Smith
Smithe
Smyth
Smythe
Am I right? 
FTR, my first name is an alternate spelling of a fairly common name. Guess I should have said that when volunteering the spelling my last name, I’ll usually also spell out my first name and not even bother pronouncing it.
We had a thread about those a while back… here’s one from a year ago coulda sworn there was a more recent one.
I used to work with a woman whose last name sounds like the alphabet threw up - “Hrynkiw.” Good Ukrainian name, pronounced as it’s spelled, but hardly anyone can either spell or pronounce it on the first try.
Mine, on the other hand is “Kew” which ought to be obvious, but I get all sorts of pronunciations. I suppose the large Asian population around here throws people off. I feel better on the rare occasions when somebody says “Oh, like the Gardens!” I tell them “It’s the old family farm … I wish.” 
Oh, yeah? I once got into a car accident with a woman named Fonda Cox.
And, judging by the improbable number of children she was able to fit in her car, it was a very appropriate name.
ZJ
I once got a phone call when I worked at a law firm from “Crystal Cox”. It was her real name, and was related to a client of my boss’s. When I called his line to tell him who was on the phone, he had to leave her on hold while he had a laughing fit.
I don’t think she wanted to tell me her name. When I asked who was calling, she said it really fast, so that I had to ask her to repeat it. I honestly didn’t hear her the first time, but I think she thought I was making fun of her
A co-worker’s boyfriend called her from where he was standing in line one day - the gentleman in front of him was named Seymour Pecker!
Maybe he should have hooked up with Ms. Cox…
I have a first name with at least two different common spellings, and several more “unusual” spellings.
My last name has no vowels, and is only two letters long.
Guess how many times people have screwed them up over the years… :rolleyes:
I’ve found that you can rarely go wrong with “Oh, that’s a neat name!” Neat is a good all-purpose adjective, and slightly less overused than “unique”.
Awhile back I was hanging out with a German guy with a last name that honestly, I’d be surprised if he heard it pronounced correctly even 1% of the time by non-German speakers (of which there are many here in the States). There’s two of those lovely German r’s and an umlauted o; I can approximate it fairly well because I’ve studied some German and a lot of French.
I asked him, “How do you tell Americans to pronounce your name?” His reply was, “I don’t. However they pronounce it, I tell them it’s right.”
My last name is Polish, so I certainly feel the OP’s pain.
When I was working in a call center, there was a woman that I and some of my co-workers had to deal with several times over the course of a few months whose last name was either Dichlich or Dicklich and, of course, it was pronounced “dick-lick”. The first time I talked to her, I pronounced it “dick-lish”, hoping either that it was right or that she wouldn’t bother to correct me, but she did in a very low voice that said to me that she’d had to do that way too many times in her life (or at least her married life, as the case may have been). Nice lady, though.
I have a common first name but a very unusual last name–it’s only shared by thirty people in the US, and we’re all related. However, it sounds exactly as it’s spelled, and shouldn’t be that hard for English speakers to pronounce. But I almost never get the right pronunciation! You would think, using Occam’s razor, that the best way to pronounce an unusual word is phonetically, since that’s usually how names are pronounced, but there’s so many people who mangle up my name on a daily basis that it’s clear some people never learned the fundamentals of phonics. And when people spell it out, it’s even worse. I’ve had people misspell my name with the wrong letter at the beginning. Occam’s razor, people–is it more likely that my name begins with an S or a Cz? Think about it.
My first name (Erica) isn’t mispronounced, but I do get the other spelling sometime since my last name has a K in it. I figure people think my first name has a K for balance. That’s not a problem, though, except if it’s someone I’ve known for years that still does it. Then I get a little peeved.
My mum’s name is Gay. People seem allergic to that and most strangers spell it Gaye. It drives her nuts.
My name is Mikel Lynn. It’s spelled phonetically so you can pronounce it.
No it does not rhyme with nickel.
No it is not Michelle. (Please don’t tell me what my name is, thank you.)
No my parents did not want a boy.
Yes it is an unusual name. Unless you are Italian. Because it’s Americanized for Michaeleane, which nobody can spell or pronounce which is why it is spelled phonetically!
That being said, I’ve had my name mispronounced at me for 35 years. :dubious:
Hey, continuity eror, there are probably about thirty people in the country with my last name, too, and my father’s side of the family lives in Pennsylvania. It’s probably a long shot, but does any of your family live in East McKeesport?
Hell, when I’m talking to anybody about anything official or for business purposes, I’ll say and spell both my first and last names.
Although, for some reason, if people just see my last name written without me pronouncing it, half of them get it wrong. It’s Saunders, but for some reason people leave the “u” out and pronounce it Sanders. This has happened the last couple of times I shopped at Safeway using my Safeway club card. I’ve gotten tired of correcting the cashiers, so I’ve been letting it slide.
This might be the fault of some of the Saunders I’ve met who have instructed me to pronounce it “Sanders.”
It’s spelled with a u but they tell you not to pronounce it? Strange.
My wife did genealogy a few years back on our families, and found out that the name came from the Scottish Alexanders and down through the years, got shortened and changed into Sanders and Saunders. I’ve always thought that if the name had a u in it, it was meant to be pronounced. This is the first I’ve heard of anybody wanting to keep it silent.
Substituting Fyodor for my first name, and Bukowski for my last name, and substituting Mr. Delugas for a substitute teacher’s name, because that was, in fact, his name:
(note: Mr. Delugas (Day-loo-gaa) has a comically exagerrated French accent)
EARLIER THIS YEAR:
Mr. Delugas: Fyodor? Is Fyodor here? Ahh, Fyodor, that sounds like a Russian name. Are you Russian, Fyodor?
Gadfly: No, actually. There’s a story behind that.
Mr. Delugas: Aha. And Bukowski! That sounds very much like Russian, too! Oh, but if you switch a letter, it becomes [this makes more sense with my real name, folks] Bokowski! Very French! I am French, you know!
Gadfly, grinning uneasily: I’ve noticed. Thank you, though, that’s not something I’ve heard very often.
SLIGHTLY LATER THIS YEAR:
Mr. Delugas: And Mr. Fyodor? I assume he is here?
Gadfly: Yes.
Mr. Delugas: Fyodor, eh? Hmm, that sounds very Russian to me.
Gadfly: Yes, well, you see, my father…
Mr. Delugas: And Bukowski! Russian too! It fits! Although, with a slight modification, it could be a French name! I would suspect that you, Mr. Bukowski, have French roots, as well, no?
Gadfly: Not exactly, but close, it’s…
Mr. Delugas: Aha! I knew it!
TWO WEEKS AGO:
Mr. Delugas: Fyodor! Is Fyodor here?
Gadfly, silently sliding towards the edge of his seat as he awaits the inevitable re-dissection of his name, wondering, hoping, if Mr. Delugas will remember how many hundreds of times he’s gone over this and over this, and honestly, his ass is getting pretty close to falling off, it’s sort of like a cherub on the head of a pin, except his ass isn’t much of a cherub, and the pin isn’t a pin, moreso a slab of cheap plastic covered in tacky wood veneer: Yes.
Mr. Delugas: Fyodor! That sounds very much like a Russian name! I would place a bet on you having Russian roots, no?
Gadfly, silently kneading his knuckles and slowly sliding back into the chair, but not out of danger yet, as inner turmoil and anxiety threatens to drag him into a yawning pit of dementia, at the bottom of which lies a viscous, bubbling pool of madness and despair, the fumes of which are slowly reaching Gadfly’s olfactory devices, smelling much like turpentine and rubber, baked in the fires of Hades: …Well…
Mr. Delugas: Bukowski! Russian, too! But read another way, it could be French! Very French indeed! Extremely French! Your roots must lie somewhere in France, as well!
Gadfly, as he feels frustration, rage, and the urge to strike out, to flail madly against life’s unfortunate circumstance, at Mr. Delugas’ continuosly failing memory, indeed, at fate itself, which at the moment seems like a giant, meaty fist, dangling a bundle of dollar bills in front of Gadfly’s figure, only to snatch it away and beat him to near-death with it, coursing through his veins: I… I think I need to go to the washroom.
I worked at GEICO in a call center. We had to use our first and last names on the phone when introducing ourselves. My first name is Teresa. I’ve been called Tracy, Patricia, and Jennifer.
My last name is strange but sounds like a b-list celeb’s. I had to at least daily say, “No, not at all related. In fact, his name has an ‘n’ in it and mine clearly does not, which you would have noticed had you cared.” (paraphrazed)
Usually I just get “How is that spelled?!” or “That’s a mouthfull!” but one charming gentleman blurted “Gee, you must have been made fun of in high school!” Thank you, sir, for reminding me.
I kept wishing, as I read this thread, that everyone would simply go ahead and tell us their names instead of saying what it is or what people say it is or whatever. You’re complaining about how people try to pronounce your name, so maybe you could inform those of us who are INTERESTED!
ahem.
I always marvelled at how people, all across the board, with only one or two exceptions, would always try to add letters to my last name, “C-H-O.” Of course I understand that there would be many misspellings & mispronunciations, but jeez you’d think that after a few attempts you’d just try “Cho” rhymes with doe or slow or throw or toe.
You’ve tried chow and chew, so why not try cho? or alternatively, can I just have three letters in my last name??
Me: “C-H-O”
other person: …yes,…? that’s it?
me: yes, just C-H-O.
other person: Oh!
me inside my brain: eggZACTly!
Then my uncle was visiting from Korea (which is an awfully strange place, where EVERYBODY has black hair, and there are other people named “Cho”!)(is this how it feels to be in the majority?) and I pointed out a ginko tree.
uncle: ginkow?
me: no, gingko - oh. Oh.
uncle: ginkCOW?
me: ginkCOH! Gingko!
me, w/dawning realization: hmmm I’m from Baltimore, MAYBE I have an ACCENT! MAYbe it SOUNDS (if you’re not a native English speaker and are unfamiliar with how we pronounce things in English) like I’m saying, “OW” when I’m trying to “OH.” OHHHH! :eek:
hence, all the conversations like
me: no that’s all, just C-H-O.
person: C-H-L?!
me thinking huh?how’d you get that?: no, O-O-O. C-H-OOOOHHH.
course, it would certainly help if other Koreans before me had spelled things simply and logically instead of CHEOUGH or CHIU or CHOWE and Seoul who in the world would spell something like that? tut, tut. :o
When I’m meeting someone, it’s as if I cannot physically hear what the person is saying, until they spell it for me, kind of like the poster above whose post I cannot see at the moment so yes I’ve forgotten her name even though this is written and therefore spelled out. Oy.
All I hear is “wha-wha(Charlie Brown’s teacher talking)” But once they spell it, I can pick out the consonants, at least. oh, Eamon, or Kieran, or Amelie, or Cyara, or Danielle pronounced donel with no i because your father thought it sounded like a boys name! Ohhh!
unless of course it’s Irish or Gaelic in which case it has no relationship to any letters I know. OK, I can handle “SheVONNE” for Siobhan, but some of the other stuff…
That said, I agree w/those who favor calling people whatever they (or their parents) want to be called, as long as they’re willing to be patient with others. If you’re gonna name a Korean kid “Alastair,” like my brother & his wife did, don’t get all huffy b/c people try “Alice-STAIR” since that’s what it looks like, instead of AlastER.
For heavens sake didn’t the Korean church folk have a tough enough time with your first son, Stewart? Sssseh tooooo uhh?..??rr?? uhtukheh (how?) yahh, uhrhyup-da! (it’s difficult!) They never even got Suzy right. Sssoohjee!
Maybe that’s why Korean people don’t address one another by their Christian names at all. Other adults are “Bob’s mother” or “Mary’s dad” even if they’re your buddies. Couples don’t use each others names, it’s yuh-boh! Hey spouse! Actually, it may be hey Wife, I think women usually say “Karen’s daddy,” even if they’re married to Karen’s daddy.
Of course, there’s also my cousin, who calls her husband, Older Brother.
A lot of people here are either scared, nervous, or, for some other reason, don’t want to say their real name. If someone posts about their name, without giving it, they’re doing it on purpose.
No, most of us live an hour south of Pittsburgh. That would be one freaky coincidence, though!