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HelpRe: Do you think a pronunciation of a name can be "enforced"?
in reply to a message by BeccyLeader2
Yes, I think you should enforce the pronunciation of your name, especially if you're talking about different regions within the same country.
I had an Eastern-US friend who called a Western-US Naomi "Nye-oh-mi" when the western pronunciation is "Nay-oh-mi" and that annoyed me, because it's not hard for an American to say "Nay-oh-mi".
I do think it's completely normal and appropriate for someone from another country to call an American Sarah or Anna by "Sara" or "Ana", and I wouldn't try to enforce the American pronunciations of those names unless the person was really interested in learning to speak American English like a native.
But if you live in the same country and you're talking to someone who you know is fully capable of saying your name the way it's intended to be said, then you should enforce the actual pronunciation that you use UNLESS you're actively choosing to use different variants of your name in different places. Sometimes it feels nice to use a variant that makes your name feel like it fits in more where you're currently staying, like "I'm RAY-chel in the US and RA-SHEL in France", or "I'm Marie in France and Maria in Spain". But that should either be your choice or a result of people in the area not being able to pronounce your original name. For Clara I can't think of a CLAIR-uh region that wouldn't be familiar with and perfectly able to pronounce CLAHR-uh, although I can think of places where it would be the other way around and a Clair-uh might have to go by Clahr-uh because nobody can pronounce the Clair version.
I had an Eastern-US friend who called a Western-US Naomi "Nye-oh-mi" when the western pronunciation is "Nay-oh-mi" and that annoyed me, because it's not hard for an American to say "Nay-oh-mi".
I do think it's completely normal and appropriate for someone from another country to call an American Sarah or Anna by "Sara" or "Ana", and I wouldn't try to enforce the American pronunciations of those names unless the person was really interested in learning to speak American English like a native.
But if you live in the same country and you're talking to someone who you know is fully capable of saying your name the way it's intended to be said, then you should enforce the actual pronunciation that you use UNLESS you're actively choosing to use different variants of your name in different places. Sometimes it feels nice to use a variant that makes your name feel like it fits in more where you're currently staying, like "I'm RAY-chel in the US and RA-SHEL in France", or "I'm Marie in France and Maria in Spain". But that should either be your choice or a result of people in the area not being able to pronounce your original name. For Clara I can't think of a CLAIR-uh region that wouldn't be familiar with and perfectly able to pronounce CLAHR-uh, although I can think of places where it would be the other way around and a Clair-uh might have to go by Clahr-uh because nobody can pronounce the Clair version.
This message was edited 12/21/2024, 2:37 PM
