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I always thought that the late Ideas host was somewhat pretentiously introducing himself as “Mr. Sinclair.” Naturally, he later turned out to be Lister Sinclair.
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One of the signs of being a true New Democrat is being able to spell “Judy Wasylycia-Leis.” I wonder how many people would, upon hearing it spoken, be able to deduce that there was even a hyphen and where to put it.
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It took me quite some time to realize that “Vic Thaves” and “Vic Toews” were actually the same person (the latter).
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I was also somewhat startled to realize that Connie “Lallaberty”'s last name was actually the much easier to analyze Laliberté.
I doubt many would have guessed that “Dusty Rhodes” is spelled “Virgil Runnels” on his paychecks 
I’m embarassed at how long it took me to figure out the pronunciation of Nguyen.
There’s always Ralph Feinnes.
Who knew ‘Sinjin Alexander’ was actually spelt ‘St. John’? More to the point, what vicious meanie would name a kid after a saint complete with the saint part?
Umm… can I be more embarrased than you? I have absolutely no idea how it’s said.
Classic example is the surname Featherstonehaugh; pronounced ‘Fanshaw’
Tagliapharo/Tolliver/Tagliafaro
When Vietnamese started arriving in Australia, locals pronounced Nguyen as “New-an”, as in “New-an Used Cars”. The Vietnamese will still probably not correct you, but you don’t hear it much these days, and it’s total butchery.
Most English speakers can get by with simply pronouncing it “Win”. This isn’t perfect, but the Vietnamese person you’re speaking to won’t be offended. If you want to go one better as an English speaker, try “Nwin”. And if you think you can do the “ng” nasal thing at the start of a word, then by all means try “Ngwin”.
There’s no actual ‘w’ sound (W doesn’t exist in Vietnamese), so try to go easy on that part. Maybe “Ngoo-in” is a better way to describe it.
I use to think there were two rap stars, the one I heard about named “Fiance,” and the one I read about named “Be-younce.” :smack:
Ioan Gruffudd is apparently pronounced something like Owen Griffith. All I know is he’s cute.
I’ve never heard of any of these people. Except Ralph Feinnes. And Beyonce.
This confuses me.
Are you saying that “ngu yen” is not a good pronunciation of Nguyen? 'Ng" as in sing, ‘u’ as in blue, then ‘yen’ as in the name of the Japanese currency? Because I have never had any problem starting off words with the ‘ng’ sound.
Not famous, I know, but there was a radio D.J. named – well, I really don’t know.
Chris Delaine?
Crista Lane?
Crystal Lane?
Chris Tulaine?
Each time she’d say it: a new possibility.
When I was in high school, it really did take me a while to realize that “In Excess” and “INXS” were the same band.
I am by no means familiar with the Vietnamese language, but it seems to me like you’re advocating a phonetic pronunciation: you want to say it the way it’s spelled. I can’t speak to the “ng” or “u” parts, but the Nguyens who I’ve known have always pronounced the end of their name with an “i” sound (as in “win”), not an “e” sound (as in “yen”). A man with that name who I used to work with told me to just say “Win,” and that’s how I continue to say it to this day. When I try to get any fancier – like by adding an “n” or “ng” at the beginning – I worry that I sound like I think I know how to pronounce Vietnamese. 
Not to leave out St. John Lord Merridew and Oliver St. John-Mollusc.
There’s a TV presenter over here who for years I thought was called Tiffany Dell. Slightly odd name for a man, I thought, but hey, it’s a free country. Then one time his name came up on a caption - Tiff Needell.
Hey, all bets are off with Gaelic names, at least for a sassenach. There’s Irish author Eoin Colfer of Artemis Fowl fame, for example. He’s another “Owen”. I hear that Irish orthography is actually quite consistent once you know the rules, though.
Willard Espy tells the anecdote of the gentleman who entered a bookstore in NYC seeking a book by “HILLary BELLock.” The sales clerk corrected him, saying that the author’s name was “eeLAIR Bel OAK” but that the book was out of stock and would have to be ordered. The customer agreed, and when the clerk asked who was to be notified that the book had arrived, the customer spelled out H-i-l-a-i-r-e B-e-l-l-o-c.
One of my favorite ghost stories, “The Beckoning Fair One,” was written by Oliver Onions. It came as a surprise to me to learn that he pronounced his last name “oh-NY-uns.” I had always thought of him as a pungent vegetable. In fact, when I see the name, I still have a hard time thinking “oh-NY-uns.”
This reminds me a bit of a local thing. I live in northeastern Oklahoma, the home of the Native American tribe known as the Osage. Osage County occasionally appears in the news. When TV news people pronounce this as “oh-SAGE,” as if it is an Irish surname, rather than “OH-sage,” which is the prevalent pronunciation, we always know that we have a new TV reporter from outside Oklahoma.