Thirty seven million Germans are probably right in saying that is how a German would pronounce it in Germany or bumfuct Egypt, and to state that, “in Germany one would find it pronounced like this… and isn’t that interesting”? And leave it at that, but to correct someone on how they are SUPPOSED to pronounce their own name and tell them they are WRONG, thats absurd.
If someone wants to call themselves shit and spell it Schitte, its their business., IMO.
I mean, what does telling someone they are wrong on how to pronounce their name get you? Does it cure cancer? Will it bring truth, prosperity, health and life long happiness for you? Probably not.
For me, the problem is people call me the wrong name.
My name is Elizabeth. Yes, I am aware that there are many variations. Although growing up I was called “Beth” (my family and close friends still call me this), in most situations, I use “Elizabeth.” When people ask me if I go by Elizabeth, I say yes.
The problem is, I guess 4 syllables is just too much for some people to spit out. This was particularly bad in high school–many of my teachers shortened it to “Liz.” Did I mention that I really hate the name “Liz?” I even went so far as to tell teachers that I wouldn’t respond to that, as it wasn’t my name. What made it so frustrating was that they would ask me what I wanted to be called, but wouldn’t follow my wishes!
My boss also calls me “Liz.” Did I mention that I don’t like her?
While reading this thread I came up with the retort. The retort to the people who do this.
“Do you want me to think you are stupid?” [Only slight emphasis on “want”].
Best way to get people back for their arrogance.
You could also badly mispronounce their name, on purpose.
I dislike people who mispronounce your name after you have pronounced it for them!
Who misspell it while you are spelling it for them.
People who say Minnuh Sohhhhh tuh after you say “minna soda” to them. There is no place In Minna Soda where they say Minn nuh Sohhh tuh.
People who tell you that you should spell it for people like them, who are stubborn.
How about Vacek?
Why, if you have V - A - C - E - K in front of your face, would you say “vack”?
It’s Vosseck, as in Vlasic pickles, as in the first part of vasectomy, as in FAH ther, as at the dentist you say AH. Every language has the vowel AH.
Question about statistics.
Why do they never ACCIDENTALLY get it right?
How about people who claim you are not where you kum frum?
In the cafeteria:
A: I’d like chow mein, white ri–
B: where do you kumfrum?
A: Minnesota.
B: Yew duon’t syownnd likit.
I feel your pain.
My real name is Elizabeth, but my parents decided to call me Betsey (which is hard enough for some people to spell, as I pointed out in my previous post), which is a nickname for Elizabeth.
All through school, on the first day, teachers would ask me right away, “Do you go by ‘Liz’ or ‘Beth’?” There was always the assumption that I coudn’t go by my full name. Guess four syllables is too long.
Anyway, I would have to tell them that I went by Betsey, and most of them would look at me like I had three heads and ask, “How do you get ‘Betsey’ out of ‘Elizabeth’?”.
My last name is Sons, as in My Three Sons. Not hard at all IMHO. You would not believe the number of people that can’t seem to say that. They insist on using a long o. Just say it like the word you most likely use everyday!! The worst I had was a teacher that would refer to me daily as “Ms. Sowns.” I stopped correcting her after I realized that she was just saying it incorrectly to piss me off.
I thought of another one. My brother’s given name is Robert, but he has gone by Bobby his whole life. My whole family, all of his friends, and generally everyone he knows calls him Bobby. Except his fifth grade teacher. She decided that “Bobby” was an “immature” name and that it was time for him to “grow up” and go by Robert. In the fifth grade. What the heck gives HER the right to decide that what our whole family calls him is “immature”??
Pooh on her. He turned 20 this year and still goes by Bobby.
OK, I have that too. I agree that anyone can demand that his name be pronounced however he wishes, and that’s that.
However–we know a couple named “Kock”. We tried to pronounce it “cock” and were told that the pronunciation is “cook”. We thought, sure it is. But we call them “the Cooks” to their faces.
Privately, we refer to them as the “Putzes” (pronounced Pyewt-zis). Bit of a joke, what?
I grew up with the last name Hubbell. E-L-L…not L-E!! This was a common misspelling, even though I spent the better part of my growing up in one little crap town. They never seemed to learn, even after 17 years, how to spell it. And I just HATED having my name pluralized! Or pronounced HYOO-ble. And for all of those out there who may know a Hubbell (or Hubble), you are NOT being original when you chant “Hubbell, bubble, double trouble.” These same people who couldn’t handle my name, incidentally, had no problem with the name “Dworaczyk.” (Say “der-AH-sick”) That changed in high school, though where they spent the next four years being called “Da-WOR-ski.”
I met someone years ago with the last name Kucewicz. They pronounced it “KYOO-sa-wick.” I later moved to another state and met them again after not having seen them for a couple of years. NOW their name was pronounced “Kuh-SAV-itch” because they had travelled to the country of the name’s origin and had been corrected on it’s pronunciation. Weird.
Am I the only one who remembers the old version of the show “Believe It Or Not” with Jack Palance? He always said his name as “Puh-LANCE,” as did his wife Holly. But all of Hollywood says “PAL-ance.” I guess that the way you want your name said has no real bearing on how others will actually say it, huh?
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by yosemitebabe *
**I have a very lovely first name (I think) which has the letter “q” in it. **
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by featherlou *
**Your name is Chiquita, isn’t it? **
I wondered about this, I bet it’s Jaqueline, which is indeed a lovely name, although I think “Jackie” is a nice nick, which I bet she is pissed off about. “Jaqueline” is to me a very classy name, maybe “Jack” or “Jackie” declassifies it a bit. Especially with a last name like Mehoff.
One of my best friends loves the name Jack. And she wanted to marry a man with the last name of “Hoff.” No, she’s not that cruel. And he’s gay, so problem solved.
What I love is when people mispell a common name because of all the cutesy spellings out there. For example, my name is Amy. Three letters. Easy. A M Y. Amy. Yet the last time I gave it, the lady wrote A M I E. No.
And I was convinced that people usually have problems with my last name (a not very difficult German one).
Please (and I know this will cause much grief), don’t name your kids common names with weird spellings. Take poor Alison’s/Allison’s stories to heart. Don’t do this. If you like a common name, use the common spelling. As an Amy, I find Amie, Amiee, Amye, Aimee, and all the like annoying and pretensious.
I work in a call center. I despise my first name with a passion, so I go by my initials. MJ.
The letter M. The letter J.
For those who might not have heard it the first time, I will cheerfully repeat it. I have a tendency to talk fast, and I know it.
I have been Cindy. I have been Cynthia. I have been Linda. I have been Lindsey. I have been Sanchez. I have been Andre. I have been Andrea. I have been Jamie. I have been JM. I have been Mary Jane. I have been Mary Jo, Marijuana, Honey, and Baby.
The fruck? Do people not listen? MJ. Em-jay. Emmmm-jayyyyy.
Not that hard, really. Two syllables.
My favourite, though, is, “How do you spell that?”
The late humorist, Lewis Grizzard (may he rest in peace), pronounced his last name with emphasis on the last syllable: Grizzard, but the story goes his relatives in Meriwether County, Georgia were Grizzards (to rhyme with blizzard).
Barb and I have always had a problem with pronouncing the name of Doug Mientkiewicz, first baseman for the Minnesota Twins (It’s actually something like m’n-KAY-uh-vitch.) After using MINT-key-witz for a while, trying to learn the correct pronunciation, we ended up calling him “Who.”
I’ve heard of a town spelled “Versailles” that is pronounced “ver-sails” which in that state (Ohio?) is (I guess) the correct pronounciation.
I have a common first name for a last name so people are always calling me by my last name or adding an “s.” I correct them once (more often if it’s for forms or name tags or such) and go with whatever they call me. My sister’s name is “Cynthia” and she’ll have the head of anyone who calls her “Cindy.” Different strokes.
I have a hard enough time with names of people I don’t see frequently that I’m not going to give someone a hard time about mine. Of course, if they told me I was wrong about my name’s pronounciation, I’d be ticked off, too.
PC
P.S.- A pediatrician I’m related to told me about a woman who named her 3 son’s three names that were traditionally nicknames of the same full name (James IIRC or John). She wasn’t doing it to be unique, she didn’t know they traditionally all represented the same name.
My sister is one person to blame. Her legal first name is Amy. A-M-Y. It’s on her birth certificate that way. I know it’s spelled A-M-Y because I’m the one who chose that name when she was born and my parents went with it.
Because it’s A-M-Y on her birth certificate means it’s also A-M-Y on her social security card and drivers license.
Yet when she writes it she spells it Aimmie, just to be “cutesy”.:rolleyes: Which confuses the fuck out of store clerks who see A-M-Y on her drivers license and A-I-M-M-I-E on her checks. Before she married and her last name was still Bietz she always had to explain why she was “spelling her first name wrong as well as pronouncing her last name incorrectly”.
As if it wasn’t a pain in the ass to argue about the pronouncation of her last name, she had to make it even harder on herself and start spelling her first name wrong.
As my brother always says: “Sis isn’t very bright, is she?”
Just another Elizabeth checking in. Elizabeth. Not Liz. I can’t understand why people insist on calling me Liz. Nice people, too. Would you call a James Jim if he introduced himself as James?
That happens to a guy at work. He’s a Michael, not a Mike. Everyone at the office calls him Michael, he calls himself Michael, and I know damn well when he calls customers he tells them his name is Michael. So why is it that at least one person a day calls and asks for “Mike”? It pisses me off for him and I don’t even know if it bothers him.
[quote]
Would anyone here assume that Deanne is pronounced DEEN? Because I got that a lot whenever I had a new teacher. AFAIC, saying dee-ANN is a lot more logical (especially when you consider that most people can say Leanne properly).{/quote]
Well, I wouldn’t but I can see why someone would, considering the number of people I’ve met named “Jeanne” who pronounce it “Jeen”.
