Poorly chicken

[Guest]

I remember an episode of star trek where the ship's doctor insisted on calling Data (the android) dar-ta instead of day-ta. He protested and she said 'day-ta, dar-ta, what does it matter?' and he said. 'One is my name and the other isn't' I loved that quote!!!!!!

[AJuff]

I would be miffed! My daughter Claudia gets Chloe or even worse Cloud-ia! Elliot and Harriet often get extra t's!

I teach and think names both spoken and written should be correct.

[Yorkshire Pudding]

I wish I'd thought of that one. I had a primary teacher with a cut-glass accent who insisted on pronouncing my name as Hel-in rather than Helen. It really got to me but no matter how many times I asked her she could never say it - i think she simply couldn't hear the difference. Now I am ultra-careful to use the right name or short form of a name as the child tells me and to spell it correctly.

My own youngest is Louis pronounced Lou - ie in the French style - but 99% of people say 'lewis' and he is forever correcting them (politely!). Luckily he is pretty patient but I know it bothers him.

[stoice]

I have a friend called Siona that is forever being called Sonia. She's even had people ask to spell it and they still write down Sonia or even Fiona. I'm forever being called Tracey, especially by my OHs Nana! Seems people hear what they want to hear sometimes. Now, even when people at work see my name written down every day it's surprising how many people still omit the 'e'.

 

Stacey. x

[sadietoo]

Yes...it is impolite. Suggest to the teacher that she writes it phonetically next to her name. There are no excuses.

 

My daughter's name is Eilidh (it is pronounced like Ceilidh without the C, or sort of, but not exactly, Hayley without the H..not helpful here where "Ooops, word censored!" cockney has overtaken a proper Sussex accent and everyone drops their "haitches" anyway. (yes...irritating isn't it ?...the one occasion when the "h" is silent and they just can't do it....).

 

Anyway, she has learned over the years to respond to all variations...although she did start correcting people who got it wrong from about the age of 9. The best was the confused lady at the library, who clearly couldn't catch her name, and thought she was saying 'ayley'... "Has that got a haitch(grrrr) in it?" she asked..."yes", my darling girl replied..."at the end"

 

Edited to say I hope you can understand what type of cockney I am referring to....it's another way of saying "pretend" cockney..I think sometimes referred to as "mockney"?

[Snoxy]

Fantastic and very interesting replies thank you all :-S I just knew if I put a post here I would get many different takes on this little problem

[keyhole kate]

I would also find it irritating but I think it is probably the way she hears it in her head rather than deliberately pronouncing it incorrectly I agree with others in that I would just lightheartedly mention to the teacher the correct pronounciation of your childs name My ED is called Deniece no one not even OH family can spell it correctly and people often pronounce it as Denise When my second daughter was about eight she wrote Deniece's name in her what I did diary as they do at primary school and the teacher had crossed it through and corrected it as Denise. DD was not amused and told her teacher that she knew how to spell her sisters name ED states her unusual name has been a pain all her life. My name is Lynn and trust me I have had every variation of spelling imaginable I have even had people assume I have shortened it and call me Linda Grr !! Even worse my mum used to call Deniece's son Jason when his name is Nathan we dont even have a Jason in the family

[foulbird]

oh

 

my name is Yvonne but coming from where I do it was never pronounced properly in the first place - I've always been Eevon... or, when my mother was trying to be posh, Yuh-von

 

but if it worries your or your child then you should mention it

[JillM]

Your name is the most personal thing about you, which is why it can be such a touchy subject.

 

My parents chose short names for my brothers and I so there could be no contractions or nicknames..... It has never stopped people from assuming I was a Gillian intead of a 'proper' Jill. It always got my back up - I still remember rounding on my friend's mother when I was 15 and she called me Gillian.(I was always a quiet, and respectful-to-my-elders, goody two-shoes) when I told her I had never been a Gillian, I was christened Jill! (....that's the shorter version anyway ) I don't think she ever used my name after that for fear of provoking me again...

[Looney]

I would find it irritating if someone with a day to day relationship with my child couldn't get their name right.

 

I answer to all sorts! My name is Lorna, so you'd expect to sometimes get called Laura (yup, our neighbour still insists on calling me that!) but I've also had Norma and Lisa amongst others! My Spanish teacher thought I was called Luna for ages. And loads of people just cannot get their heads around the spelling (Launa, Laurna, Lawna). Usually I find it quite funny

[Old Speckled Hen]

My best friend when I left school had a son shortly after and named him Dylan hoping it would be difficult to shorten that. When his hair came through it was bright ginger so all her plans came to naught. At school he was called Ginger or Carrots

PS Those were the days when that was the norm and "Ooops, word censored!"ody seemed to be policed over it.

[Alis girls]

My ES has a Greek name and we stupidly spelt it the English way - the Greek N and T together make a D sound. He doesnt mind but some people still stick o's on the end and make it Antonio which irritates him. Demelza - Poldark fan? Lovely name - Samosa - doesnt sound anything like it does it?

[Calamity Jane]

My daughter even has her nickname mispronounced. Her name is Henrietta, shortened to Henni and then she gets called Penny !!!!!! Grrrrrrr

[LisaP]

I would find it irritating if someone with a day to day relationship with my child couldn't get their name right.

 

I answer to all sorts! My name is Lorna, so you'd expect to sometimes get called Laura (yup, our neighbour still insists on calling me that!) but I've also had Norma and Lisa amongst others! My Spanish teacher thought I was called Luna for ages. And loads of people just cannot get their heads around the spelling (Launa, Laurna, Lawna). Usually I find it quite funny

 

 

My daughter is called Lorna and she has experienced all of those variations of her name, as well as Laurana She did have one teacher who insisted on calling her Laura so as she got older she would ignore said teacher until just before being reprimanded and then say "oh sorry Miss, I thought you were calling Laura"

 

My name is Lisa, obviously and it still really annoys me when I get called Liza

 

Lisa P

[sage]

DD is Zoe Rose, my BIL calls her Zozy dozy.

Is Zoe so hard to say

Sage

[Snoxy]

I remember the day after Ellin was born and in the NICU...DH came in early to see me and announced that he had got through to his Mum and Dad and told them Ellin had arrived. DH said that his Dad immediately said he would call her Ellie!I said no he wont that's a different name and Ellin will be called Ellin! The cheek of it!

 

To make the name Ellin we chose Ell from Ell(en)...MILs, Mums name and in from (W)in short for Winifred...FILs, Mums name. We have since found out it was the name of Irving Berlins second wife and there were a lot of Ellins in Wales in days gone by according to census.

 

Once again, thank you for all the replies...very much appreciated and at times amusing

[BarbaraJ]

I would also find it irritating but I think it is probably the way she hears it in her head rather than deliberately pronouncing it incorrectly I agree with others in that I would just lightheartedly mention to the teacher the correct pronounciation of your childs name My ED is called Deniece no one not even OH family can spell it correctly and people often pronounce it as Denise When my second daughter was about eight she wrote Deniece's name in her what I did diary as they do at primary school and the teacher had crossed it through and corrected it as Denise. DD was not amused and told her teacher that she knew how to spell her sisters name ED states her unusual name has been a pain all her life. My name is Lynn and trust me I have had every variation of spelling imaginable I have even had people assume I have shortened it and call me Linda Grr !! Even worse my mum used to call Deniece's son Jason when his name is Nathan we dont even have a Jason in the family

 

erm how do you pronounce it then? it looks like d-neice so sounds same as denise lol easy mistake i feel

[yvonne]

Gosh, I do feel quite sorry for teachers these days (in my day about half the class were John, Paul, Karen or Susan). Whilst I can understand that it must be annoying for someone who sees a lot of your child to keep getting a pronunciation wrong, I do have sympathy for teachers who teach scores of different kids many of whom now have names that are not obvious in their pronunciation.

 

I think parents who deliberately chose "unusual" names should realise that this wll happen and be a bit more relaxed about it.

 

My real pet hate is people who say (for example) our son is called "Henry but is to be known as Harry"....why ??

 

(I am also an Yvonne, by the way and get lots of odd pronunciations, but it really doesn't bother me (apart from Eve).)

 

Sorry, hope my view doesn't offend anyone.

[WitchHazel]

slightly off topic

 

I remember the day after Ellin was born and in the NICU.... DH said that his Dad immediately said he would call her Ellie!I said no he wont that's a different name and Ellin will be called Ellin!

 

Our ES (and DIL, of course) recently had their second child, their first boy. They called him Charles. (Actually, it's Charles Alexander). I asked if he was going to be a "Charles" or a "Charlie" and they said they hadn't decided yet; DH and I got into the habit of fondly referring to the baby as "Chuck" (after the TV series), just between ourselves.

 

I could see that this aberration of the name was going to slip out in front of the parents one day, so I thought I would forewarn DDIL that this is what we were doing. She's a lovely girl, puts up with our foibles without showing any irritation. It turns out that DDIL's brother also has a pet name for Charles, referring to him as Chas. (Her side of the family is Australian, so for them no cultural reference to Chas n Dave).

 

I think it's quite sweet that the boy will grow up with special names from different people. Wish we'd thought of this when our first grandchild was born, as that could have been quite fun(Charles is number 7!)

[sari]

I can assure you that most Teachers/Support Workers don't deliberately get names wrong. I live in an interesting catchment area, and we have many interesting ( what I might consider made-up ) names, such as Balen, Baydon, kirklun, Jorja, Elodie, remi-leigh....to the ElsBeths, Aurelia ( my new second cousin) Mahalia.......it's tricky to learn all the names, especially names from a culture not your own, I called poor Saieeda the wrong name for weeks, as I thought it was SY-eeda, not SAY-da she was from Lithuania

 

....Have a quiet word.....Mrs.Teacher will probably be mortified

[Busybird]

I have a fairly common name with an unusual spelling. After 46 years my Dad still sometimes gets it wrong . My OH checks with me that he has written it correctly if he needs to write it down (we have been married 18 years). I don't know anyone who pronounces it as it is spelt (which I would like) as they look at it and see the more common name. I am generally known by a shortened version anyway.

 

Mention it to the teacher. She is most likely quite unaware of her error.

[kerryegg]

Belated reply to WitchHazel. Yes Demelza is named after Mrs Poldark. Chioce was between Demelza from my most loved book or Layla from my best loved song. Twins would have been ideal. However, having come this far as a female named Marvin I am probably more tolerant of name changes!

[Willow]

My boys both have very easy to spell and pronounce names but their junior school teachers frequently misspelt both. It was laziness as both were clearly written on every form but for my eldest they would often use the anglicised (longer) version

I was often tempted to mis spell their names but thought it would be rude

[chickinboy]

reminds me of a time at school, in music class. Mr Phillips kept referring to a sweet, polite girl called Olivia as Olivier (as in Laurence Olivier). She let it go a few times, and then politely said 'sorry sir, it's Olivia, not Olivier", Mr Phillips replied "Olivier, when you're in my class I shall call you whatever I please". "But it's not my name sir". "Quiet Olivier!".

 

She said, "okay, sorry Mr Phelps."

 

He didn't get it wrong again.

[debbier]

I may be being a bit dense here, but I would pronounce Olivia (as in de Haviland) in exactly the same was as Olivier (as in Laurence). I'm obviously missing someting!