Embarassing Admission

[adamantplatypus.livejournal.com]

It wasn't until Pearl Harbor (the movie) that I realized the name Rafe I'd been reading in romance novels was pronounced "Rayf" and not "Raf-ee".


What have you been pronouncing wrong forever? :P

Comments

[jenufa.livejournal.com]

Before I actually met someone with the name (having only seen it written down before) I thought Siobhan was pronounced like it looks. Sigh-oh-bahn. Not Shi-von. Which still confuses me.

[batting0.livejournal.com]

I was about to say the same thing. Siobhan gives me so many issues whenever I read it!!

[lustdumpster.livejournal.com]

i hate those names that make no phonetic sense.

[aballard23.livejournal.com]

So.. foreign names? :P

[lustdumpster.livejournal.com]

basically. i think i hate them so much though because it seems like every time i see one that might sound nice, i hate the way it sounds and i think if it was spelled "right" in english/american english (i'll admit my ignorance on that one) no one would like it. shivon? sounds like chevron. come on.

[chocklit-frog.livejournal.com]

Not necessarily, lots of foreign languages use/translate well into the Roman alphabet

[colliemommie.livejournal.com]

Some Celtic names have their own special rules that I, for one, will nevereverever understand, mostly because I don't care enough about Irish Gaelic to try.

Welsh I have enough of a clue about to get people's names right. Place names on the other hand...

[arashikurobara.livejournal.com]

I thought that too, though it was an episode of Without a Trace rather than actually meeting someone that corrected me. (I think I do prefer the actual pronunciation now that I know it, but I'll admit to being a touch perplexed too.)

[blue-suspenders.livejournal.com]

Niamh for awhile.

Basically all Gaelic names until someone tells me how they're pronounced, haha.

[babyjess8.livejournal.com]

IAWYT

[krosp.livejournal.com]

Deirdre, I pronounced it as Deer-dree forever, until I realised that it had several pronunciations and mine wasn't a particularly common one. I am still not sure what is the correct one though

[lustdumpster.livejournal.com]

dierdre gives me problems too, but i think it's most commonly like dear-dra, and then diedre is a whole other spelling for it pronounced dee-dra.

that looks incredibly wrong but i see it spelled without the R at work constantly.

[aaww-my-bees.livejournal.com]

Delanie. I always said it like "Melanie" with a D.

[babyjess8.livejournal.com]

I used to pronounce all the X names actually with an "ex" sound
eg Xavier (Ex-Ay-Vee-ar); Xander (Ex-and-er); Xaris (Ex-are-iss)

[twitchywoman.livejournal.com]

I pronounce Xavier Ex-ay-vee-er, it is the only way in my eyes.

[freezemyazaleas.livejournal.com]

Up until like a year ago, I didn't know Michaela was the same as Mikayla. I thought it was pronounced MEE-kuh-ELL-uh. I still read it that way in my head.

Oh, and I pronounce Aurelia aw-REE-lee-uh, and I've read it's supposed to be pronounced aw-RAIL-yuh. I hate it either way, though.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

I have a (guy) friend named Aurelio, which I pn aw-RELL-ee-oh. When he says his own name with his Spanish accent, it's more like aw-RAY-lee-oh.

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

Javier in Dutch (mainly because in Dutch, it's pronounced so differently than it is pronounced in Spanish) and Tobias in English.
Here, Tobias is pronounced TOE-bee-ahs, in English (apparently) Toe-BYE-as.

[aballard23.livejournal.com]

HAVIER!

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

Isn't it with a 'kh' sound? More guttural? That's how I learned it, anyway.

[aballard23.livejournal.com]

I d'no. I pronounce it Havier. o_O;

[0o-faerie.livejournal.com]

I think there's a difference between English speaking countries and, well, non-English speaking countries =)

[solagirl.livejournal.com]

Lyra and Declan.

[soulsplinter8.livejournal.com]

Yeah, how DO you pronounce Declan? haha

[alexandria-skye.livejournal.com]

lyra (i am so adament that it's wrong in the movie, it's riddiculous...)

ack, there are so many more but i can't remember any of them. in kindergarten, i read phoebe as po-hee-bee :)

[alexandria-skye.livejournal.com]

ps- i had no clue that ralph finnes was "rafe fine"...

[chocklit-frog.livejournal.com]

Really? Would you say it LEE-ra? I always associated it with a lyre, so, LIE-ra it was.

[alexandria-skye.livejournal.com]

yeah, weird, right? i'm a music kid so you'd think i'd go with the lyre association too, but i saw it leer-ah...

[soulsplinter8.livejournal.com]

I don't know how to pronounce Callum. Is it supposed to be CAUL (pr. like Haul)-um, or CAHL (pr. like Hal)-um?

[babyjess8.livejournal.com]

The second.
Cal-lum, rather than call-um

Feebee

[crossingthesea.livejournal.com]

Phoebe!

Fee-bee
Feeb
Fohb

[http://users.livejournal.com/--melpomene--/]

Ioan and Saoirse.

I was a little kid and I had the hardest time with Ioan (pronounce Yo-wahn) and I still want to pronounce Saoirse Say-o-ear-se!