“Is Mr. Mack Leroy there?”
“It’s McElroy.”
“Sir, would you like to…”
“doh!”
My name is McElroy. Not McLeroy, not McElory. It’s not that hard, and I don’t get mad if you say mickelroy. I prefer Mackaroy, personally. People are retarted, especially when I say my name is Toby. “Tony?” NO YOU FUCKING RETARD, TOBY, LIKE THE DOG YOU USED TO HAVE? LIKE KUNTA FUCKING KENTE? You got it now? “Oh yeah, I used to have a dog named Toby.” good go blow that dog, you smegfuck.
wow! my last name is Dutch and 9 letters long. but it’s a doozy. Petroelje. the oe gets people off balance, and bam, the je knocks 'em for a loop. a hearty congratulations to whoever can figure out how to pronounce it.
Pitrogee… a soft G right? If not, just start a thread and flame me. I deserve it.
not even close. thanks for playing, tho.
A monkey for anyone who can guess how to say BigDaddy’s last name.
This is probably wrong, but I’m gonna go with Pe-trol-yuh.
My last name is Doughty. Pronounced Leh-nerd…(cough) Excuse me, pronounced Dow-t. It’s an English word, in the dictionary, and not even my English teachers in school could pronounce it right the first time. I grew to envy people with surnames that were common or even ones that were pronounced phonetically. At work, nobody even uses my last name. I’m just Jay, Jaybird, Birdman, or some derivitave thereof.
My roommate’s got it worse. His name is Poliszuk. It’s Polish (I think) and pronounced Paul-zik. I remind myself of that when I’m tempted to bitch.
My family name is fairly unique-ish, and gets its fair share of mispronunciation. I don’t even bother saying it right, as it’s not worth the effort during the confusion.
But my brother’s first name is Tahu. (good Maori name)
Imagine bad handwriting (which he has) with the T looking like a J, the A an O, and the U an N. Yeah, he got mail for a John. Which is logical I suppose, but still.
My full legal name:
Paul Te Ruahikihiki Kingi-Potiki
The name I go by to save hassle:
Paul Potiki
God damn you, sk8r, why must you taunt me with your monkees?
–Tim
My surname is of German origin but as we are American we pronounce it in English speaking fashion. So Eulert becomes YOO-lert. When I pick up photos , a prescription or something like that the clerks always go for the U bin unless I tell them how the name is spelled. I have had a couple of professors who’s native language was German, who initially pronounce it in the German style OY-lert. My married name had the same EU combo within it and that family change the spelling of the name so people would pronounce it right.
I LOVE waiting for telemarketers to mangle my name. And they usually call me Mrs too. So I put on my best chilly voice and say “this is MS. Eulert” and as they start to stutter I hang up.
There was I kid I went to college with whose name was Slawomir Cymncyk - I think I’m remembering the last name correctly. The punchline being that he had no vowels in it, that I’m sure of. The odd bit was although I guess he was of Russian decent you’d never know that from talking to him. He also went by the first name of Suave, as in Swah-vay, cause who the hell can pronounce Soo-Ah-Voe-Meer?
The last name, by the way, was pronounced Sim-Chick, which phonetically is a very cyber-fun sorta name, ain’t it?
Me, my last name is McDonald, “like the hamburger.” Everybody knows how to spell that - gotta say it fast before they stick in the “A” though, and get ready to answer, “Oh, are you related to Ronald McDonald?” “Gee, you are SO CLEVER! I’d laugh, like I did when I heard that the first time 24 years ago, when I was two, but now I’m thinking maybe it’s gotten a little old so I won’t. Actually, now that I think about it I didn’t think it was funny that time, either.”
my last name has 9 letters and is easily pronounced exactly the way it is spelled, but always mispronounced by jackass telemarketers. it’s usually pronounced correctly by anyone who bothered to learn to read correctly. i think the problem with name mispronunciation is the way reading is taught (or not taught). these people are like deer in the headlights when confronted by a word they’ve never seen. forget phonetics. they either know the word or they don’t and have to make it into a bastardization of some word they’re more familiar with.
peh-trail-yeh?
I think the name most people screw up north of the border is Jesus. When his mother calls him at work she uses the Spanish J, for Christ’s sake (no pun intended), so get used to it. And it’s OK to say Jesus like in English when you’re speaking English. It’s the same name, it’s not suddenly a blasphemy to be giggled at.
My last name is Foery. Pronounced four-ee. 4e. Number letter, alright? Not feary, fury, foray, or ferrari.
I feel better now.
But if the Y comes after the R, doesn’t that make it C-R-Y?
>>>jumping for the bunker<<<
Pee-trolth?
-David
My last name is a seven-letter-long Ellis Island style butchering of the original Russian name. And guess what?: there’s two different spellings of it in the family; one side uses a W the other side uses two Fs. No one has ever gotten the pronounciation correct on the first try, and junk mail always uses all kinds of bastardizations of the name that make it more Anglo than the original.
My last name is a scant 8 letters long, but it’s Czech, and has a silent J smack in the middle. So, like others have posted, I find it handy for weeding out telemarketers.
Although some people just don’t get the hint. One jackass called, asking for Mr. (garbled version of my name), to which I sighed and said, “Close enough. Yes?” His script apparently called for frequent name repetition, because he mauled my name no less than four times before reaching the end of his pitch. I don’t think he ever pronounced it the same way twice.
I said, “Look, I’d never buy anything from someone who doesn’t bother to ask how my name is pronounced and keeps butchering it.” He responded, “But, Mr. (garblegarble), you said I was close enough.” “For the purposes of getting me, not for constant repetition.” And then the brain-dead toad repeated the last line of his script, which included mispronouncing my name AGAIN. “Well, apparently, you’re too stupid to know when to stop, so bye,” said I. UGH!
FTR, my last name is 7 letters long, with 5 vowels, and it’s one syllable. I love confusing people. 