Iolanda

Wife's name is Iolanda. She pronounces it ee-oh-lan-da. Goes by Io (eye-oh) for short. Being involved in computer science, she says to people, I-O, Input, Output for short. People "get" it then. Too many times they screw it up by spelling it Yolanda or some other funny way.

The Italian pronunciation is simply "yo-lan-da" (the 'o' sound being perhaps midway between the vowel in 'book' and the vowel in 'on', depending on accents). It is also spelt Jolanda in Italy (but doesn't it look prettier with an I!).