I would say I'm indifferent to my name. It's just my name. I don't love or hate it. I did like that I was the only one with the name in my school. I have literally never met someone with the same name in person. Never. I know they exist and I've talked to one on FB who was trying to friend as many people with the name as she could. That was amusing. I think she'd found less than a thousand worldwide.
When it came time to name the kids, we wanted to come up with unusal but not unheard of names. Big Kid is (PDQ I'll delete later) Bethany, Little Kid is Aurelia. I didn't think Little Kid would be as difficult as it is but apparently I was wrong. People seem to get it fast, much faster than they would get my name right (except my Dad. It took him months to get it right which is a whole different issue).
EDIT: Also I almost universally go by Molly for take out food or if I need to give a name that doesn't actually need to be my legal name. It's just easier to say Molly and not have to spell it out. It makes my friend who's a Courtney cackle every time we go for coffee.
My husband does this. He actually has a super-common name but it’s often mid-heard in restaurants and coffee shops, so he tells people his name is Steve.
All of us kids in my family have VERY unusual names that have always been mispronounced. My one brother's is the most unusual though. It's Rake (yes the thing you use to clean up leaves) but it is spelled differently.
He always said when he turned 18 he was going to change it but he learned to love it. But yes we all have corrected people our entire lives.
Post by CrazyLucky on Jun 19, 2023 23:18:23 GMT -5
DS has an Irish name. We used the Americanized spelling to try to help with pronunciation, but it didn't help. Oh well. For a little while DS would get upset, but he's 13 now and just corrects the person and moves on.
My name is mispronounced constantly because it's not spelled phonetically. I don't bother correcting people unless they ask if they've said it correctly-- I just don't care that much. I'm indifferent to my name, but I do wish my parents had spelled it the common way.
I have a super common name (Steph) but people for some reason hear it as "Beth" semi-frequently (perhaps my enunciation is lacking?). The receptionist at my old job called me Beth a few times and I didn't correct her and then it felt too late / awkward to say something. She continued to call me Beth for years until I left.
My son's name is Michael, and I have corrected more people than I can count. He isn't Mike and he isn't Mikey. He is Michael. Not a different language and not difficult to say, no different spellings or anything special. If that was the case I would for sure correct.
I have a super common name (Steph) but people for some reason hear it as "Beth" semi-frequently (perhaps my enunciation is lacking?). The receptionist at my old job called me Beth a few times and I didn't correct her and then it felt too late / awkward to say something. She continued to call me Beth for years until I left.
I try to avoid saying my legal first name (I go by a shortened form) because 95% of the time, it gets misheard as a different name that has the same first and last letter, but the middle is completely different. I've come to the conclusion I can't pronounce my own name correctly. I don't have a super common name, but it's one people should be familiar with.
People can either say my last name or spell it correctly, rarely both.
My son's name is Michael, and I have corrected more people than I can count. He isn't Mike and he isn't Mikey. He is Michael. Not a different language and not difficult to say, no different spellings or anything special. If that was the case I would for sure correct.
My husband is the same and everyone tries to call him Mime even though he introduces himself as Michael. I call him Mickey, but am the single person on the planet who does and is allowed to. And I do t call him that to others, even, then it’s Michael.
My maiden name was German and hard for people to pronounce. It was exhausting correcting people my whole life, so generally I wouldn't bother if it was someone I'd never see again.
My regular name is easy, but it's a double name. And to make it more annoying, it's my first AND middle name. So I'm constantly called by my first only. I say AND type "First Middle", but constantly replied to as "First name" only. I've considered changing the spelling so it's one word. It's been 42 years of this nonsense and I'm so over it.
I am super late to this post, but no one corrects mispronunciation more than students/peers! My daughter has a very unique name and she mostly corrected teachers, but her friends usually did it for her.
I'm Jill and my last name is a boring 4 letter English last name. You'd think it would be impossible for people to screw up, but it's shocking how often I have to spell it. Jill sounds like Jo over the phone, and my last name kind of sounds like another couple of common last names. This is obviously not the same thing at all as having names that come from non-European backgrounds getting mispronounced, and of course doesn't bother me, but I do find it amusing that apparently NO name, even my basic 8 letter name, is safe from being messed up.
Also Jill is a nonsense word in most other languages so when traveling people are always confused or spell it wrong.
I have an uncommon first name and married a guy with an uncommon last name. My names are so uncommon that in my global company of over 60,000 people, I’m the only one with either name. I hate my name. I’ve always hated it. But my narcissistic mother would not let me go by anything but my given name (hilarious since she hated her first name and goes by her middle name, btw). And she told me if I attempted to change it when I turned 18, she wouldn’t pay a penny toward my college. So from there, there has been no good time to change it where it wouldn’t wreak havoc with people already knowing me by my given name.
My advice would be if you’ve chosen to give your kid an uncommon name, let them choose a common nickname to use if they want to. It’s exhausting to constantly have to repeat, spell, and correct your name. And to answer “where did your name come from? What kind of name is that? Is that a family name?” I’m almost 50, and I still resent the hell out of my parents for saddling me with this name. And I’m mad at myself for not just changing it when I turned 18, even if it meant foregoing college immediately. And, you know, if I had been allowed to choose, I might have learned to like my name and I might have embraced it.
My kids both have names that were in the top 10 for their gender the year before they were born. And we named them things where between their first and middle names, there are a good half dozen nicknames they can choose from. I let my kids decide what they want their teachers to call them and only did it for them if they asked me to. Like my daughter uses a nickname and doesn’t like being called by her whole first name. So I told her pre-k teacher, who kept using her whole name, to please use the nickname she prefers.
Post by definitelyO on Jun 26, 2023 9:58:35 GMT -5
my name is 100% phonetic and gets mispronounced daily. I spell it daily and they still correct me. I provided my name to a doctor's office and spelled it (as I normally do) and they still wrote it down wrong. it's so frustrating. we gave our son a very common name that is easy to spell for that reason.
if it's someone at Starbucks I don't correct - but someone I'll see over and over I will correct. in grade school my classmates would correct the teacher for me...
I also often get called a shortened male version of my last name. (think Michaels - and people call me Mike).. ugh.
In grade school my classmates would correct the teacher for me...
In 8th grade there was some kind of awards thing. The entire 8th grade corrected the announcer when they mispronounced a classmates' name. Like all in unison we said it correctly.
Post by arehopsveggies on Jun 26, 2023 10:43:43 GMT -5
I’ve always been mad that people mispronounce my name, but now I realize it’s more…. My mom mispronounced it? My mom really wanted the vowels pronounced differently than would be common. I’ve basically given up and go by a nickname.