Do you have a last name NO ONE can pronounce correctly?

[Giant Lemon]

My last name is similar to, but is NOT, Schindler. (And if you take a split second to sound it out, you can pronounce it correctly.) However, everyone and their mother (except for close friends and family, obviously) insist on pronouncing it Schindler. And I've heard so many Schindler's List jokes it's ridiculous. Back when that movie came out people would ask me how my list was- I've been introduced multiple times as "Rachel- she has a list!" My family has even called for pizza or Chinese food and had the employee make some List comment when we give our name.

My poor grandmother was also a victim of all the Schindler's List shenanigans. For a couple days in a row some people would call in the middle of the night and just ask "Do you have the list?" She was so confused- she didn't realize it was in reference to the movie. Luckily, they stopped calling her after awhile.

The only good thing about having a "hard to pronounce" last name is that I can always tell when telemarketers are calling: "Hi, can I speak to Ms., uh, Schhh, um, Schland, uh, Shandelar?" I once had a telemarketer try to sound out my last name and then say "oh- I give up!"

 

[Bonochick]

John's last name begins with a silent "S" and also has a silent "o". I'd never heard of that last name before...I can never even find it in phone books anywhere.

 

[adamswildhoney]

The only good thing about having a "hard to pronounce" last name is that I can always tell when telemarketers are calling: "Hi, can I speak to Ms., uh, Schhh, um, Schland, uh, Shandelar?" I once had a telemarketer try to sound out my last name and then say "oh- I give up!"

I can always tell to bc they pronounce my name wrong too! but now when they asked for someone in my family or even me and the pronounce the name wrong i just say that the person is or im not there!!

 

[Bonochick]

Ya know...I have one of the most common last names in the world...and people STILL screw it up.

 

[Foxxern]

I don't think I have a difficult last name, but those idiot telemarketers still never get it right. Usually I just insult them on their lack of reading skills and hang up.

If they really annoy you, just get Caller ID. A few bucks a month is a fair price to pay for some privacy at dinner time.

 

[bonoman]

A guy in my class has the name: Phonphersean Khamsaysook Thats one hell of a name

 

[Sicy]

The only good thing about having a "hard to pronounce" last name is that I can always tell when telemarketers are calling: "Hi, can I speak to Ms., uh, Schhh, um, Schland, uh, Shandelar?" I once had a telemarketer try to sound out my last name and then say "oh- I give up!"

YES.. I always hang up as soon as I hear them try to pronounce my name.. uh yeah its someone trying to sell some shit.. goodbye!


Go ahead.. try to pronounce it.

Vecchio

 

[Angela Harlem]

Thats so true about the telemarketers!
My maiden name ends with '...eux' and if I had a dollar for ever person who pronounced the x when they said it, I sure wouldn't be here today. No, I'd be sailing on a 85 metre yacht around exotic islands drinking daquiris bossing around my staff of 12 and wondering how the other half are doing.
Oh, and then if I had a dollar for every person who asked if it was French? I would be sailing along side a bunch of friends on the yacht I would buy them with those dollars laughing at them telling the staff what to do etc etc. Of course its stinking French! Sheesh!!

Now I have a comparitively easy last name, and it still gets stuffed up. But I reckon if I moved to Ireland which is where it comes from, I would have no problem.

Sicy, is yours [phonetically] Vetch-eeo? Or Veck-eeo? I'd guess the first, cos of the double 'c'....But I'm prolly wrong!

 

[daisybean]

this dumb bitch at work calls me Ellen and I'm think I'm gonna kill her

I have a first and last name that noone can seem to pronounce

 

[cloudimani]

Well I was blessed with the name Manus McElhone, so its great fun watching/hearing people try to get their mouth around it, English people are particularly bad really.

Also the various spellings we get on our mail are sometimes quite extraordinary.

 

[cloudimani]

Go ahead.. try to pronounce it.

Vecchio

as in "Vekio" one would presume *hides in case its wrong*

 

[meegannie]

My last name is Tuck and people STILL get it wrong sometimes.

 

[kobayashi]

my last name is may. like the month.

i get more questions on how to spell it than other names i know.

i also get the joke, 'you should marry a girl named april!' a lot

 

[tiny dancer]

I have the same last name of actor Joe Pesci, but it is not pronounce the same. My family comes from Northern Italy. People never get it right so I tell them to remember it rhymes with Dick Tracey.

 

[dizzy]

I have a Spanish last name (de Guia) and people always say, "de Gwee-ya", "deh Gwayah", "deh Goo-ya", etc.

 

[MissVelvetDress_75]

yes, both my first and last name are mispronounced on a daily basis. the joys of having a spanish name. by the time i was 18 i grew tired of correcting and explaining how to properly pronounce my first name that i just said screw it and anglosized it. only my close friends and obviously my family know how to say my first name properly.

now my last name. that one always gets misprounounced. and annoys the hell out of me but it does have its advantages when the telemarketers call. i usually hang up on them when they fudge the name.

by the way here is my name:

Iris Sarabia

 

[Sicy]

Sicy, is yours [phonetically] Vetch-eeo?

That's how the majority of people pronounce it. Either that or Veeecio, Vetcheckio, Vechco you name it.

Or Veck-eeo? I'd guess the first, cos of the double 'c'....But I'm prolly wrong!

as in "Vekio" one would presume

These would be correct.

In Italian.. two c's next to each other with the h makes the K sound.

 

[Bonochick]

That's how I had guessed the pronunciation of your last name, Sicy...phew!

 

[BAW]

I don't know how people can mispronounce Estrada but they do...all the time. Telemarketers have asked for me as Charlene Estranda, Astarada, Estarda. Its not a hard name to say and its pronounced exactly like its spelled...I don't get it

 

[Basstrap]

me?
wells

now try and pronouce THAT one!!

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

my maiden name is duncan, and i swear, people try to make us japanese or something. people will call, in their normally redneck accent, asking to speak to "mr. or mrs. dook-on." wtf? where are these mystical o's they're seeing? it is IRISH for crying out loud. these people need to earn themselves some history or something to learn how duncan's pronounced: like it freaking looks!

and now my last name is daras. oh boy. it's pronounced "dare-is." but now people try to pronounce this one like it looks, as daar-as. wtf? or even worse, when i write my name, people think that even though 25/26 of the letters i write are all regular, lowercase (or uppercase if need be) print letters, all of a sudden, when i get to that r, i'm gonna suddenly make it a cursive k! wtf? (i write my lowercase r's essentially like a smaller uppercase r, i'm sure you've seen some teeniebopper girls write like that before) so then i get calls and stuff asking for "mrs. dacus (since i guess you'd pronounce dakas like dacus)." hell, when i changed my name at college, they even changed it to dakas! they didn't even bother verifying my ssn. nice to know i could change my name to "t.bone whippletibottom" with no government documents showing that's my legal name, and i could.

 

[Desert_Sky]

My surname is Cavin, but the amount of people that pronounce it Cave-in is beyond a joke. its pronounced Cav-in, no e. All my way through school my teachers always got it wrong, in assemblies etc which was particularly annoying!

 

[Mrs.Clayton]

I'm blessed with a first name that has only been pronounced correctly(by strangers)3 times...my last name is just as bad.
I really sometimes hate it, because everyone wants to talk about my name, what it means, all that bull. The only good part, if someone calls my name, I know they are trying to get my attention...
People still get it wrong at work, I don't correct them anymore...they still pronounce it better than most people.
I hated when we had a subsitute in school, that meant they'd botch my name, all the kids would laugh, and the sub would want to talk about what my name meant...In 7th grade, my math teacher said it correctly on the first try, she still is my favorite. Lucky for me I work in retail, with a name tag...so the story goes on and on.
I wouldn't mind a difficult last name, but sh*t, don't give your kid a strange first name when your last name is strange enough.

 

[martha]

Radosevich

Raa
doe
seh
vich

NOT Radisevich, Rodosevich, Radioservice, Radsevich, Raydosevich

It's phonetic, even if it's Croatian. Sometimes I wish I'd married a Vietnamese guy. Vu. Martha Vu. You couldn't screw that up, could you?

 

[Mrs. Edge]

My maiden name is Moes, which is Dutch. NOBODY pronounces it right. It is pronounced "moose". Yet more fuel for the children who teased me at school. With a middle name like Felicity, they couldn't miss!

My mom used to tell ppl that it was like "boer war" but no one has heard of that anymore either.

My brother is so embarassed about his last name that he deliberately mispronounces it as Mose. I was only too glad to change it to Cunningham!!

 

[Spiral_Staircase]

my last name......Bubar. The biggest problem people have with it is sticking an "r" in the middle of it. Everyone seems to want pronounce it as Burbar. I've even told people my name, and they write it down with the imaginary "r" stuck in there. Somewhat annoying.

 

[cass]

Nicole Bubear just excelled at our high school...must be related?

Phonetically my last name sounds like Orbison, which is why I refer to him as Uncle Roy and why I had a black dog called roy orbison.
When I was about 8 months pregnant, I left a huge parcel at a store to collect later. When i returned I was a bit upset by the woman's attempt at my surname, Abortson! ewww ( Freudian?).
It has a "t" in it but when ppl mispell it and leave the 't' out, I find it quite cool to see my name in the newpaper spelt "bison" while U2 now prominently display bison's on their CD. (it's my old man that gets his ugly mug in the newspaper all the time, not me) I once complained to someone saying I wish my married name was "Smith" they asked what my maiden name had been?They burst out laughing....I don't complain anymore, I just spell it out.
Someone earlier in this thread mentioned a classmate's unusual name. I can't see it right now, but it definitely looked Sth East Asian, Thai perhaps. After a while , when you know enough people from other countries, you begin to see patterns of letters in regional names. I can usually pick a Finnish ot Balinese name for example. It is cricket season here and some of the Sri Lankan cricketers have wonderfully musical names.

peach blossom that's my 'real' name Peach Blossom Smith.

 

[cass]

woopsie spiral staircase..I just stuck and "e" in it

sorry




how embarrassing.....i think ppl without the "e' are smart too...what would you expect from a bison with a name like peach blossom....oh dearie

 

[Amigone]

Mine is Gattinger... pronounciation varies with who you talk to in the family. Grandpa says it's "Gah-ting-ger" but most of the rest of us pronounce it "Gah-tin-jer"...


First name is a problem too... Chandra. It's to be said "Shandra" but I get "Chawn-dra", "Chahn-dra"... I don't understand... we don't call people with the name Cheryl "Chair-yl", it's "Sher-yl"...

 

[AvsGirl41]

My last name is Rappe. It's pronounced exactly like the music. But it gets pronounced Rappie (most common), Ratt, Rapp-ay, you name it.

I hate it. I can't wait to get married and change my name but that doesn't seem to be happening anytime soon.

Elisabeth