Obviously “Napples” is, and forever will be, a Classic!!
But today at the gate, the SP called me Corporal Nen-Non! (Pronounced like Krypton) Kinda cool, like an evil alien warlord or something. It immediately reminded me of how Kane (or was it Kodos) pronounced Clinton’s name. “Take me to this, Clin-Ton” What I’m wondering, is does my name really need another “N”??? Three’s not enough so he randomly adds one to the end?? Ha ha!
On my ID badge for the Dolphin and Whale Hospital, my name was mistyped as “Nemo”. I got a laugh out of that one! I left it as is for a couple reasons. It’s funny. An M does look like two Ns. Nemo is a fish, and well… did I mention what kind of hospital it was?
And even when people can spell it. They have a hard time saying it. Most of the time it is pronounced “Neenno”. Which is incorrect, but I’ve become kinda used to it. Pronounced properly, the E is short. Like in the word “Ten”. Or like in “Leno”, but with an “N” not an “L”
Go ahead, make up new words to slaughter my name. Or share stories of how your name gets butchered on a regular basis.
Alas, my “single-T” Paterson has not been subjected to such tortures as you describe; nevertheless, I have always gotten a kick out of the proper Scottish pronunciation of the handle (note - phoenetic rendering is sophomoric at best!): “Paah-tayr-SOON”.
Dom. Just three little letters, but they cause unending trouble for some people.
Pronounced with a short ‘o’, but pronouncing it ‘dome’ is fine too. We’re really not picky. The problem is with the people that can’t believe there aren’t supposed to be more letters. I tell them “Dom, D - O - M”, and then they sit there, pen poised, waiting for the rest of the letters. I guess they get a lot of people who spell their names “John, J - O - H - N, son, S - O - N”.
Or, they say “Is that all?” Yeah, I always tell people just the first half of my name, and if they can guess the rest they get a prize!
And I always know it’s my turn when someone calls “Mr. … (ugh, this can’t be right, there must be something missing here) … D … Do…” —“That’s me!”
All through school not a single teacher pronounced it correctly, nor was it ever spelled right. According to my father it is Danish. People looking at it think Italian or Spanish. Personally I have no idea, but I assume my father knows for sure.
Christiana. Pretty simple. But it spawns the following:
Heh. You wouldn’t have that problem in Detroit, thanks to Dom Hasek.
If I ever get my butt in gear and marry the man I’m dating (and it will happen, we just haven’t gotten our butts in gear and made plans yet) the combination of my first name and his last name looks like it rhymes. It doesn’t. It’ll never be pronounced correctly paired with my name though. It’ll be such a cutesy-wootsy name that when we realized it, he apologized like crazy and said he’d never ask me to take it if I didn’t want to. He was afraid it might be a deal-breaker, that I wouldn’t marry him if I had to have that name.(!) That’s how bad it is.
My take is, I’d still be better off than a “Dolly” I once knew who was married to a man named “Dolle” (also pronounced Dolly.) Why she didn’t go by Dorothy, I’ve never known. But no, she was fine being Dolly Dolle.
Escue. It’s pronounced exactly the way it’s spelled, and it’s spelled exactly the way it sounds. But nobody gets it right. What’s really strange is, there are several Escues in the small town I live in, and we’re not related to any of them. There’s even a guy with my husband’s first name, who has a son with my son’s first name.
The first four letters of my last name spell a word for a bodily function. That has caused a neverending fount of fun and frivolity through the years. :rolleyes:
My maiden name was also a huge pain. It was Kight. I can’t tell you how many times people thought it was Knight, or if I told them, they’d spell it Kite.
If I had a nickel for every kid in grade school who told me to “go fly a kite!” I’d have been a rich woman living off the interest now.
I’m sooooo glad I’m married and I have a much easier name to deal with.
My last name is van Niekerk. I think I’ve met one person who pronounced it right the first time. It’s not really that difficult is it? To my husband’s chagrin, I Americanized the pronunciation, and tell everyone it’s “Van Knee Kirk”, although it should technically be something resembling “Fun Knee Kairk” At Blockbuster, where they “greet you by name, or your next rental is free!” they’ve resorted to calling me Mrs. V.
Why they don’t just use my first name is beyond me.
McLauchlin. Pronounced (but not spelt) like Sarah, Audrey, Murray, Group, etc.
I like my name but it is a pain and a half sometimes. In English Canada it’s the spelling; in French Canada they’ve never seen it before so they look up the spelling, which is kind of nice. I respond to (but correct) pronunciations such as “McLofflin,” “McGockin,” “Mifflofflin,” etc.
Yes, I’ve heard the Chewbacca joke before. In 1977. When Star Wars first came out. Second grade. sigh Grah-rah-rah.
I’m sure it’s not Chinese. Really. My Great-great grandfather fought in the Civil War. His grandfather fought in the Revolution. His grandfather settled in Jamestown, so we’ve been here a while.
Bless-you. Yes, I got the joke.
Choo-choo train. I hadn’t heard that before.
The most original nick-name I had was “Blind-man”, because everyone knows if you masticate, you’ll go blind.
My first name is Louis, but I live in Miami, so I’m ALWAYS “Luis,” the Hispanic spelling and pronunciation. Of course, sometimes people surprise me and spell it “Lois” (help, Superman!) or Lewis. But never Louis.
Lamon. Pronounced with a long “a” so it sounds like Lay-mon. Is it really all that hard? Still I get it pronounced with the short “a” sound all the time. I correct. I get the short “a”. It. Ain’t. That. Hard. Hell, I live in the southern USA. We drag out all sorts of words. You’d think people would be happy with that. But no!
Also, there is no “Y” in the spelling of my name. When I am spelling it for you I spell L-A-M-O-N. So, why in hell did you put that Y in the middle of it? Oh my favorite of all was BankAmerica (where I no longer bank BTW). On my checks I get Lemon. I take em back to get it corrected. It comes back Laymon. Nope I say, do it again. I get Layman. Nope. Try again. Lehman. Nope. Once more. Leman. Close but not yet. Loman. Ok, I give up. I move my account to a bank that <gasp> can actually spell my name! I get my last statement from BankAmerica. It’s addressed to Lemon. :rolleyes:
And to all you smartasses who are about to address me as Lemon, and you know who you are, I say…
My name has been misheard by hostesses at restaurants as “Brew,” “True,” and “Chew.” So, I usually give my name as “Titanic.” Gets some strange looks, but no one ever asks how to spell it, it’s easy to pick out over the intercom, and there’s never another “Titanic” party on the list.
Depends on what your first name is. When my husband and I bought our house, the guy that handled the closing for us was named Dick Weiner. I sat there, signing my name over and over, trying not to giggle.
I still remember it, 10 years later. I am such a child. :rolleyes:
My maiden name sounds like a fart. Not the word “fart”, but if you tried to spell the sound a fart makes. Infact! once when we were dating, my husband was so proud of himself because he farted my last name. :rolleyes:
