You must be Australian. That’s the only place which draws this distinction.
These threads always make me sad about my name. It’s hard knowing so many people must have negative thoughts and feelings about my name. I didn’t choose it, so I don’t take it personally in that way, but on the other hand, it’s me, you know?
When I have to explain it to people, I usually say “it’s just Brenda with a y instead of an e” and sometimes add that my parents condemned me to a lifetime of having to spell my name.
“It’s Gwendolen, G-w-e-n-d-o-l-E-n.”…
Person loses interest/attention or assumes they know the spelling (but, why do you think I’m spelling it??) and materials come back with “Gwendolyn”.
I’d try “Gwendolen with an e at the end” but I’d get Gwendolyne.
I know Gwendolyn is more common but it is supposedly a variant of Gwendolen, and my parents weren’t trying to be dyffarent.
I have to agree. I have known women with that name spelled both ways and I never heard nor ever would have guessed that they were pronounced differently.
It’s even worse if the name is a real word. I saw a woman whose nametag said “Chastady.” Were her parents unaware that the name “Chastity” is also a common word? Or were they bad spellers who couldn’t be assed to look the name up? either way, she might as well have been wearing a tag that said “My parents are ignoramuses.”
Well, a FOAF always pronounces hers “Sara-no-h”, enough that people now call her that as her name. 
To make it more confusing, I’ve met Sara(h)s of both spellings who have insisted on both pronunciations - that is, I’ve met Sarahs who pronounce it sah-rah, and Saras who pronounce it sair-ah, as well as the other way around. Big Brother Australia in the early 2000s had contestants named Sara-Marie and Sahra, and if I recall correctly they both pronounced their name as sair-ah.
There is a high school girl that works as a checker where I buy groceries. He name tag says “Extacy”
Ouch.
Apart from the shitty spelling, did her parents want her to be a stripper when she grew up? Because that’s the only profession I can think of where that name would work in her favour.
Sorry, fat fingers Her name tag says “Extacy”
My knee-jerk reaction is that it’s ok because I can concievably get mee-gan out of that.
If I saw it on my card before giving a tour I would say “megan” but once you say "it’s actually “mee-gan” I would re-read your name and understand it.
So you’re cool in my book!
…but just barely ;)
Goofy spelling is marginally worse, simply because of job applications and potential for prejudice. I’m not sure I’d consider a Steave or a Nyjella for a position, all else equal. Steve or Nigella, yes. Towanda, yes. If I mispronounce Twombly as Toomly, I won’t be mad at myself, and I won’t be mad at Twombly.
A suggestion for those with pretentious or unpronounceable names: Get used to being addressed as "Heighyyeugh. Pronounced, "Hey, you’
Not this Australian. I pronounce them the same.
I’d say crazy pronunciations, but only because I find an unusual spelling easier to remember, especially if I’m used to pronouncing the word differently. I’m someone who still instinctively reads “hyperbole” as “hyperbowl” and has to mentally correct it. (But I found “calliope” easy because I barely ever said it.)
Neither really bother me too much unless the name also sounds stupid or has unfortunate implications.
Have you tried not reducing the last e, so the last e has the same vowel as the first e? That’s how I would say it my head to remember which spelling to use.
I do that with pen and pin, even though most people I know around here pronounce them the same way.
I once had a class with three Sarahs, all spelled differently, but all pronounced the same. I have heard of people who pronounce Sara(h) as Sah-rah, but never had a girl in class who pronounced it that way.
Now Andrea. I had two Andreas one year, and one was Ann-dreea and the other was Ahn-draya. Of course Ahn-draya never told the teachers how it was pronounced, and never corrected us. She just waited until her mother came in and yelled at us for mispronouncing her daughter’s name.
Part of my job is to ensure that a person’s name is spelled correctly. A few times, my conversation has been…
Me- …and the first name is?
Caller - Gregg
Me - is that two g’s or three?
Caller - (giggles) two!
Me - so that’s “G-R-E-G”
Caller - no… it’s “G-R-E-G-G”
Me - that’s three (and laughing raucously inside)
aaahhhh… I KILL me!
I bet I’d say two, also figuring you meant at the end rather than the whole name, and probably before you got the word three out of your mouth.
That’s because I sometimes anticipate, and sometimes hear what I expect a person to say. And I have certainly made mistakes with both.
I know what you mean; my name is spelled with an “I” at the end. As a little kid, I thought it was pretty nifty to be different, until I realized that I could never get anything preprinted with my name spelled correctly at places like Disneyland. Then I got on board with the whole “spelled with an I is a bimbo thing”, seemingly forgetting that my own damned named is spelled the “bimbo” way :smack: I’m pretty much over both of those things now, but the mind does boggle how someone could pronounce “Shari” as “Sharry” (rhyming with “starry”).
<Monica Geller> That’s not even a word! <MG>