cool post on "having a black name"

[terebi_me]

Folks who know me understand what fun it is to have my name, and have it frequently misunderstood, verbally mangled, or with extra consonants added to make it into a more common (though male-identified) name. I thought this blog post was fascinating...

And I liked this bit, too:
And I only got my silly record and book reviews published when I

Comments

[nihilistic_kid]

Yah. Obviously, my own experience is somewhat different, but there have been issues with my name. "Why don't you write under a name easier for people to pronounce and spell?" I was asked by way of suggestion any number of times.

I always said, "I'll make them learn it."

I know several immigrants with Eastern European names who use pseudonyms because otherwise editors and agents assume that the choices they made in language in their writing were naive errors rather than aesthetic calculations.

[terebi_me]

I always said, "I'll make them learn it."
The Milo Ventimiglia defense. :) (He's having a hellish time of it, apparently - no one can pronounce either "Milo" or "Ventimiglia". *sigh*) And yeah, I have done the same thing. I am pretty tired, though, and if people mispronounce my name (but are doing their best with having seen my name in print) I just let it slide, otherwise 25% of all my spoken speech would be "It's Juh-MEE-uh". And then if someone else corrects someone who is a chronic misprounouncer, they always bleat at me, "Why didn't you...?" And then I have to go, "It's been a lifetime of it. I know who you're talking about."

For some reason I think I actually pronounced your name right on the first try. But your name isn't actually that unusual to me.

[grahzny]

All I have to worry about is how people spell my name according to their preference. I don't care -- Alan, Allan, Allen. They're all close enough.

[terebi_me]

I am pretty sure I know how to spell your name. :)

But I find the pronunciation guide helpful for a lot of people. I'm sure I'd do the same thing if I wasn't used to it. For the record, my screenname here (using Japanese pronuniciation) is

teh-ve-ve-vi (approximating "Tee-vee") - may

[squeakymonkey]

It does not even matter what your name is, people will find a way to butcher it. People mispronounce P's last name about 30% of the time.

I love and live my weird last name. It's super obviously white though.

[terebi_me]

Your name's pretty Northern European, for sure.

[squeakymonkey]

I'm pretty white.

On that note, we really should do badminton.

[sdn]

this makes me think of paolo bacigalupi!

and yeah, i too have some name issues of my own.

[indyhat]

Well, then I learned something today. 'Cause I've been giving your name the Anglo treatment, and I'm kinda tickled to learn that you pronounce it in a more European way :)

I hear you on mispronunciation, though. My surname is relatively uncommon (though not unknown) and people mishear it and misremember it as just about everything else. Makes me want to adopt my mum's Eastern European maiden name and see how people like that :P