| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3] > | Off topic: Misspelt Names Thread poster: Paul Dixon
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My name is a compound of my parent's names: Armando and Adriana, son, misspelling and mispronunciation sounds like the story of my life!
In Mexico, everyone writes it with a "y" at the end and, in France, Pardo is also a problem, because they often think I'm saying "pardon".
When I was an exchange student in the States, I became Air-a-die and, while in Sweden, I was often Arladaj (Does Arla ring a bell? Is the biggest dairy product brand there!)
Finally, I... See more My name is a compound of my parent's names: Armando and Adriana, son, misspelling and mispronunciation sounds like the story of my life!
In Mexico, everyone writes it with a "y" at the end and, in France, Pardo is also a problem, because they often think I'm saying "pardon".
When I was an exchange student in the States, I became Air-a-die and, while in Sweden, I was often Arladaj (Does Arla ring a bell? Is the biggest dairy product brand there!)
Finally, I must also say that Pool Texan and Demonic Temple are great!!! ▲ Collapse
| | | | R. Alex Jenkins 
Brazil
Local time: 09:39
Member (2006)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| Not well understood in Brazil | Dec 18, 2009 |
The thing is, Paul, you have a name which is double-Dutch / Greek / Aramaic in Brazil. I'm surprised no-one's come up with Dickson yet - or would that be too 'English'?
I particularly like the TIXAN one, sounds like Tixan-Ipê, the kind of washing powder we buy at the supermarket.
I commonly get JINKINS, JINKINGS, JENKINGS, JUNKINS... you name it, I forget the rest.
Cheers
| | | | | Taking a name abroad | Dec 18, 2009 |
I also delight in a surname which is almost unpronouncable in my adopted home.
Apart from the normal misspellings "Dewsbury" and "Dewsberry" (which I get in the UK, too), I have also seen versions such as "Dewsberg", "Desberg" and "Densky".
The most dramatic misspelling (which was actually assigned to my son, not me) was "Duschwelle" (a compound made up of the German words for "shower" and "wave"). This was on a certificate at a sports event - the helper writing out th... See more I also delight in a surname which is almost unpronouncable in my adopted home.
Apart from the normal misspellings "Dewsbury" and "Dewsberry" (which I get in the UK, too), I have also seen versions such as "Dewsberg", "Desberg" and "Densky".
The most dramatic misspelling (which was actually assigned to my son, not me) was "Duschwelle" (a compound made up of the German words for "shower" and "wave"). This was on a certificate at a sports event - the helper writing out the certificate obviously wrote down what she THOUGHT she heard.
But spare a thought for people named after place names which are even more unpronouncable, such as Leicester, Worcester, Warwick or Cholmondeley. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tjasa Kuerpick
Slovenia
Local time: 14:39
Member (2006)
Slovenian to German
+ ...
My father collected his misspelled name during his life-time job. He was 35 years in the same company as an engineer. Ever time he found a new version of his name he put a sticker with the misspelled name on the door of his bureau. Later his colleagues added it by themselves, if he missed to do so. When he retired his colleagues printed all the misspelled names in a small book. The collection consisted of 235 versions of his misspelled names! ... See more My father collected his misspelled name during his life-time job. He was 35 years in the same company as an engineer. Ever time he found a new version of his name he put a sticker with the misspelled name on the door of his bureau. Later his colleagues added it by themselves, if he missed to do so. When he retired his colleagues printed all the misspelled names in a small book. The collection consisted of 235 versions of his misspelled names!) ▲ Collapse
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| The three musketeers | Dec 18, 2009 |
There are three of us in the Sao Paulo State, Brazil:
- yours truly, Jose Henrique Lamensdorf
- Adolfo Von Randow
- Curt Schönberger
All of us Brazilians, all of us EN-PT translators, none of us speaks any German at all, not even survival basics.
To illustrate, I speak survival basic Polish, I could use it to explain that I don't speak German, Ja nie mówię po Niemieckó., but I couldn't do it properly... See more There are three of us in the Sao Paulo State, Brazil:
- yours truly, Jose Henrique Lamensdorf
- Adolfo Von Randow
- Curt Schönberger
All of us Brazilians, all of us EN-PT translators, none of us speaks any German at all, not even survival basics.
To illustrate, I speak survival basic Polish, I could use it to explain that I don't speak German, Ja nie mówię po Niemieckó., but I couldn't do it properly in German, Ich nicht sprechen Deutsch being my closest attempt.
Curt has the most unquestionable name. I'm José not Joseph; nor Adolfo is Adolf, so we raise a flag. Curt doesnt't. He told me some German monoglots call him long-distance, and he can't stop their blurten fast enough.
The worst for me is that every English-speaker calls me in Spanglish, "hoe-zay", while in Brazil it is pronounced "jow-zeh", the J sounding without the implicit preceding D-sound in English, and the E sounding open as in "get". So my nicks are "Zé" in PT, and "Joe" in EN.
I never had any misspeling trouble other than carelessness with my surname. However a classmate in college said that Lamensdorf was too hard to pronounce, so he always called me Lamendovitchsky. Meanwhile a Spaniard who gave everyone a Spanish name called me La Mendoza. ▲ Collapse
| | | | NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 08:39
Member (2002)
French to English
+ ...
Moderator of this forum | I misspoke earlier | Dec 18, 2009 |
At the local medical clinic (haven't been there in a while, it slipped my mind, but your stories have reminded me), there is another patient named Nancy Beauregard. In the early days the receptionist often pulled her file instead of mine for my appointments, but after a couple pregnancies they got to know me
| | | | | I've lost count | Dec 18, 2009 |
My name is unusual enough to cause constant problems in the States, both with spelling and pronunciation. It was relatively easy to get by in Germany. The pinnacle here was a middle school teacher who decided to call me "Hey, you!" I hated that guy!
[Edited at 2009-12-18 16:22 GMT]
| | | | | Got a bunch too | Dec 18, 2009 |
My name is Lany, which is very rare in my language pair, my dad saw "Of Mice and Men" and the name Lenny stuck, so he gave it a twist.
I have been called:
Lenny (of course)
Dany
Lanny
Lannie (girl version I guess)
Laynie (that's how it sounds in English)
Yannick (more than once, can't really explain this one)
Also, about half the time when I get an unsolicited phone call, they ask for Mrs. Lany. I mean, if you obviously can't t... See more My name is Lany, which is very rare in my language pair, my dad saw "Of Mice and Men" and the name Lenny stuck, so he gave it a twist.
I have been called:
Lenny (of course)
Dany
Lanny
Lannie (girl version I guess)
Laynie (that's how it sounds in English)
Yannick (more than once, can't really explain this one)
Also, about half the time when I get an unsolicited phone call, they ask for Mrs. Lany. I mean, if you obviously can't tell if the person is male or female, why not simply say "May I speak with Lany?". How hard can that be?
I also went to interviews where they expected a female candidate, where I specifically added Mr. Lany at the top of my resume. That was more insulting, way to read my resume...
Used to tick me off, but now it's just funny more than anything else.
Thank you for sharing, nice to see it happening to everyone. ▲ Collapse
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Vuk Vujosevic
Montenegro
Local time: 14:39
English to Serbian
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| A bit embarassing | Dec 18, 2009 |
My name is Vuk Vujoševic.
I have great problem when writting it.
I think you uderstend why.
All westeners pronounce V as F and consider what confussion it makes.
I need your symphaty.
| | | | | Not quite the same, but still amusing... | Dec 18, 2009 |
When I lived in Prague, I'd get post addressed to Mr. Jennifer Gordon or even Mr. Gordon Jennifer.
I assume that it was because the computer (or person?) didn't see Gordonová so thought I was male.
Still, the best one on this post has to be Demonic Temple!
| | | | | lots of fun with my name | Dec 19, 2009 |
The typical mistake is to spell my name as Matalia Botashnik. While I understand that it may not be easy to get my last name right, but why Matalia??? I am often called Natalie too, but this does not upset me as much as Matalia. Is there such a name?
My last name gets mispelled so often that at some point I started to collect different versions of it, but then after a while I gave up. There were so many of them and some did not even resemble my name at all.
I knew a g... See more The typical mistake is to spell my name as Matalia Botashnik. While I understand that it may not be easy to get my last name right, but why Matalia??? I am often called Natalie too, but this does not upset me as much as Matalia. Is there such a name?
My last name gets mispelled so often that at some point I started to collect different versions of it, but then after a while I gave up. There were so many of them and some did not even resemble my name at all.
I knew a girl whose name is Caroline Joseph. She regularly receives mail addressed to Mr. Joseph Caroline. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The name gets misspelt, and the surname mispronounced | Dec 19, 2009 |
Stanković is probably among the ten most common Serbian last names, and, to my best of knowledge, Aleksandar is the second most common first name in the world (second only to Muhammad, which btw also has its own share of versions and misspellings).
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Aleksandar is the Serbian version of Alexander, but apparently it does take one to spell it correctly. Many an email has been sent to certain Aleksanders, Alexandars, Alesandars, Alek... See more Stanković is probably among the ten most common Serbian last names, and, to my best of knowledge, Aleksandar is the second most common first name in the world (second only to Muhammad, which btw also has its own share of versions and misspellings).
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Aleksandar is the Serbian version of Alexander, but apparently it does take one to spell it correctly. Many an email has been sent to certain Aleksanders, Alexandars, Alesandars, Aleksandros etc. The problem gets ameliated after a couple of exchanges as the tone drops to informal and I irreversibly become Alex.
It is somewhat more tricky with the last name which is always mispronounced by foreigners. This is because the last letter with its corresponding grapheme Ć and phoneme t͡ɕ (the voiceless alveolo-palatal affricate) does not exist in English. Many immigrants of Serbian origin have americanized their last names either by ending them with CH (like Sen. George Voinovich), or with C (like Weird Al Yankovic). Thus my last name shares the fate of all Serbian last names and gets mispronounced either as Stankovich or as Stankovick. ▲ Collapse
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Amy Duncan (X)
Brazil
Local time: 09:39
Portuguese to English
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Some Brazilians think my first name (Amy) is the letter "M" (pronounced Ay-mee, more or less). When they write it, it's either "Emi" or "Emy". When they see it written, some pronounce it as "Ah-MEE". Duncan has improved since the singer Zélia Duncan became a big star here, but it's still basically "Doon-kahn". When I lived in the USA, my last name was often spelled "Ducan" or (of course) "Dunkin" (as in donut). Arghhh!
| | | | | Misspellings, mispronounciations... | Dec 19, 2009 |
What would you do if upon spelling your surname you got a stunned "Are you kidding?" from 80% of your native English respondents? The well-mannered alternative is "Excuse me, Madam, but could you please repeat that for me? I seem to have missed all the vowels..."
And both me and my kid work from/into English all the time... we should have embarked on a different language pair, probably.
| | | | Patricia Rosas
United States
Local time: 05:39
Spanish to English
+ ...
In memoriam | Patricia Rosas, please! | Dec 19, 2009 |
All my life, people have messed with my first name--not making mistakes, but intentionally calling me by nicknames (some I can live with; others I can't!).
Pat
Patti
Patty
Paty (Mexico)
Pati (Mexico)
Trish
Trisha
Tricia
Patsy
Pattie (think burger)
And then there's Rosas, and here people do make mistakes: Rojas, of course, is the most common, but it also cracks me up when someone starts calling me Patricia Rosa (as my... See more All my life, people have messed with my first name--not making mistakes, but intentionally calling me by nicknames (some I can live with; others I can't!).
Pat
Patti
Patty
Paty (Mexico)
Pati (Mexico)
Trish
Trisha
Tricia
Patsy
Pattie (think burger)
And then there's Rosas, and here people do make mistakes: Rojas, of course, is the most common, but it also cracks me up when someone starts calling me Patricia Rosa (as my first and MIDDLE name). And then there is the weirder one: Wilson. I'll say "This is Patricia Rosas calling" and the person will respond: "Ms. Wilson." This has happened dozens of times. Wilson was my maiden name, but I know I'm not slipping up. Sometimes, I'll repeat Rosas several times, and the other person will still hear "WILSON"!
Thanks for letting me vent! ▲ Collapse
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