f] just so it’s easier. When people recognize me and pronounce my name- correctly- it’s amazing! People know me! Recognize me! Pronounce my name properly!
I’ve got to thank HP for making my name popular. Usually, people can pronounce it, so it doesn’t really affect my daily life.
There’s a girl in my class who has an extremely rare name. Guess what? It gets mispronounced constantly. That leads to her automatic disdain of new people, because no one can pronounce her name. She doesn’t like it when people say her name incorrectly. She hates meeting new people because of it. It really makes a difference in her attitude and words when people say her name properly.
All in all, proper name pronounciation is a large factor in people’s, usually child’s, happiness and attitude.
6 Likes
Thanks for sharing this article. When I was at school, there were quite a few students of Polish and other Eastern European backgrounds and the teachers were clueless about how to pronounce their names. Clearly, learning how to pronounce diverse names was not part of their teacher training (but perhaps it should be).
3 Likes
That and how to treat people, especially kids and their parents. Some of these teachers have no skills on how to work with people (and this goes from nursery level up through university). And yet, these teachers go into a field where working with people is mandatory. Before anyone asks, yes, I was trained as a teacher, and no, there were no classes on how to treat/work with people.
My real name, which isn’t really that difficult, gets butchered by teachers everywhere. Variations of their pronunciations include: [name_f]Anaya[/name_f] (the most common), [name_f]Anya[/name_f], [name_f]Ayana[/name_f], etc. It’s honestly very offensive, especially when they can’t even say it after I tell them how it’s said a few times. I usually settle for the anglicized version, but I find it pretty uncool that they can manage harder [name_f]English[/name_f] names and don’t try on mine at all.
2 Likes
Ugh! I so feel that! [name_f]My[/name_f] name gets mispronounced and subsequently mocked because of it.
[name_f]My[/name_f] name: [name_f]Joy[/name_f]
Other people: [name_f]Joy[/name_f]-e? [name_m]Hoy[/name_m]? Oye? And other various mishaps. ( Why they skip J is beyond me)
Me: J-O-Y
Other people: Oh! As in ‘[name_f]Joy[/name_f] to the world’
And they begin singing it
Luckily I usually go by nicknames and currently I’ve got a great group of friends that think nothing about it!
The worst part is when people tell you that you’re pronouncing your own name wrong.
3 Likes
I have a pretty easy name to pronounce. It’s [name_f]Jasmine[/name_f]. Almost all people, from all countries and ethnicites even if [name_f]English[/name_f] isn’t their first language, they can pronounce my name, thanks to it’s similarity to the name [name_f]Yasmin[/name_f].
I second what @caramel107 said. If people are kind and wish to respect you, then they will try and make an effort to pronounce your name properly.
That’s just my two cents, but I can tell that the more appreciated people are the people who at least try to pronounce others names properly.
4 Likes
Oh, I just remembered that there’s a girl named Te@gan who looks a lot like me (apparently), and when people yell, “Te@gan!” toward me, I ignore them just to make a point, then they get mad at me. After about 30 seconds I’ll say, “Oh, are you you looking for [name_u]Teagan[/name_u]? She’s over there! 
”
1 Like
Oh… Oh, goodness… yes. [name_f]My[/name_f] name is mispronounced all the time. There have been a total of probably two people that I can recall to have pronounced it correctly upon reading it aloud for the very first time. [name_f]My[/name_f] ninth grade math teacher and the literal actor [name_u]Julian[/name_u] Richings (whom I am such a fan of so that was really a whole moment for me.) It seems as though sometimes even I’m uncertain of how to say my own name…
It is [name_f]Celes[/name_f], and I would always say “it’s [name_f]Celes[/name_f] like geese, not [name_f]Celes[/name_f] like guess.” It rhymes with [name_f]Elise[/name_f], [name_f]Ceres[/name_f], police, etc. which I know is probably not the commonly known pronunciation of the name of actual Final [name_f]Fantasy[/name_f] character that I was named after, but that’s how my parents pronounce it. I constantly get “Suh-less.”
When I graduated high school, we had the opportunity to write down the phonetic spelling and/or familiar words our names sounded like or rhymed with, so I wrote down, “rhymes with geese.” The teacher who called my name as I waled across the stage to accept my high school diploma literally read that part OUT LOUD for all my year mates and the hundreds and hundreds of people sitting in the audience. Not what I wanted to remember from the day I finally graduated high school, but unfortunately that moment is just about all I recall from that day. What’s worse is that this woman literally taught two of the classes I was in. I was in not one, but two of her classes! [name_m]How[/name_m] did she both mispronounce my name and read “rhymes with geese” in front of all those people on that day… it will forever be on everyone’s copy of the video of that event. No one will remember who I actually am. [name_m]How[/name_m] embarrassing it was to take my diploma and shake my principals hand as that moment took place
Anyway, enough of all my pent up rage about that (it was more than I thought…). I usually just tell people “It’s [name_f]Celes[/name_f], but if that’s too hard just call me [name_f]Cece[/name_f],” and sometimes people do, but usually it reverts back to them calling me by my actual name (pronounced correctly) which is nice, but sometimes I wish I would have a more permanent nickname!
I haven’t really considered if the experience gave me any less of a school life, but looking back on how I was in middle school and high school… maybe it did. Now that I’m in college and in a small program where I am very well known among all the students in every year of said program, my confidence has certainly boosted and I’m involved in so much more than I ever thought I would be in a school setting. I think I’ll have to do some more reflection on this subject since I never really thought about it like this…
4 Likes
@anon68906791
@EJpuddlejumper
@anon80426808
I have written a blog post based on this topic and would love to include quotes from your responses above.
Would that be OK with you? I will mention your names (not usernames) and their proper pronunciations, so if you’re happy for me to do so, please could you let me know (either below or by PM) the correct pronunciation?
I think I have you all right but would hate to get it wrong in a blog about accurate pronunciation! 
Thank you 
4 Likes
Thank you [name_f]Penelope[/name_f] 
1 Like