Do you get upset when someone gets your name wrong?

Forums: Names, Wrong Names, Mispronunciation, Mispronouncing Names
Email this Topic • Print this Page

Me? I never cared if someone calls me Stephen, Steve, or any variation on that name. Heck, you can call me Stephanie (but only if you're a close friend).

I know there are many people who get really irritated if you can't get the hyperspecific accents on their nonAmerican/nonEuropean names. This kind of interaction hasn't (fortunately) to me. But I've seen/heard examples of it where one person is trying to address another person and that person is getting more and more irritated because the speaker isn't hitting the right accent points. This maybe a very hot take? But for someone who has tinnitus and at least moderate hearing loss? You can keep repeating your name a thousand times and if I physically can't hear the distinction on whatever and wherever there's an unorthodox accent? I won't be able to audibly reproduce your name.

This seems very ablest to me. Should I call someone out on their compulsion to correct others in this name exchange?

Are you particular with how people address you? Do you allow people to give you nicknames but not allow others? Do you correct others when they mispronounce your name?

Or are you resigned to some or everyone messing up your name? And do you just give people an easier to pronounce nickname to people just to avoid the situation altogether?

Topic Stats
Top Replies
Link to this Topic

Type: Question • Score: 12 • Views: 427 • Replies: 16

[+3] - hightor - 07/10/2024No, I don't care. I think people take their names much too seriously. My last name is easy to pronounce but it's spelled weirdly so I'm used to people screwing it up. I don't even bother to...

@tsarstepan,

No, I don't care. I think people take their names much too seriously. My last name is easy to pronounce but it's spelled weirdly so I'm used to people screwing it up. I don't even bother to correct them unless they specifically ask if they've pronounced it the way I pronounce it. I don't care if people screw up my first name; it's just not that important. If someone asks me what my name is I'll tell them but "Hey you" works great.

I got a lot of downvotes on an A2K thread for suggesting that people are under no obligation to attempt to pronounce a foreigner's name the way it's pronounced in their native country, especially when the name is distinguished by subtle accents, as you point out, or diphthongs not found in English. I was playing with a Russian pianist once whose name was Dzhordzh. I couldn't pronounce it and he just smiled and said, "Call me "George". He was tired of people trying to be polite and mangling his name in the attempt.

0 Replies

I don't love it, but I've got better hills to die on.

Main thing is when I get misnamed as one of the Brady sisters. Er, no. My last name is also routinely destroyed but it's also somewhat long.

0 Replies

Sometimes.
I got more or less used to the (kind of) South German pronunciation "Hinterle". (My name is actually Old Saxon/Middle Low German, meaning the place where the hint comes on the meadow).
I don't like "Walt", but got used to it. (I do like French calling me "Waltér).

0 Replies

@tsarstepan,

My name is very easy to pronounce for fellow countrymen or international people so it’s not an issue. I don’t think I’d be upset if someone mangled it. When I’m try to pronounce someone else’s, I try hard and typically ask them to do it for me…slowly. However, if they get irritated, so be it.

However , I got a bit irritated if they don’t get what I’m saying when I feel that I’m being clear. The thing there is understanding that they might not have heard me correctly. That I’ve got no problem with.

0 Replies

I worked with a Thai doctor whose name was Gunasakaren Thurm + 27 more syllables and he just asked all of us to call him Guna.

I don't like my name shortened because it feels like someone else. Everybody in my family calls each other their given name, but we also all have nicknames.

0 Replies

Some people spell my name 'RoDger". Not exactly upsetting, but I do correct it.

2 Replies

When I was in Mexico and I told the natives my name they would reply, with a really puzzled expression, "God?"

It happened a lot, and my name doesn't sound at all Goddish, like Godfrey or Goddamn, it doesn't event start with a G.

I suppose, if you're going to get names the wrong way round, it's best to start with the bloke who can't do any smiting.

0 Replies

@roger,

Roger-dodger you old codger. Very Happy

1 Reply

@hightor,

Roger the Dodger is not an old codger.

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81rWOOH2RpL._AC_SL1200_.jpg

0 Replies

@roger,

Occasionally when the spammers call they ask for Jah nich Chee, the correct pronunciation is Janice.

1 Reply

They can call me anything but late to supper.

0 Replies

@glitterbag,

glitterbag wrote:

Occasionally when the spammers call they ask for Jah nich Chee, the correct pronunciation is Janice.

I pay them to do that. Cheaper than a Starbucks every day.

0 Replies

I don't get upset and I usually don't correct them either, but almost everyone who meets me for the first time, pronounces my first name wrong. Americans pronounce a "G" as "J" and it makes my name sound funny.
I have to say that most people call me Ms. Lastname as they're unsure of how to pronounce my first name, despite being only 4 letters.

1 Reply

@CalamityJane,

When I travelled with Janice, every single Latino pronounced her name as Han-i-say Smile

1 Reply

@Mame,

That's almost pig latin. Annis-jay.

1 Reply

@edgarblythe,

According to my Brazilian dil the guy who lived in Sherwood Forest was called Hobbin Hood.

0 Replies

Do you get upset when someone gets your name wrong?

Related Topics

Quick Links

My Account

able2know