Why the hell do people always pronounce my step dad’s last name as C R Y? Its Cyr. The Y comes after the R. One asshole called up and asked for a Mr. Socum. I asked how that was spelled. He said,“C y r.” I reiterated it, and so did he. He could not for the life of him, figure out what was wrong with that. Its a very common name pronounced… “Sear”. Not Sire, not Cry, not Socum. What the fuck? Who elses last name is murdered by telemarketers?
My last name is eleven letters long and Dutch.
It actually makes for a very good screening process. If someone calls up and says “Hello, is Mr. . . long pause” I hang up.
– Zilch
Pardon my ignorance, but how does anyone get Socum out of Cyr?
HenrySpencer
Wow! my last name is Dutch and eleven letter too!
I lived with a woman who’s last name was Nageon de Lestang.
All the telemarketers got that one wrong!
Osip
My last name (before I changed it) was Cvercko. It’s pronounced pretty much how it looks: sver’-co. For some reason, most people are unable to pronounce it without flip-flopping the V and the R and adding an N, to make it ser-venk-o. I have never been able to understand where this comes from.
But from my experience, sk8rixtx, I’d bet the people who are pronouncing it “Cry” are assuming it must be a typo. (I used to have a friend named Jorn who was always addressed by strangers as John, assuming that Jorn just couldn’t be right.) When I would subscribe to magazines, or get on any kind of mailing list, often someone would “correct” the spelling of my name for me. Usually the second C would be the first to go. Then they’d usually put an E between the C and the V for me, because obviously I left it out, and Cvercko would evolve, in steps, to Ceverko. This helpfulness happened many times.
Another odd thing was spelling it for people. I finally changed it to my mother’s maiden name because A), my dad is a dick and I have no urge to carry his name around, and B), I got tired of spelling Cvercko over the phone: “C as in Charles, V as in Victor, E, R, C as in Charles, K, O.” No way I could just spell it; that would take twice as long. “Z?” “No, V.” “Z?” “NO! V! V! as in Victor!” etc.
Spelling it in person was equally weird. I’d say the name, and if I wasn’t really fast, whoever was writing it down would automatically start it with an S. And even if I beat them to it, and made eye contact while saying “Cvercko. That’s C . . .” Literally nine times out of ten they’d write S anyway and have to correct it.
So in other words,sk8rixtx, quit complaining ;)–you only have three letters to worry about.
"McLauchlin.
"That’s em-cee, ell-ay-youSEEaitch - " (have to rush before they assume a gee-aitch…)
“…ell-eye-enn.”
“Em-cee, ell-ay-you-see as in Charles-aitch-ell-eye-enn.”
“See! See as in Charles!”
“Thank you, I believe I know how to spell my own name!!”
Interestingly enough, English people always hassle me about it, and French people never do. I guess to the French it’s unfamiliar enough that they actually bother to listen to me spell it. (“Em-say-ell-ah-ü-say-ash-ell-ee-enn.”)
It’s “Warns.” Five simple letters. A common English word. It is not “Warms” nor “Warrens” nor “Warner.” Twice in my life someone has guessed the spelling right on the first try.
Oh yeah, and it’s “Roza”, not Rosa, or Rosso.
It’s also NOT pronounced fuckin [mexican tongue roll on]R-r-r-r-r-o-o-o-s-s-s-s-a.[/mexican tongue roll off].
and NO I’m NOT of Mexican/Latino descent.
Christ almighty.
-Sam
No, you didn’t “see a puddy tat” and I don’t want to chase Tweety Bird.
You can figure out my last name on your own.
–Tim
Mine is 12 letters long and Italian. It also has the vexing “lg” combination, which is usually pronounced with a “yuh” sound.
(example: Actor Anthony LaPaglia.
It’s not “La-Pag-Lee-Ah”, it’s “La-Pal-Yuh.”
I like when telemarketers call and completely mangle my name, because I can truthfully say, “There’s no one here by THAT name” and hang up.
Duh. What an idiot. I screwed up my own name. It’s not the “LG” combination, it’s the “GL” combo.
My maiden was terrible. I got teased endlessly for it as a child, and adults laugh when they hear it. Cheeseman. Cheese man. As if it isn’t bad enough, no one could pronounce or spell it. They always pronounced it chess man, chessy man and often not bother. Spelling it was worse. If they bothered to ask, after I told them it would be “Oh, just the way it sounds” well duh. If they didn’t I’d get Cheezman, Chessman, or something completely unrecognizable.
Once we ordered from Domino’s, and they called us back because they thought it was a prank. Who would lie about having such an embarrassing name?
I’ve actually known people named Cervenko and Cervenka. Could be they did too and it was the closest thing they could come up with on short notice. 
maiden name
ARGH!
Socum?
: snort giggle :
Okay, I gotcha here. My maiden name was…
Wait for it…
SWEAT.
Yessiree. People want to pronounce it Sweet, I guess because they can’t believe anyone would seriously be saddled with that for a last name.
Believe it or not, I get loads of people asking me how to spell my last name. (Yes, it really is “Duke.”)
My wife’s maiden name was Siân Piggott, which led to endless confusion when her family moved to France. After a while she just accepted being called “Jeanne Pigot” (pronounced zheean pee-ZHOA).
My last name is hyphenated . . . fun fun fun. People just cannot spell it without having a copy of the alphabet handy. Got to the point where we do not give our actual last name for phone orders if we can manage it. When I hear a “Is mr. kilmer there?” I hang up. Get the fuckin’ name right! The first part of the last name ain’t his middle name, fucko! It’s HYPHENATED! NOT a hard concept to grasp.
This is one reason I may change my name if/when I get married.
My last name is West - “like the direction” usually takes care of spelling.
My daughter’s name is Sarah - with an “h”… and when I specify “with an h”, we often get either Shara or Sarha. EEEEESH!! Is it that difficult?
[quote]
So in other words,sk8rixtx, quit complaining --you only have three letters to worry about.
–lissener [\quote]
Ah lissener, I never mentioned my last name, just my stepfather’s. Mine is Venoutsos. Go ahead, try it. 9 letters of pure Greek carnage.