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Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

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Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#41

Post by vitd »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #5
strozykowski wrote: post #3

As a bearer of an apparently hard-to-pronounce name, this looks interesting, but I don't know that I would do this.

If it's the same name as your HN username, I don't see any obvious way to mispronounce it, other than whether the first 'o' is long or short. Is that the bit people mispronounce?

My Polish friends tell me that speaking in Polish "ow" is pronounced like the English word "off" (or maybe "of"? I forget) instead of the English word "ow". So "off-ski" or "uv-ski" instead of "ow-ski", at least for some of them.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#42

Post by nat »

I don't think this will help as much as they hope it will. In my experience, people are generally incapable of pronouncing anything, even when it is said to their face.

My name is Nat, which is about as simple a name as you could ask for. But quite often, I will introduce myself, "Hi, I'm Nat", and the response will be "Nice to meet you, Nate". My wife experiences it too (even from her mother!), so I don't think my pronunciation is the problem here.

Is this kind of vowel sloppiness more common in the US? Or should I just take the hint and change my name?

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#45

Post by dctoedt »

About a year ago (or so), I added a parenthetical, (My last name is pronounced "Tate"), to my business cards and email sig block. I've had several people comment approvingly.

That said, I do wish my German ancestors had changed either the spelling or the pronunciation when they came to the U.S. in the 19th century. I didn't do it myself when I was younger for fear of family disapproval, and by now my professional "brand" is under the existing spelling. Interestingly, my son, who's just starting his career, brushes off my suggestion that he change the spelling.

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#46

Post by shazow »

nat wrote: post #42

I don't think this will help as much as they hope it will. In my experience, people are generally incapable of pronouncing anything, even when it is said to their face. My name is Nat, which is about as simple a name as you could ask for. But quite often, I will introduce myself, "Hi, I'm Nat", and the response will be "Nice to meet you, Nate". My wife experiences it too (even from her mother!), so I don't think my p…

Or even worse: When a barista takes my name for my order, I say "Andrey." Usually they'll spell it "Andre" but whatever.

Five minutes later, more often than not, they call out "Aubrey." That's reading their own handwriting.

You can't explain that.

:P

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#47

Post by joesmo »

This assumes that, given the right pronunciation, people will be able to pronounce your name correctly. That's just not reality. I've corrected many a person many a time only to have them repeat the same pronunciation back to me as they did before I corrected them two seconds ago. Finally, I just gave up.

Now I have two first names.

EDIT: Also happens a lot on voicemails, seconds after they've clearly heard my first name pronounced (the last name I don't mind much as it is unusual).

Re: Put an end to people mispronouncing your name

#49

Post by lomnakkus »

Hah! I have a name which I have literally never heard a non-native speaker (of my first language) pronounce correctly.

As far as I understand it, the problem isn't so much that people haven't heard you pronounce your own name, it's more to do with the fact(?) that -- unless they've been raised in a similar "sound-environment" -- they literally cannot hear the subtleties of the pronunciation (e.g. tongue/lip positioning, etc.). I've had this experience (in reverse) when trying to pronounce Chinese and Arabic which have subleties which are very foreign to my native language.

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