TODAY’S POLL

LAST POLL RESULTS

35% of you voted Somewhat important — I appreciate the effort, but it’s not a big deal in yesterday’s poll: How important is it to you that others pronounce your name correctly?

“It’s more important to me that others remember my name than pronounce it correctly — my name is John!”

“I have a female version — Joanah — of a common male name, Jonah. However, I get called JoAnna 99.9% of the time. I started going by my nickname — Joni — but people now mispronounce that as Johnny. I just can’t win, it seems.”

“I simply gave up. People consistently mispronounce my name. I’ve tried to help them get it right, but I gave up years ago and now pretty much answer to anything that closely resembles my name.”

“It’s a name that’s often mispronounced. I was able to somewhat capitalize on the error while shopping in New York in the early ’80s, before the Lower East Side changed, as the name is often taken as a shortened version of Goldstein or others — and pronounced ‘Gold.’ The etymology of my last name is English/Irish and pronounced ‘Gould,’ as in Elliot Gould, who was Jewish but pronounced it the same as mine.”

“Polish name.”

“My American parents gave me a French first name. As a child, I felt self-conscious repeating my name several times or correcting people’s pronunciation. Many times, I wished my name was simply ‘Jane’ or ‘Mary.’ As an adult, I’ve come to appreciate my name and don’t mind correcting people’s pronunciation. In fact, I sometimes don’t correct people, which has led to interesting (and sometimes comic) variations over the years.”

“It’s kind of amusing. I’ll introduce myself (with the correct pronunciation), and they respond with something entirely different.”

“The second and last letters in my name are a’s. Many people pronounce my name as if they were e’s.”

“I immediately add ‘like banana’ to my self-introductions.”

“My first name is pretty generic, but my last name has a couple of different pronunciations, and people often choose the wrong one — but it isn’t that big a deal for me. That said, I do try very hard to pronounce others’ names correctly. I think it’s important to try.”

“I can correct them if they make a mistake, and they can correct me as well.”

“It is imperative that someone’s first and last name be pronounced correctly.”

“It’s a sign of respect — same goes for spelling!”

“Spelling and pronouncing someone’s name correctly is a sign of respect for that individual. I think people should take it more seriously.”

“It irritates the heck out of me when they don’t care to try and still misspell it after I’ve written it down.”

“Six letters from the Hawaiian alphabet, and very few get it right.”

“I live in Texas. My name is Valerie. My name is not Val, my name is not Vali, my name is not Valeria! Get it right, bro!”

“Even my family knows better than to try to abbreviate it!”

“While I can understand subtle vowel differences in the uncommon spelling of my first name, I can’t understand the careless mispronunciation and subsequent misspelling of my last name, as it has a basic vowel pattern — v_e — which indicates a long vowel sound. By the way, most mistakes occur when dealing with people under 50. Phonics matter.”

“I’ve lived this life for 69 years, and it still gives me a fit that no one can pronounce my first name, maiden name, or married last name to this day. :(”

“I kept my married name after I divorced because I didn’t want my son (who is autistic) to be confused by us having different last names. Plus, although my last name is mispronounced all the time, it’s actually easier than my maiden name, lol!”

“I am of Latino heritage, so people screw up my surname all the time. My first name is three letters long, and they even manage to mess that up. I’ve learned to just lower my expectations of people — it works out better that way.”

“While names are important, some are hard for English speakers to pronounce, which makes them difficult to remember.”

“It doesn’t really bother me at all. Our surname can actually be pronounced two ways — ours is the ‘Chicago’ pronunciation. I hope no one gets offended if their name is mispronounced; sometimes people just don’t know until they’re nicely corrected.”

“For some reason, unless someone is familiar with my last name, they can’t pronounce it. My mother used to say, ‘If people say “la…,” that’s you.’ So I grew up knowing that my name (Lawlor) was almost never going to be pronounced right.”

“My last name isn’t very common, so I don’t expect everyone to pronounce it correctly. If they mispronounce my first name, which is more common, then I wonder if something is wrong with them.”

“My name is Naomi, and I have an accent, so I get a kick out of people mispronouncing — and especially misspelling — it!”

“My name is misspelled more often than mispronounced. It’s a common name, just not commonly spelled. I’ve been over it for a long time — thanks, Mom!”

“MINE AIN’T EASY TO PRONOUNCE, SO NO SWEAT WHEN IT’S INCORRECT — EXCEPT 1ST NAME MICHAEL.”

“My name’s pretty simple, so this isn’t really an issue.”

“It’s Jane, and my last name is four letters too. No one gets it wrong — how can they!”

“To be fair, my name is ‘normal,’ so pronunciation isn’t a problem. However, there are a few variations of it, and people tend to mix those up.”

“People have trouble with my 7-letter, 2-syllable name — they shouldn’t, just follow English pronunciation rules — but the name is odd; it startles people.”

“My name is Nicola. My parents always pronounced it with a long ‘o’ and emphasis on the second syllable, and that’s the pronunciation I’ve kept. It’s often pronounced with emphasis on the first syllable and a short ‘o.’ I answer to each and rarely correct the speaker — who cares?”

“Who cares! I don’t care! There are more important things to worry about!”

“Get over yourself.”

“It doesn’t really matter to me. Sometimes I have a hard time pronouncing people’s names, so I’m fine with others doing the same.”

“I haven’t really thought about it, but my name is Bryan.”

“Call me anything — just call me!”

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