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I once had the task of reading students' names at graduation. There was one poor student from Mongolia whose name I butchered beyond repair. I felt like this guy.
We once had a new guy come in with the last name McGrone, which IMO is pretty straight forward. People absolutely butchered it, he was called McGoon, McGroon, Mc Gown, Mc Gowan and everything but, even when he repeatedly told people it's pronounced like groan. After a couple weeks of this he finally gave up and told people to call him Mack
My name is pronounced exactly like its spelled, but people still stumble over it. I always have to spell it. Anyway, if I had a name that was not easy to pronounce correctly, I'd be the first in the family to change the spelling to a phonetically easier one. How some people go for generations with names that look like typographical errors is puzzling to me.
Some people say may name wrong. I don't bother to correct them, nor do I care much. I don't really care unless my name is misspelled in some important document.
I saw a funny email this morning where someone replied and totally butchered a name. This was a common name and he only got the first letter right! How do you feel when someone butchers your name?
Happens all the time to mine. I won't say what mine is, but it's come out as "Geversman," where only the first letter and last four letters are right.
Doesn't bother me at all, as my first name is unusual and difficult to pronounce. As a previous poster said, I expect butchery. It's also very similar to several common names, so many people, if they are reading it quickly, think they see something else.
What annoys me is when I'm giving it to somebody verbally, and take the time to spell it out, very slowly, and emphasize the one problematic vowel, and it still gets entered into somebody's computer incorrectly.
I also sometimes hear "You spell your name wrong" and that is rather irksome. I think I know how to spell my own name. Some people assume I'm going for a "unique" spelling, but actually the name itself is unique, not the spelling.
Just encountered this problem at a convention hotel recently, where another guest shared my initials and almost shared my surname - but with an "r" added, meaning our names rhymed but were different. Still, the desk attendant first said she had no reservation for me, then asked me my first name once again and asked if I wasn't "Charles" instead of "Craig". I told her that not only did I have a reservation, but that I had called the hotel a couple of additional times about extending the reservation and acquiring a refrigerator for my room.
Eventually she found my reservation and told me that the hotel also had a "Charles Similar-Last-Name" registered. I encountered "Charles" once afterwards (it was a very large convention) and learned that he often had his surname mistaken for mine!
The last syllable of my name also gets dropped by inattentive people, who generally add an "r" to the first syllable, making a completely different name.
And of course, changing one letter of my quite respectable English-in-origin surname turns it into a common vulgarity. But I cope, as do my relatives and forebears, who've borne the name in this country for over 360 years.
Ugh! I have a last name that is frequently mispronounced. I typically correct the person and they look at me funny. Then they think it's cute to tease me about it. The worst one yet was someone who questioned if I knew how to pronounce my own last name!
I have a traditional, feminine name of European origin whose pronunciation people routinely butcher. I automatically tack 30 IQ points onto my estimation of anyone who gets my name right.
The first seven lines of any phone conversation with someone new go something like this:
Me: Hello?
Person Who Has Apparently Never Traveled: Hi, I'm looking for [outrageous mangling of my first name].
Me: It's [correct pronunciation], how can I help you?
Them (confused): Hunh?
Me: It's pronounced [correct pronunciation]. How can I help you?
Them: Oh, it's spelled [correct spelling] on here.
Me: Yes, that's correct. (an edge creeps into my voice) Now how can I help you?
Frequently the person I'm talking to gets annoyed with me because I am getting annoyed with them. Hey, nothing personal. It may be your first encounter with my name but I deal with this almost every single time I deal with someone new. And this doesn't even include the people who are so sheltered they don't even realize it's a feminine name: "Oh...you're a girl?" Ugh.
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