Why is the quarterback of the Green Bay Packers referred to as “Farve,” when his name is spelled “Favre?” I consistently pronounce it “fav-ray,” and people look at me like I’m an idiot! I explain to them that I am not dyslexic, but the rest of the nation is. He himself (Fav-ray) even pronounces it “wrong!” Am I the only one to wonder about this dichotomy?
No, you’re not. I went to the same high school at Favre, and there are another hundred Favre’s there, too, who all pronounce it that way. It’s what happens when generations of southerners try to pronounce the French “Favre” (think: fahv[sub]ruh[/sub]). Eventually the “ruh” (note: not “ray”) just drifted off into nothingness.
Sounds like you’re the one in the wrong here, especially if he pronounces it “Farve”.
I mean, it’s his name, and presumably he would know how it’s supposed to be said. The spelling/pronounciation thing might just be some weird thing that happens when a name is brought from one language to another.
Yeah, names do weird things over time. I recently learned upon getting a new copy of my birth certificate that my name, at least in the mid 1980’s, was split into two separate chunks with a space in between. While this would nicely solve the problem everybody seems to have with correctly pronouncing my name (the split is between a “c” and an “H”, which combined do not evidently make the soft “ch” sound everyone expects it to in my name), I’m rather accustomed to my name being one big piece with a confusing capital H in the middle of it, so I filed the paperwork with my new employer (US Air Force) to specify that my name should be spelled as one word on all official documents and nametags.
I thought it was pronounced Fronkensteen.
I thought it was pronounced “Throatwarbler Mangrove”?
More seriously, the correct pronunciation of a name is pretty much whatever the bearer of said name says it is. And especially for names imported from another language, the Americanized pronunciation may not agree with the common interpretation of the spelling.
My family name, for example, has a silent K as the first letter. If you pronounce my name with the K, you’re saying it wrong, spelling be damned.
And if you pronounce that football player’s name as “fav-ray”, then don’t be surprised at the funny looks you get, because the rest of the world isn’t dyslexic, and you’re not saying it correctly.
Presumably he’d go well with a census taker and a nice glass of chianti.
If you’re trying to give it a French pronunciation, unless I’m badly misremembering my French, it’d only be pronounced like that if it was spelled “Favré.” As spelled, I think the final “e” in “Favre” should be silent, so the name would be pronounced more like “Fahv-r” with the “r” being very subtle and almost “swallowed up” when you say it, if that makes any sense.
I agree that the name should be pronounced the way the owner of the name specifies. If he wants to be “Farve” so be it.
That said, I still have a hard time with Duke’s basketball coach, Mike Krzyzewski. No matter how hard I try, I can’t get “Chi-chef-ski” out of that spelling.
Pasta pretty much nailed it, although the “ruh” didn’t drift away. Instead, it got displaced. Names that go from one language to another often get transformed. In the original language, Favre is not pronounced Farv, but in the area where Favre grew up, that’s the way they pronounce it. Sounds weird to my ear, but who the hell cares about that? Most people don’t spend one second thinking about the way they pronounce words – they just pronounce 'em the easiest way they know how or the way everyone else pronounces 'em.
Anyone care for an or durv?
That reminds me of an old Air Force buddy. His last name was spelled Beauchamp. It looks like “bo champ” or “bo kamp” he pronounced it “beach um”. His last name also looks very French in origin.
That’s the usual southern pronunciation of Beauchamp.
Ultimately, though, you determine how your own name is pronounced.
OK, how do you actually pronounce “Nguyen”?
I’ve alway heard it pronounced gwin
At least that’s how the poker player pronounces it.
I think it’s “Gwin.” I’ve heard it said also with a slightly airy leading “n” sound too.
I always put a ever-so-slighty gulpish thing at the beginning and pronounce it “Gwin”
Incidently, I just thought it was randomly funny that the first two replies to this post, almost simultaneously, were from a guy named pasta and a guy named for a brand of spaghetti sauce. 
That’s the way we were taught, with the slightly airy “N”, almost as if you ran the word “win” real close together with another word that ended with an “n” as in “Fun Win”
Yeah, I guess my description of the leading “N” was off. It is more of a gulpy sound.
I didn’t think the “g” in Nguyen was heard–don’t you say “(n)win” not “(n)gwin”?
OK, thanks everyone! This just proves my pathetic phonetic attempt of “neh-joo-yen” was fucking way wrong.