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Why does everyone misspell my last name?

#21
It's a web review...email the dude and he can correct it.

...once we had an online review that put .com instead of .ca...it lead people to a site advertising a travelling lesbian stripper troop.....good times...

...so it's Angus right?....nice to meet ya. :)

There is only one go-to spelling for my name(s)...no complaints.
 
#23
About 1 out of 5 times at Starbucks I have to walk up and get my drink after they call out "Jenny".

More than half the time I very clearly say my first name and yet they write "Jerry" on the cup. And because they seemingly always do it in cursive there's about a one third chance the person making the drink reads the double r's as n's and calls out Jenny.

People also have found interesting ways to spell my first name. Jerod is most common but I've also seen Jarrod, Jarred, and Gerrad among others.
 
#24
Jared Lash said:
About 1 out of 5 times at Starbucks I have to walk up and get my drink after they call out "Jenny".

More than half the time I very clearly say my first name and yet they write "Jerry" on the cup. And because they seemingly always do it in cursive there's about a one third chance the person making the drink reads the double r's as n's and calls out Jenny.

People also have found interesting ways to spell my first name. Jerod is most common but I've also seen Jarrod, Jarred, and Gerrad among others.
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lol

I actually am like automatically programmed to respond to: Matt ma...[pause]...mak...mass...ma...... [long pause].... Is there a "Matt M" here?"
 
#26
capnsandwich said:
OK, you guys are starting to make me feel bad about feeling bad about my name misspelled.
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Ah, but it gets better: My first name is Ryan (which is fairly uncommon where I live), and nearly everybody manages to think I'm called 'Brian'. My grandmother didn't actually figure it out until I was 9.


And for the tragic clincher: I'm half-Korean and half Quebecois, meaning I have caucasian hairline/growth pattern and caucasian facial and body structure, but I have oriental eyes, black hair and olive skin. Therefore nobody ever knows what the heck to make of me, what with my Irish given name, French surname, and distinctly-not-white-but-not-precisely-placable physical appearance.

I like to complain that I'm not white enough to join a biker gang, and not Asian enough to join the Triads.

L-A said:
Ah, I usually spell Labbé when I hear it. Except if you say it has an apostrophe.

Labadie (law-baw-dee) gets its fair share of misspellings, especially in the English world. Lab-uh-DIE!
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I'd probably get that, but I'd probably never need to, as in real life you wouldn't be seen talking to one of those Eeeenglish types. :D
 
#27
My name is Oberkirch. Just like is looks, except the ch is pronounced as a slighterly gutteral k - southern German style, my family is from Freiburg in southwest Germany. It doesn't bother me when people pronounce the ch like church, but you'd be surprised at how many people look at it and don't even try to pronounce it. It's just not that hard to sound out, if you have basic reading skills. Heck, I have Polish cousins with silent c's and z's in their name - I can understand being stumped by that (if you're not Polish or familiar with Polish names) but I can't see why someone wouldn't take a stab at my last name.

I remember a teacher in our high school named Mr. Richard (pronounced re-shard). He always acted mortally wounded if someone pronounced it "Richerd" (pronounced like the common first name). I was always amused by that; what the heck did he expect? He was a drama queen though.
 
#28
Another thing on mispronunciation - if they read my name first, people will often call me "brah-field." I don't know if it's a so-cal "Brah" thing, or if they are thinking of a brassiere. But it's pronounced "Brass-field"

In my adolescence, for some reason, it was often pronounced "Grass-field" :confused:
 
#29
Smokin' Toaster said:
My name is Oberkirch. Just like is looks, except the ch is pronounced as a slighterly gutteral k - southern German style, my family is from Freiburg in southwest Germany. It doesn't bother me when people pronounce the ch like church, but you'd be surprised at how many people look at it and don't even try to pronounce it. It's just not that hard to sound out, if you have basic reading skills. Heck, I have Polish cousins with silent c's and z's in their name - I can understand being stumped by that (if you're not Polish or familiar with Polish names) but I can't see why someone wouldn't take a stab at my last name.

I remember a teacher in our high school named Mr. Richard (pronounced re-shard). He always acted mortally wounded if someone pronounced it "Richerd" (pronounced like the common first name). I was always amused by that; what the heck did he expect? He was a drama queen though.
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They've probably done that to make it easier for anglophones to pronounce. There are no silent letters in Polish ("i" maybe at times).
"cz" is roughly equivalent to an English "ch" - easy. CZ = ch, sz = sh. Polish and Western Slavic names in general look nuts because although the alphabet is the same, the letters are pronounced differently and you get words like "przepraszam" and think - 'noooo freaking way am I going to try to pronounce that!!"

You're last name isn't too bad. Do you get a lot of people trying to pronounce the "ch" as "k"?
 
#31
Relic said:
They've probably done that to make it easier for anglophones to pronounce. There are no silent letters in Polish ("i" maybe at times).
"cz" is roughly equivalent to an English "ch" - easy. CZ = ch, sz = sh. Polish and Western Slavic names in general look nuts because although the alphabet is the same, the letters are pronounced differently and you get words like "przepraszam" and think - 'noooo freaking way am I going to try to pronounce that!!"
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That's interesting... I guess I'm not as familiar with Polish names as I thought!

Relic said:
You're last name isn't too bad. Do you get a lot of people trying to pronounce the "ch" as "k"?
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Maybe 40-50% pronounce it as a "k", and it always surprises me that that many get it right. If I didn't know better, I'd guess it was pronounced as a "ch".
 
#32
Relic said:
pfffff.. I have had my name misspelled and mispronounced so many times that I'm surprised when someone gets it right :)
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Same here, lol. I always find it fun introducing myself to non-Africans or people who have no knowledge of Ghanian names because I know that I'll say my name about 2-4 times and the other person still won't get it right and then I'll start laughing and they'll look at me funny :D. Happens every time :p.

Me: "How's it goin'? My name's Kwesi (Kway - cee)."

Them: "Queasy? Nice to meetcha'!"

Me: "Same here man, it's actually 'Kway - cee' though."

Them: "Sorry about that. You said 'Kwah - zei'?

Me: "...'Kway - cee'"

Them: "Quesadilla?"

Me: "..."

Link Removed

It doesn't happen any more but in high school, for whatever reason, pretty much every document that came to my house from ANYWHERE was a complete crapshoot on having my name spelled correctly, lol. Government stuff, college stuff, scholarship stuff, etc. I'd say any given sheet of paper was just as likely to have my name correct as it was to have it misspelled :rolleyes:. It never bugged me, I just wondered how the government in particular could misspell my name, lol.
 
#34
My first Road Manager would always spell his name after saying it, to avoid any confusion...you could tell it was a major issue for him...

It was super funny to see him in an 'introduction' line, it was like a skipping record.

"Hi, I'm Doug Cox, C, O, X"
"Hi, I'm Doug Cox, C, O, X"
"Hi, I'm Doug Cox, C, O, X"
.....
 
#35
Yep.

Mine is Del Turco. Just like it looks. Just like it sounds. Space between the L and T.

I get a variety of pronunciations and spellings"

"De Turco", "Del Tttttttttttttt how you say dat sir?", "Delturro"
"Belturcle", etc.
 
#38
cheezewiz said:
Yep.

Mine is Del Turco. Just like it looks. Just like it sounds. Space between the L and T.

I get a variety of pronunciations and spellings"

"De Turco", "Del Tttttttttttttt how you say dat sir?", "Delturro"
"Belturcle", etc.
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I can't imagine what it would be like if you were to visit my neck of the woods. There are, like, 0 Italians here. I think if you came to where I work some of the guys around here would think you were "one a dem Mexicans" and assume you were trying to say "Torres." :D
 
#40
6jase5 said:
I dont like Del Turco fries.
:)
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I do! Good ole crinkle cuts!

So, my last name is Peterkin. How would you guys pronounce it? I bet only 1 in 5 gets it right. Its a rare occurence that someone I encounter actually does. Its Scottish if that helps.











Peter - Kin, as in the Kin of Peter. NOT petter-kin, not perkins, not petersen, nor peterson. KIN. K-I-N. And anytime someone requires it, and I tell them, they ask "how is that spelled?" EXACTLY THE SAME WAY IT EFFING SOUNDS!!!!!
 

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