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HelpRe: We talk about the slaughter of spellings, what about pronunciations?
in reply to a message by Ceridwen
A friend of mine taught a girl whose name was pronounced Iv-on-ee spelled Yvonne.
A substitute teacher we had when I was in school mangled my first name and last name the first time he called the register. He said Shee-veen for Siobhan! I was mortified. I have has some pretty amusing pronunciations of Siobhan in other countries but that doesn't count. My surname is kind of unusual and I have been correcting spelling and pronunciation all my life.
My brother is called Dáire - Darragh is common now here but when he was growing up his name was rare. He got called Darren a lot and on one occasion Dake. My other brother got Fergus a lot instead of Fergal. I got called Yvonne by one teacher a lot.
It drives my husband mad when people call their daughters Aoibhin and pronounce it Aveen instead of Eve-in.
My niece is called Róise and gets called Róisín a lot. My other neice is called Rhiannon and get Rhiana or Rhiann sometimes. My mother is called Ita and get called Ida, Nita, I-ta instead of Eat-a. They are not common names though.
A bit OT but this reminds me of when we were staying in an hotel in Brighton. I booked the room and they had me down as a man and spelled my name Siobham. Then when Ciaran booked a taxi they struggled with his name and finally booked the taxi for room 101 and said that's they did all the time with problematic names!
ETA - One I remembered that really annoys me. My SIL is called Sorcha - Sur-i-kah. A mutual acquaintance always calls her Sorsha even when I say "Sur-i-ka" to her. Like "We are going to meet Sorcha." "Oh how is Sorsha?" I don't get that
And also I used to be in college with a girl called Gemma. He French teacher said it with a hard G as in Gamma. Poor Gemma used to be nearly in tears at it.
A substitute teacher we had when I was in school mangled my first name and last name the first time he called the register. He said Shee-veen for Siobhan! I was mortified. I have has some pretty amusing pronunciations of Siobhan in other countries but that doesn't count. My surname is kind of unusual and I have been correcting spelling and pronunciation all my life.
My brother is called Dáire - Darragh is common now here but when he was growing up his name was rare. He got called Darren a lot and on one occasion Dake. My other brother got Fergus a lot instead of Fergal. I got called Yvonne by one teacher a lot.
It drives my husband mad when people call their daughters Aoibhin and pronounce it Aveen instead of Eve-in.
My niece is called Róise and gets called Róisín a lot. My other neice is called Rhiannon and get Rhiana or Rhiann sometimes. My mother is called Ita and get called Ida, Nita, I-ta instead of Eat-a. They are not common names though.
A bit OT but this reminds me of when we were staying in an hotel in Brighton. I booked the room and they had me down as a man and spelled my name Siobham. Then when Ciaran booked a taxi they struggled with his name and finally booked the taxi for room 101 and said that's they did all the time with problematic names!
ETA - One I remembered that really annoys me. My SIL is called Sorcha - Sur-i-kah. A mutual acquaintance always calls her Sorsha even when I say "Sur-i-ka" to her. Like "We are going to meet Sorcha." "Oh how is Sorsha?" I don't get that
And also I used to be in college with a girl called Gemma. He French teacher said it with a hard G as in Gamma. Poor Gemma used to be nearly in tears at it.
This message was edited 3/25/2011, 1:51 PM
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Not sure if I've ever mentioned it, but I went to high school with a kid whose first name was the same as your last name. I always thought it was a neat name, plus he had a fun alliterative hyphenated last name. Not sure if he ever had pronunciation issues with it. It doesn't seem likely to be a name that would have issues, but you never know with people!
Your last story reminds me of how once in the days of answering machines a message got left for "Darth." My dad's name is Garth.
Your last story reminds me of how once in the days of answering machines a message got left for "Darth." My dad's name is Garth.
This message was edited 3/25/2011, 9:28 AM
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No I didn't know that! Cool. When I went on line first years ago and googled my name(as you do) I was surprised by all the people called that - it seems to be popular with Turkish people and Asian Americans.
I don't have as many problems as I used to do since I moved to the West Coast since it is more common here. It is still a rare name - I have only ever met two people with my surname who are not related to me. There is a notorious woman who shares her last name with me who was jailed for paying someone to murder her husband so now I get "Oh any relation to X. Ha, ha!"
I don't know how people can't spell it since it rhymes with a popular Irish first name. Grr! They stick an o or e or a instead of the i!
I love the Darth story.
I don't have as many problems as I used to do since I moved to the West Coast since it is more common here. It is still a rare name - I have only ever met two people with my surname who are not related to me. There is a notorious woman who shares her last name with me who was jailed for paying someone to murder her husband so now I get "Oh any relation to X. Ha, ha!"
I don't know how people can't spell it since it rhymes with a popular Irish first name. Grr! They stick an o or e or a instead of the i!
I love the Darth story.
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