Strangest pronunciations

[Nai]

Haha Nae - I'm Naomi too and I get Neeomi, Niomi, Leonie, Fiona etc. It's not a hard name - it's phonetic too so it's not hard. So yeah I just go by Nai as well.

I love the Sean than was pronounced Seen. There's an actor Sean Bean and DP always calls him Seen Been as he thinks his parents were cruel to name him that given his surname and the different pronunciations of the similar spellings - that would be very confusing to a child learning to read and spell!

[Pandora]

ROFL, I can just imagine the Ahngela. People who talk with a plum in their throat say things wrong all the time, like the ones who will say Grarnt instead of Grant. It's hilarious, like they think they own the Queen's English LOL

I actually dont mind the pronunciations as much, as long as people are prepared to have it mispronounced, the first time. Once they tell you how to pronounce their name I dont see that there is any excuse for you not to try. I get cranky on this as our surname is German (or possibly Dutch) and is constantly mispronounced regardless of how many times we tell people.

I find it varys by state and Vic (please dont shoot me Im a victorian!) seems to be one of the laziest as regards pronunciation. Hence why I can't name my child Sasha or Natasha, because people would say SASH-a and Na-TASH-a rather than SAH-sha, Na-TAH-sha etc

The poor woman i was in the bed next to when I had Milo (btw we get Meelo all the time, and sometimes Toby??) names her baby Natasha, with a AH sound, and had changed it within 24hours becuase HER OWN FAMILY werent making the effort to pronounce it the way she had chosen.

Gaelic and Welsh names are kinda hard - which is why Id ask rather than attempt most times

[~clover~]

My sister is Sahra.
Mum & dad went through 3 spellings to get people saying it right.
Sara (se rah)
Zara (Ze rah!)
Then Sahra (Sah rah)
She still gets Se rah alot, but its a bit more common these days, so people are getting used to it.

I went to school with a Naomi, who always got Nyomi. There was a local girl actually called Nyomi.

[Sequoia]

Depends where you come from if you pronounce the e... its mostly like letting out air after saying eve, not really like saying a hard ah... its very quick... hard to explain... bah.

Now I remember...Aoife = Eefa.

[Alipralli]

My sister went to London for a few years to teach, and one girls name was seriouly Shi-Thead. Remove the hyphen, and what do you think the little girl kept getting called?

[Campari]

I've heard of a Chloe that is pronounced sh-low...(kind of like Shiloh, without the hard "i" ! My friend is a nurse and had to call out her name in a waiting room, she kept saying "chloe, chloe??" and finally when she said out the childs surname, the parents stood up and said "oh, you mean us? her name is sh-low" Eeek.

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

My name, no matter how I pronounce it, is always repeated back to me as "Karen" which is just lazy, that's not my name! Or Therese, which I don't mind and in fact a few people think that's my real name.

I gave my son a VERY normal name. 6 letters. In the Bible (but a normal one too). Can my dad EVER say his name? Of course not. Very annoying. He can't pronounce my name either and he gave me the stupid thing!

As to Angela, the "ANGE-illa" is English and the "ANGLE-ah" is German. Think Angela Merkl. So I don't have a problem with other countries and pronunciations. Just introducing people and straight away the name is repeated back incorrectly every time. And even when they get it right, five minutes later it's wrong again!

Right, I've decided. Not only am I changing my name by deed poll (adding a middle name, nothing drastic!) I'm also going to go by my (new) middle name only when we move because I'm so sick of this. Then I'll have to point out it's with two Is... maybe I'll just use my current middle name. Or just stick with Therese/Raze. It's easier!

[Floweryfields]

My brother is Sean - fairly common spelling, but he hates it cause everyone spells it Shaun. I know someone who's daughter is Aisleen.
However it is pronounced Ash leen - Irish or something, I still remember her being offended when I pronounced it wrong - I'm thinking to myself, well spell it properly then!

[Rouge]

ausgirl its like Aisling... which is pronounced Ashling... (another fave name of mine)

RH is it Cah-Ryn or different?

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Car-rin, pretty much. Soft Car sound at the start. (Sort of like carving, but without the v or the g.)

I often joke my auto-mad DH only went out with me because of my name. Scariest thing is, he doesn't disagree.

[Meo]

Well, I have one of those awesome Irish names too. Only it's not a name, it's just a Gaelic word so it's even more frustrating sometimes!

It's Ceilidh - pronounced kayleigh. And I'd go by my middle name but I hate it more and changing it's too much effort! lol

I did spell it phonetically for a while when I was in high school but decided it looked ugly (no offence to those who have Kayleigh as a name), and now it's a bit of a game to see who can say it when it's written, or who's heard it properly 'coz I often get Kylie or Hayley or Celia . . .

[tattoo_mama]

I went to school with a girl called Xime...pronounced Hee-may...apparently one of her parents was mexican and the other japanese and it was mexican spelling of a japanese word? She was always so frustrated about it, teachers called her Zy-eem or Ex-mee or zimmy....lol

There's one welsh name that's pronounced Mee-van-wee but im sure the spelling is totally different.

My sisters name is Verity and she got called Variety by so many people growing up (and they weren't kidding!)

And she went to school with twin asian girls called Cam-mai and Cam-truc which I thought was funny caus it sounded like Camry and Cam truck...

[{sarah}]

A friend of a friend's name is Regina, but the g is pronounced like in gun not the usual gee sound.

I have a customer who we thought was very posh in pronouncing her name Suzarne, but that's actually how it's spelt.

[Sequoia]

There's one welsh name that's pronounced Mee-van-wee but im sure the spelling is totally different.

Do you mean Myfanwy? I thought that was pronounced Meh-fan-wee. Well, that the way it's said on Little Britain.

[Campari]

I went to primary school with a Phoebe, who pronounced her name "fobe"... I always thought that was the normal way to say it until the TV show Friends started!

[sconeonamission]

My name's Rhianon and answering the phone I get Leone (lee-own-nee)... How do you get Leone from Rhianon? I've had 2 of my bosses (totally different industries) call me Row-an-non. Also had Ree-ah-non. Oh and the countless ways that people spell Rhianon. It's crazy. My name is Rhianon... with one N.

My son is Jensen with an E. Listen to the way I pronounce it.
My married surname has 4 letters (think rent-a-car) and I have to spell it AND ppl still misprounce it.

I also had no idea how to pronouce Arimeh's son's name (Aricyn) till I heard her say it!

[Tinks]

My best friend is Bianca pronounced Be-unka, which I think it the correct way to pronounce it anyway. She gets so angry when people pronounce it Be-Anka. I just call her Biancs lol.

[Sequoia]

My best friend is Bianca pronounced Be-unka, which I think it the correct way to pronounce it anyway. She gets so angry when people pronounce it Be-Anka. I just call her Biancs lol.

On our honeymoon in Hawaii there was a little American girl whose mother called her Be-unka, so much prettier than Be-Anka.