Given how important our names are to our self-images, having to constantly correct others wrt spelling or pronounciation must be very hard, especially through childhood.
The story of my friend Chyrisse comes to mind.
(Perhaps you can't tell, either, just how to say Chyrisse: It's pronounced Shur-eese.)
She and I spent most of our school years in the same classrooms and I heard many stumblings and butcherings that poor Chyrisse had to correct.
The most common pronounciation I remember is "Krissy."
Very annoying for Chyrisse, but she was and is a strong-minded person.
I can imagine there are children who found it even more distressing than she did, and who suffered ill-effects.
Please share your stories of having your name constantly pronounced incorrectly.
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Having a French name which contain sounds that don't exist in English and living in an English environment means that my name was always mispronounced, and I always have to spell it. I eventually shortened it to something that exists in English and everyone can say and understand without spelling.
But living through that made me give my kids names that are bilingual. All three of my kids now have names that can easily be said in both French and English (Xavier, Nicolas and Elizabeth).
Although we did struggle with the spelling of their names. In French, Elizabeth is commonly spelled Elisabeth, and Nicholas is spelled Nicolas. Do we use the less common French spelling, or do we use the more widely used English spelling? In the end, we picked traditional French spelling for Nicolas, and more common spelling for Elizabeth. I can't really explain why.
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