People Mispronouncing your LO's Name

Meggiemuggins · March 2014

Does anyone have their LO's name regularly mispronounced? DS is Nicklaus, he's named for DH's granddad who was from Austria. I say it nik-LOUSE (rhymes with "house") but most people say it like Nicholas, including some cose family members. It bugs me a little, but not enough to correct them. I figure that the awkwardness of telling my dad he's saying it wrong isn't worth it. I call him Nicky 99% of the time anyways.

No real point to this post, just wondering if anyone else has their LO's name said wrong and if you bother correcting people.

jesuisfatiguee · March 2014

DS has a fairly unusual name, but it really is pronounced how it's spelled. People still seem to have a hard time getting all three syllables in there. I have corrected his grandparents on my ex's side, simply because they're family. They usually give up and just call him the one-syllable version, though. I'm cool with that, because I call him that half the time, too.

I totally mispronounced Rhys' name until DC said something about it in a thread months ago. And if I were to read Nicklaus' name out loud prior to this thread, I'd probably end up pronouncing it Nick-loss. I'm sorry, y'all. I'm a name butcherer.

wifeofadam · March 2014

My kids have common, Biblical names, so not much mispronouncing. But when DS1 was a baby and you couldn't tell if he was a boy or girl, people would see "Gabriel" and call him "Gabrielle", especially at doctor's offices. I was like, "Really?!" Don't most people know the difference in pronunciation?

We went back and forth about spelling DD2 Elizabeth or Elisabeth. We ended up going with the Z even though we wanted the S because we figured that everyone would mispronounce her whole life.

Poppy523 · March 2014

We picked Leila. Its pronounced like Layla but she gets Leela and Lila just as often which I just correct. I thought i picked the traditional spelling...Guess not? I always say lei like weigh, veil, neighbor...but it doesnt seem to help.

nlp1990 · March 2014

No real mispronunciations here, but I also made it a big consideration when choosing. I didn't want him to be the child in school that the teacher trips up on his name doing attendance. Though now Emerson is a trending girls name, so he might get confused in the beginning?

tamarar5 · March 2014

They don't really mispronounce Elliott, but they spell it wrong all the time.

Ceilidh, in the other hand... Well she's Celia a lot. Even after I've told people how to say it, and included the pronunciation (Kay-Lee).

DublinMama · March 2014

No one mispronounces it, but one person at his daycare shortens Jackson to Jack all the time, and I dislike it. It's actually not because I even dislike the name Jack. It's because his nickname is Jax (they know this there, bc I have consistently called him that in front of her to make a point lol), or you can call him Jackson. It's more because someone has chosen a name for him that we haven't elected to use for him at all.

jesuisfatiguee · March 2014

lilsebastian said:

Oh, yes. Adamwife warned me this would happen, but we're stubborn and didn't want to budge on the spelling. DD is Eliana (Ellie-ah-na) and we get Alaina most often and people never know how to spell it, either. In fact, in the video right after she was born, there's a convo between FIL and DH about how to spell her name. He asked 2 or 3 times in a row. I don't really mind correcting people, though.

If people can't remember, they just call her Ellie. I have an acquaintance who insists on calling her "Iliad," though and that drives me nuts.

The bolded is just weird. I am seriously scratching my head at that one.

LOVE the name Eliana, though. I didn't realize Aliana was more common (I think it sounds like a mispronunciation of Eliana).

Drea926 · March 2014

@pinesnow One of my friend's twins is a "Camden"! I love it! I call him Cam the Man so I used to love your old sn.

I always spell Rory's name because when I say it people think it's Corey.

Rynleigh · March 2014

Not with the boys (tho I have had people ask me how to spell "Simon", which I thought was really weird). Alyce has occasionally had people call her "Uh-leese", like a form of Elise (it's Alice, but with a Y because her paternal great grandmother was Alyce). Aurielle has it the worst - people will pronounce it anything between Ariel and Oriel.. but it's pronounced arr-ee-el (like the letters, R-E-L, or like the way the Disney crab, Sebastian, pronounces the mermaid's name). Luckily, she isn't the sort who gets mad at people for saying it wrong, she just reacts as though they are stupid LOL up until she was eight or nine, she would side eye the hell out of people like they must be idiots for not understanding it. Alyce called her "Oreo" when she first started learning to talk.

mediaperuana · March 2014

the primary reason we did not name JJ Joaquin was that i didn't feel like spending the next 18 years correcting people. we went with Javier--i suspect people will still manage to mess it up, but for now he goes by JJ, so it's not a problem.

people can screw up anything. my name is Kristen, and i get all kinds of things that are NOT Kristen. Kirsten or Christine, ok, but once i got Constance. WTF?

wifeofadam · March 2014

verovladamir said:

+adamwife+ said:

My kids have common, Biblical names, so not much mispronouncing. But when DS1 was a baby and you couldn't tell if he was a boy or girl, people would see "Gabriel" and call him "Gabrielle", especially at doctor's offices. I was like, "Really?!" Don't most people know the difference in pronunciation?

We went back and forth about spelling DD2 Elizabeth or Elisabeth. We ended up going with the Z even though we wanted the S because we figured that everyone would mispronounce her whole life.

I had a sister, Gabrielle, who passed away as a baby. My due date with DD was right around Gabrielle's birthday, so if she was a boy she was going to be Gabriel. For some reason I really love Gabriel, but not so much Gabrielle...

Sorry to hear about your sister.

I love the name Gabriel. The meaning is perfect for DS1's personality. I truly believe they grow into their names.

I also love Gabrielle/Gabriella!

DublinMama · March 2014

My name is Shannon. Sharon is a popular second. 8-|

I get it because if you look quickly the first 'n' in my real name and the 'r' is Sharon can look similar. But I have corrected people that still do it.

singingsea · March 2014

Um yeah. Kieran (in my mind) is pronounced keer-in. My husband's family is all from southern Ohio and they pronounce it Karen (like the girl's name).

Drives me batty but what can I do about it. Can't change their accent.

Side note: I think it's interesting there's so many different accents in the Midwest. People can tell I'm from Columbus as opposed to other places in Ohio. I'm like HOW?

Rynleigh · March 2014

DublinMama said:

My name is Shannon. Sharon is a popular second. 8-|

I get it because if you look quickly the first 'n' in my real name and the 'r' is Sharon can look similar. But I have corrected people that still do it.

My sister was always very annoyed that my parents gave her the O spelling instead of the E spelling (she didn't get Sharon often, but she got pissed off at people for calling her Shan-ON instead of Shannen)... she tried to get people to call her Shawna instead, for a while, but it never stuck.

wifeofadam · March 2014

singingsea said:

Side note: I think it's interesting there's so many different accents in the Midwest. People can tell I'm from Columbus as opposed to other places in Ohio. I'm like HOW?

I'm from NW Ohio and people from other areas of the country have said I have a drawl. I'm like, "Ummmmm No! You obviously haven't been to SW Ohio, because THAT is a drawl!" I don't have an accent, I just speak redneck

sjames2 · March 2014

katelyn1434 said:
We don't have an issue with people saying her name wrong as much as people shortening it. We call her Brooklyn. 2 syllables....not a lot to handle in my opinion. If I wanted to name her Brooke...I would have. It's mostly people we don't know well that will do it. Friends of DH's parents do it. Even when we call her Brooklyn right after. I don't usually correct people just make a point to call her by her real name soon after.

I have a best friend that started calling her "Brookie" and I hated it. We recently hit a rough patch about not being able to attend her adults only destination wedding that was going to cost way too much money so I felt uncomfortable telling her it bothered me. When her fiancé called her "Brookie" at an event we went to I just said "oh my god I hate that nickname" and laughed. DH and I were friends with him before her and I were friends so it wasn't uncomfortable-we have a great friendship that we can tell each other something like that without someone getting butt hurt about it.

My mom was the same way with my name-Katelyn. So, I suppose that's why hardly anyone calls me Kate or Katie

We have a Brooklyn as well and for some reason some family members think that it's Brookland? So we have gotten gifts ect with that name even after being corrected.

Dannysmama · March 2014

DH's last name is a crazy twelve letters long, and while 100% phonetic, it seems like no one can pronounce it. It has vowels and consenants and nothing is silent or funky - it's Spanish in origin but seriously, any person could say it, no tongue twisting needed. People see the first few letters and it all goes south from there. Most people just downright butchering it. I'm okay with the butchering, but the most infuriating is when people are too lazy to read the whole thing and just default to some stereotypical last names. It's like if your last name starts off "J-O-N" and everyone just said "Jones," even though your last name is Jonesmithson.

A TSA guy at the airport once said to me, after my husband went through the check, "wow, your husband's name is long. You'd think they would have just shortened it at Ellis Island, right?"

So, yeah, our kids are going to have easy names to spell and pronounce.

wifeofadam · March 2014

I have a last name that looks nothing like it is pronounced. It's a Scottish version of a more popularly spelled American last name. It's always spelled wrong on forms and I have to correct the mispronunciations daily. I think that's why I wanted my kids to have more common first names. They will spend their lives spelling out their last names.

tamarar5 · March 2014

My married last name- which I LOVE because it's normal- is super popular. And people still always ask how to spell it. I always want to say, how else are you going to spell Richardson?!

My maiden name on the other hand... Throw me your best shot at "Sieja" and I'll let you know if you're even remotely close!

mishka29 · March 2014

pinesnow said:

My son is named Camden which I loved because it is somewhat uncommon but not weird. I definitely knew there would be no bizarre mispronunciations. WRONG. People (mostly older) look at me like I have 5 heads when they ask his name. Like, is it really that odd? The strangest pronunciations I've gotten are "Hampton" and "Hamden". HAMDEN?! That's not even a thing.

We hear Cameron quite a bit as well but that at least makes sense.

This is the name we planned to use if DD had been a DS. We still hope to use it in the future! I love the name although sometimes I worry what others will think. But thats not enough to change my mind. Do you call him camden or cam?

holly321 · March 2014

Dd's name is Anna. We pronounce is Anne-uh. A lot of people pronounce it Ah-nuh. It drives me nuts, especially after they here us say her name. It doesn't help that she says her name wrong.

nikkisun54 · March 2014

The name things drive me crazy. People always have something to say. You'd think they'd consider the fact that you and your sig other likely spent months selecting that perfect name for your little one. It's not fodder for them to fiddle with! Thompson doesn't really get mispronounced, but people want to nickname him Tom or Tommy ALL THE TIME. They tell me Thompson is too big a name for such a little guy, or Tommy isn't such a mouthful. Really? Same number of syllables! Everyone always has something to say. Nicklaus is awesome, and his nickname ain't bad either, if I do say so myself!

tamarar5 · March 2014

My sister's name is Annika (Ah-nee-kah). She is 28 years old and all of my aunts day her name Anne-nic-ah. She corrects them every single time and then they wonder why she doesn't like talking to them.

SidraJedi · March 2014

TamaraR4 said:
My married last name- which I LOVE because it's normal- is super popular. And people still always ask how to spell it. I always want to say, how else are you going to spell Richardson?!

My maiden name on the other hand... Throw me your best shot at "Sieja" and I'll let you know if you're even remotely close!

Say-ya?

Am I close?

What do I win?

tamarar5 · March 2014

SidraJedi said:

My married last name- which I LOVE because it's normal- is super popular. And people still always ask how to spell it. I always want to say, how else are you going to spell Richardson?! My maiden name on the other hand... Throw me your best shot at "Sieja" and I'll let you know if you're even remotely close!
Say-ya? Am I close? What do I win?

Not even close.

It's Polish. In Poland, it should be pronounced "Shay-yah" but somewhere the ending was lost in translation. My family pronounces it "Shae." So basically my DD is F***ed until DH can legally adopt her. Her first name is the traditional Gaelic spelling and her last name is the traditional Polish spelling, lol! Even funnier, her first name means "A happy gathering" and her last name means "Fish" so she's a "Happy gathering of Fish."

She didn't think that was funny.

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