Have you ever had your name pronounced incorrectly? I know my husband is answering with a resounding "yes."
Both Rebecca and Beckie are pretty straight forward, but I have had my fair share of people take liberty with my nickname. I don't mean the endearing kind. I mean the Andrew to Andy or Thomas to Tom kind. At work, I am strictly Rebecca. I always introduce myself as Rebecca, the name by my office door says Rebecca and my business cards (all of them, I checked) say, you guessed it, Rebecca. Yet, I still get Beckie (not so unusual since outside of work that's how I'm known) or Becca (although a beautiful alternative, I am not a Becca) on a pretty regular basis. While not exactly my preference, the nicknames are usually pronounced correctly.
In situations where the mispronunciation is obvious or happens so frequently you start spelling your name phonetically, the solution is obvious, right? Just correctly restate your name, ensure the mispronouncing culprit gets it and moves on. But what about when it's subtle?
I know a lot of Andreas that have this problem. Is the emphasis on the "An" or the "drea"? I think our daughter is going to struggle with this her whole life. Her name is Elise. Pronounced "ee-leese." People call her "uh-leese" all the time. I think both names are beautiful. It's just that, well, we named our daughter "ee-leese." So what do you do when it's subtle? Do you simply pronounce it correctly in hopes that the subtlety will not be lost? Or do you emphasise the subtle difference and risk complete annihilation the next time? And what do I do for my daughter before she can say anything herself? Or am I just being too picky?
6 comments:
Or you could write a blog about it in hopes that those who continually mis-pronounce her name will read it and make necessary corrections.
I could.
Did you write this for me? I try really hard to pronounce her name correctly, but know that I do it incorrectly sometimes. Sorry!
Coming from a LoriE that is often called LaurA... it's a fine balance of being kind and yet direct.
Depending on the circumstances, I correct or not correct. With good friends and family, I think you have full permission to correct as often as you want. There are just "those people" who are probably always going to get it wrong, and you might just have to deal [my dad is one of those people who always pronounce EVERYTHING wrong].
But... I also think it's important to teach your daughter grace and humility... so if she's occasionally called uh-leese, she can humbly brush it off and respond to the person trying to get her attention.
I know I am guilty of the uh instead of ee - sorry! I think maybe I didn't realize that it was actually supposed to be a strong "ee" sound. I will correct from now on :)
And I agree with what LorIE (haha) wrote!
Can definitly relate to this! Obviously we were hoping for the ah-leese given the spelling but now she will sometimes be mistaken for Alice. And there is one lady who always calls Adelyn 'Adeline.' I just ignore it since we see her 2x per year but if its someone you see regularly I think you should clarify.
We will get it right from now on, unless we can just call her EE :)
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