[la di dah]

I just made sure he wanted it spelt Winter. I can deal with a soft -er pronunciation but I was not keen on it actually being spelt "Winta/Wintah" etc.

I feel terrible but DH has a little cousin Tayla and I thought when I first met her in 2008 that she was saying Taylor, just in that soft Aussie accent, and I CALLED HER TAYLOR with a hard R all night! And the poor thing didn't say anything! (or, I am told, she just thought that's how Americans talked and rolled with it, lol)

Fortunately she was infatuated with America/Americans at the time and was grilling me about do we really eat peanutbutter and jam etc. but I was so embarrassed when I realized. I had never heard of Tayla before.

[emlis22]

It wouldn't stop me from using a name; like Emmeline for example. But I'm the kind of person to let things go: I'm an Emilie and I get called Emma & Emilia and people constantly address emails to Emile (which is a boys name!). For people who you have a lot of contact with, telling them once is usually enough. for people passing by it wouldn't bother me if they said it wrong so long as it was the correct name.

[Liadan]

I went to school with an "Antony", He was ANTONY not "Anthony", his mother made that VERY clear.

I can understand people mispronouncing it though, as Anthony is MUCH more common.

[Guest_Buy Me A Pony !_*]

In proper English, Anthony is a heteronym which is why I used it as an eg. Some people choose to spell it or pronounce it differently, but it's traditionally spelled with a silent H.

Charlie23 I can't see how Taylor/Taylah are different tbh as within the context of the Australian dialect the R is silent. You're insisting that people should alter their dialect to match yours. Do non Nth American people pronounce the R when you insist they do? I can see why in LDD's eg it might be important in the North American dialect but in most other regions the R is silent. My question isn't about spelling it's about pronunciation so I'm unsure why you would think your other eg's are relevant. The names you've listed aren't phonetic names that I know of

Our chosen name has no variation in spelling. It's the pronunciation which alters. Pronunciation is a far more subtle difference and it's largely dependent on dialect. But it's also potentially just as loaded as kre8iv spelling.

[Spartacus]

It's not a soft R, it's an R sound full stop. Most people assume that her name is Tayla, I only correct them when they call her Tayla. She even corrects people because she knows that her name has an "r" in it.

Why should me correcting people be any different than someone with a Gaelic, Irish or Hebrew name needing to be corrected on how to pronounce Niamh, Aodh or Ephraim?

How about we agree to disagree

Do people actually respond well to that? Because I'd look at you, nod, say right, yes, Tayla and carry on with my day. Do you know any Toms or Bobs who have corrected your mispronounciation of their name? Not to mention the abysmal name butchering I (and probably you as well) do to pretty much anyone from Asia.

I would feel like a freak putting on a fake American accent for one word, as if I went around talking about my wonderful holiday in Roma and Paree!

This post has been edited by Spartacus: 06/04/2012, 02:14 PM

[suziej]

Grant rhymes with ant and plant and pant

Unless you were my brother, who my mum and grandma wanted pronounced "gr-ah-nt" and to CQ ears it quickly went to "grunt" and from there, well, lets just say that to this day he has some mates who refer to him as "Pig" (our last name also had a -ham in it)

My poor older daughter got a very easily mispronounced name, unfortunately, but it doesn't seem to bother her overly.

[kerilyntaryn]

it's dance to me and people are more likely to care about the pronounciation of their names than other words as it's their name

[howdo]

Grant so does not rhyme with ant! It rhymes with aunt. Which is how you say plant.

Easterners ...

FWIW my British cousin's name is Anthony. With the silent h. In fact I think they even pelt it without the h ... maybe. We always call him Tony. I have no problem using Anthony though for oterh people. Most people I know are Anthony with 'th'. It wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me exactly. It's just that as someone with a name that people look at and hear and decide on their own pronunciation for I would not choose such a name probably.

Mind you mum was going all Brit on me the other day and getting pedantic over the i in DD1's name (ends in 'ia'). I felt like telling mum "It's her name - she can pronounce it as i, ee or silent it if she wants!"

[Le-a]

My DH has a typical Afrikaans name, it's spelled phonetically, but for f's sake, over half the Aussies he meets INSIST on calling him by a totally different (more common in Austalia) name. It's actually quite funny now. A typical meeting goes like this,

"Hi I'm Johan (example)"

"oh hi John! Nice to meet you!"

It's like people are thinking, "I know he SAID Johan, but I'm pretty sure he got it wrong, and Ill just call him John".

My DH doesn't care for the most part, he doesn't correct them, and folks mostly start using his real name when they know him better and hear other folks using it.

My DS's name is Louis and I see red if anyone calls him Lewis (totes other name, totes not my style). But an older friend with an adult son named Louis doesn't mind it pronounced either way...

[howdo]

^ This is exactly like mine! LOL

It's like people are thinking, "I know he SAID Johan, but I'm pretty sure he got it wrong, and Ill just call him John".

They do that with the spelling as well - always want to change it to another more common name!