Do people mispronounce your last name?

[mhsjax]

Most people like teachers, coaches. Dr's office staff, no. But the telemarketers yep. And it is an easy name.

 

[minniebeth]

Yep. My DD said that's the only reason she wants to get married at this point, is to change her name. (Still in the boys are ugh phase.)

Plus, it's an Irish name, but we constantly get "is that Hawaiian?".

 

[FireDancer]

All the time. It is pronounced exactly as it is spelled but people always invert the same two letters.

 

[Geoff_M]

We do, too. But a lot of ours begin with "Van".

Same here... The "V" section of our phone book is a lot bigger than most cities our size. Vanarsdal, Vanbelleghem, Vandegiessen, Vandenbeldt, Vandenbogerd, Vandenieuwenhof, Vroegop, etc.

My last boss' family was Dutch and her maiden name was "Frentheway". It was an Anglicized version of a Dutch name of (not sure of the spelling) "Fruggendeway". It meant "Early in The Way (or Field)" in Dutch. Apparently her ancestors prided themselves to being early risers to work in the fields. When they migrated to the US, some of family adopted the surname of "Frentheway", but others took the easier names of "Early" and "Way".

 

[DisneyFirefly]

I have a long Polish last name, so yeah, all the time. What drives me nuts is when people mispronounce my FIRST name, which is Dana.

 

[KiKi Mouse]

My surname is mispronounced and spelled wrong as well as my former surname.
I have to spell it all the time.
I honestly think it is because people just can't spell these days and their level of reading comprehension stinks.

 

[browneyes106]

I have a Spanish last name so half of the time it gets mispronounced.

 

[Jennasis]

All the time. It's polish and has lots of letters in it that are silent.

 

[mickeymedic]

My maiden name was Polish and 10 letters long. It really wasn't that difficult to pronounce if you took the time to sound it out. There were no silent letters or funky letter combinations. But I think people were intimidated by it due to the length. So I spent the first 20+ years of my life either pronouncing or spelling my name for everyone. So much so that I always joked that I would marry a Smith, a Jones or an Adams. Well, that's exactly what I did. I haven't had to spell or pronounce my name since.

 

[Thumper_Man]

I have a Spanish last name so half of the time it gets mispronounced.

Same here. Anytime someone calls for me or DW, they always mispronounce our last name.

Before we got married, most people had a hard time with DW's maiden name as well.

 

[kim929]

It drives me nuts how a lot of people mispronounce my name. but show them the car and diamond with the same spelling and ask them how to say it and they get it right but they can't get my name right, go figure.

 

[indimom]

My maiden name was AWFUL! It's a german name, and people couldn't pronounce or spell it. And they were always trying to "correct" what they thought was a typo in the spelling. The middle of the name had "hlk" all in a row and noone seemed capable of believing that was correct. They would try to make the "l" an "i".
My poor nephew has three football trophies with this "correction" on them. His mother was fit to be tied the third year it happened, as she kept reminding them of the correct spelling. Even wrote the name in ALL CAPS on every form to try to get it corrected. Never helped.

I married a man with a nice simple english name - one of those common names with "son" at the end. LOVE IT!

 

[cteddiesgirl]

Yes. People pronounce it wrong a lot. My name ends in ch and it's often pronounced with an sh instead.

 

[cybrkitn]

Not too hard to pronounce since my last name is pronounced very similar to the word "balsamic"

My maiden name was easy to pronounce.

 

[mickey&minniealways]

I dated my DH for almost 2 years before I could pronounce his last name corectly. It is French, I grew up in an Italian household. DHs SIL has been married to his brother for 28 years and she still has trouble.

 

[JCJRSmith]

My last name is Smith. People usually get that one correct

More often though, when I tell them my last name is Smith, I get a "Really?"

Yes, really

 

[mackeysmom]

All the time

My last name is very short and rhymes with "Saab" (the car company).

Nobody pronounces the double-a sound correctly. I get the equivilent of "sab", "sabe", "saub", "salb" etc.

 

[JVL1018]

When my grandfather first came over to America from Holland, our last name was spelled Njw...
it was changed to Nyw..... to make it easier in English( In Dutch, a j is pronounced like y).
The rest of the name isn't hard but that yw combination throws people off and my name was mispronounced almost all the time.
My last name now is an easy Italian name. It starts Lo... and people sometimes use a long o instead of an uh sound, which is how we say it, but other than that it's fine.
So nice not to have to correct people all the time!

 

[yoopermom]

My married name is German but sounds French (ending in a -dt). What is odder, IMHO, is that when the family came over from the old country, some dropped the d before the t, and some kept it! And, of the ones who kept it, half pronounce the name one way, and half pronounce it another!

I'm going back to being a Johnsen, I swear! (Even though we were -ens...)

Terri

 

[nancycg56]

Yes and it makes me nuts because I can't understand WHY they mispronounce it ~ it's an easy name that is not unusual.