How do you pronounce your name in the States?

[sereia 0]

Only one person in the nine months my husband has been here has been able to say his name correct the first time. (He was a foreigner himself...but not Arabic speaking)

My husband's name is Abdelilah.

Pronounced correctly like: Abdel - eee -lah .

Other acceptable ways to say it are: Abdel - Lilah or Ab- dee - lah

So he goes by Abdou instead. Hard to mess that up! My family calls him Abby. lol

Edited April 13, 2008 by sereia

[athena_ny 1]

Great thread Nessa! I saw it and started laughing! It reminded me of all the times that I had to repeat my name and pronounce it in the states but I gave up 8 years ago, my first time there.....it drove me nuts!

What's your name? MIRLA....(with the original pronunciation, pronouncing the 'R')

What's that? Once again! This time with the "american R sound"... Oh!!! Merla!!! Mierla! (sometimes it ended up sounding like "mierda") Haha! Nooooooo! Uhmmm...alright, spell it for me!!! And I was like....you know what, just call me Mimi...(my nickname)

Same thing happen with my fiance, he still calls me Mimi...haha!

Americans can't pronounce the R like we do...but even with their accent, some people make it sound quite good...most of them don't.....but not with the original pronounciation you know.....

I don't care anymore, thank God I have a nickname...hahaha!

English /r/ is a retroflexed /r/ - the tongue goes backward in the mouth. The Spanish /r/ makes contact with the frontal palate (or alveolar ridge, I think it may be more the alveolar ridge, the ridge right behind your teeth) and sounds more like a /d/ to us than an /r/ ... messing up pronuncation of a lot of foreign words

[GabachaYucateca 0]

I am the USC but my name is butchered all the time. It is an arabic name but is also fairly common in Ghana.

It is spelled Zeinab (pronounced Zay-nub) with but people end up calling me Zee-NAB or Zeina (like the b is silent). Probably doesn't help that my nick name is Zee.

My fiances name (Inusah) on the other hand is a piece of cake for everyone else.

One of the young women I work with is also named Zeinab! Of course, I didn't know how to pronounce it when I first met her, but now I definitely try to approximate how it's really pronounced.

I generally think it's insulting when Americans take it upon themselves to Americanize a name. I mean, I get when the sounds are just so foreign to native English speakers that it makes it almost impossible to say correctly, but the should at least try.

There are plenty of people whose names I have to ask them to pronounce several times, but at least I try to get it right.

My new last name is Tuz (long u, not short) and people always (understandably) mispronounce it the first time. And my husband's second last name is Poot, which no one can pronounce, including myself. Those glottal stops just don't come out right. After eight years, I imagine it's pretty annoying that I keep asking him to say it, but I really would like to be able to say his last name right.

[msu17 0]

Neither of us has problems with our first names, but my husband's last name is Brine, which when you say it sounds almost exactly like Brian. I always get weird looks at resteraunts when they ask for my party's name and I give Brine (or Brian as they hear it). BUT on the plus side, there is NO ONE else with my name! I'm just thankful people can pronounce both our first names!

[GabiandVi 34]

My daughter's name is Julia, but when we went to Benin to visit my husband's family, everyone called her Julianna. I still haven't quite figured that one out. Meanwhile, they cut off a syllable for her middle name, his mother's name. Of course, I had added one, so I understand why they cut it off again.

My name, both first and last, are difficult for people to pronounce in any language. I've gotten used to answering to anything that sounds remotely like my name.

[bora bora 1]

My name is Welsh (Meredith) so it's easy enough for Americans to say - though spelling it is supposedly so hard to do. Don't ask me why. But for Spanish and Portuguese speakers it's really hard because of the -th at the end.

Hispanics tend to call me 'Meredeet' and Brazilizians something that sounds like 'Merejeetch'....it's horrible!! I never liked to be called Mary, but finally stopped being bothered after so many months in Brazil since I couldn't stand the mispronunciation.

My husband's name is not difficult to pronounce (Eliton - pronounced Ell - ee - tone) if you're a Spanish/Portuguese speaker, so some of my Hispanic friends can say it better than I can . It's short so once I say it enough my friends/family do their best to pronounce it - and do a good enough job. I think it's nice that my grandma asked me to repeat his name for her a couple times (before his arrival) so she could say it right. That's awesome (especially since she's a bit xenophobic)!

Eliton's boss says that he sometimes calls him Elitonyyyyy which he thinks is funny (his boss is Middle Eastern).

Edited April 14, 2008 by bora bora