Do you and your family pronounce your name the same?

[ryan840]

My in-laws are divided in how we say our last name- MIL, FIL, BIL#1 and SIL all pronounce it one way, while BIL#2 (along with his wife and kids of course), my husband and I pronounce it another... My nephew corrected me last night on how to say my own last name (which is different from his), so I just had to laugh and it got me wondering- Is this common or is it just my family?

 

[American Scrapper]

We pronounce it the same but spell it differently. Part of my family spells it with a Za in the spelling & the other part spells it with a Ze in it. Noone is for sure the correct spelling, rumor has it that when our ancestors came from Luthuania they shortened the name and the went back to the original & the spelling got changed then. Makes for interesting conversation for family reunions & such. We are both always joking about who is right.

 

[disneysteve]

Not a problem with my family, but I once did my pediatrics training with the nephew of my former pediatrician. They both had the same last name, but one pronounced the first syllable "weed" and the other pronounced it "wide".

 

[Beth76]

I'm truly perplexed how something like this could happen?

 

[mickeyfan2]

That happens with my first name. My parents use a different pronounciation than I use.

 

[palmtreegirl]

I'm truly perplexed how something like this could happen?

It does sound funny but it happens here. We have this ridiculous last name, that's spelled completely different then anyone pronounces it. I say it one way, DH slightly different and strangers completely wrong. DH's biological father is long out of the picture and so is the rest of his side of the family. We're the only people in his family with this name. I wish DH had just taken my maiden name instead, it was nice and easy.

 

[OhMari]

Yep, our last name is pronounced depending on which side of the highway you live on. Our last name is Gassner

If you live on the East side of HWY 41 our last name is pronounced like the gas you buy Gassner.

If you live on the West side of HWY 41 our last name is pronounced Goss-Gassner.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

No--but on my husband's side of the family--there are disagreements with how the family name is spelled. I think it has something to do when the family ancestors originally came here. But so funny to send Christmas cards to people who are blood relatives of one another and the name isn't spelled the same.

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

We pronounce it the same but spell it differently. Part of my family spells it with a Za in the spelling & the other part spells it with a Ze in it. Noone is for sure the correct spelling, rumor has it that when our ancestors came from Luthuania they shortened the name and the went back to the original & the spelling got changed then. Makes for interesting conversation for family reunions & such. We are both always joking about who is right.

Must be a Lithuanian thing--as the people I spoke of in my above post are from there. Totally weird. It is an issue with an "e" and an "a" (we think--not home right now so can't look at our card list).

 

[KMH1]

We have a spelling difference on my mom's side of the family and a pronunciation difference on my dad's side.

My grandparent's spell their last name Shlapack, but many of their relatives spell it Shlapak.

And my maiden name is Goohs...pronounced "goes." Most people follow the rules of phonetics...two o's equal an oooo sound like boo or loot, so I spent a lot of time correcting people. Usually I said, "It's a verb, like Amy goes to the store."

Well, years later, I found out, my dad changed the pronunciation and my grandfather and all his relatives actually pronounced it the way everyone always says it.

That's how it happens Beth.

Amy

 

[denisem]

I'm truly perplexed how something like this could happen?

Usually convenience.

Examples: My first husband's last name was Selewski. Family pronounced it Sa-LES-ski, but when dealing with the public, I found it easier to use the phonetic version of Sa-LEW-ski. Same with other relatives whose last name is Milne. They pronounce is MILL-en, but the general public says Mill-nee. After awhile it becomes a habit.

Considering my maiden name AND both married names are always mangled, I just answer to anything that's close.

Denise < --- her 3rd husband will be named "Jones"

 

[Aidensmom]

In my first marriage, my married name was McLaughlin. My then husband pronounced it as mick-lock-lin, so that is also how I prounounced. However, the rest of the family was split amoung that pronunciation and mick-loff-lin.

I used to have perfect strangers correct me on the pronunciation of my own name!

 

[experiment626mom]

Yep happens with my maiden name. My mom and oldest sister say it the American way, and my middle sister and I say it the Czech way.

 

[Poohnatic]

I can understand how this can happen.

Veteran of two mangled last names (at least half of my name is never mispronounced, my maiden name). However, years ago, I had a coworker who's last name was Stetak. I went with how I would expect it Steh-tick. No, coworker said it was Stee tack. Her DH was tired of people mispronouncing it and gave in. LOL..

Suzanne

 

[LadyBears]

My maiden name - some parts of the family emphasise the 1st syllable - others empasise the 2nd syllable. The result is 2 totally different sounding names.

My moms side of the family has 3 different versions. When her relatives were in France, the name was (X) de(Z). When the got here, the family was divided. Some now go by (X), some, including my Mom's goes by (Z), others go by de(Z)!! That gets confusing!!!

 

[ryan840]

Well, at least we're not the only ones! My husband says he pronounces it "our" way because it rolls off the tongue easier and he got sick of correcting people (not that anyone gets it right anyway- everybody feels the need to add either an r or an l to the middle, which is a whole 'nother thread...)

 

[Miller1412]

No one could pronounce my maiden name. Now there's no confusion. It's Miller.

 

[Cruisin]

My husband, his brother and his parents, 3 different people/groups, 3 different pronunciations.

 

[momsgoofy]

I'm truly perplexed how something like this could happen?

I wish I had a simple reason why, but it does happen...even here in our neck of the woods...I'm only 2 hours southeast of you.

It's all because of DS's grandfather. It's a very simple and fairly common last name...Roth. But Grandpa is very staunch in his German heritage so he pronounces it as "ROWth" under the reasoning that it is the German word for red, which I know is pronounce "WROTE", but Grandpa adds the "th" sound. I have never heard the "th" sound in any German I have heard spoken. So, out of curiosity I spoke to a PhD who teaches German at the university. He explained to me as this...

There has never been a "th" sound in the spoken German language, but the "th" did appear in the written language. However, over time even that disappeared and the "th" is now written simply as "t". So, he said the proper pronounciation of the name Roth is "row-t".

DS's grandma told me many years ago that her FIL, Grandpa's dad, just said as "Roth" (more like "rawth".) So it's all Grandpa's doing and I just don't follow it...especially since when I married DS's father their family preacher who knew them for nearly 20 years pronounced us "Mr. and Mrs. 'Rawth'" and then when the same man baptized DS, he announced DS as "Rawth". Besides, it's not my name anymore and DS prefers the way he has always said his name..."rawth". He's even considered changing his last name to that of MY family name so there would be someone to carry on that family name.

So, it does happen...

 

[4greatboys]

Im glad its not just in my dh's family. My FIL and his brother pronounce their last names differently. Same name and they grew up together but they still say it different. Its just a slight difference but I still always found it odd they did that.