To The Ones Whose Names Are Hard to Pronounce

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Hello, dear ones.

You know who you are.

The ones who always have their names mispronounced. Or misspelled.

I used to get annoyed. Snarky. Overly corrective. Every single time someone opened their mouth, it seemed that my name came out wrong. It grated on me. Like nails on a chalkboard. How dare they take my name and say it in such an ugly way? It gave me the heebie-jeebies to hear my name pronounced all wrong. As if I was being defaced, disrespected. I even went through phases where I resented my parents a little bit for giving me a name that no one else seems to have heard of.

It’s not so bad when my name is written down on paper. It’s a fairly straightforward spelling and usually when it’s written it’s not necessary to have the correct pronunciation. But things get a little more complicated when I’m talking on the phone or in a social setting with “acquaintances”. Over the phone, I get all sorts of rhyming variations of my name, and no matter how many times I try to explain it, it all seems to get lost in translation. I don’t know my official NATO phonetic alphabet, so I’m stumbling over letters saying dumb things like “S as in Sauerkraut” and “U as in United!” It gets awkward when meeting people for the first, second or third time who have seen my name in writing, or can remember what my name is…but cannot remember how to pronounce it.  

Over the years, though, I’ve learned to love my unique name is that almost always mispronounced. I’ve learned to laugh. I’ve learned to just shrug my shoulders. I’ve learned to mispronounce my own name on the phone because it takes all the explanations/phonetic spellings out of the conversation.  I’ve learned to look for gentle opportunities to correct, but not jump down their throats. After all, how are they supposed to know there is more than one way to pronounce Suzanne?

I’ve learned to practice and give some answers to common questions (and dare I say concerns) of how my name is pronounced. I’ve learned to have a quick synopsis on hand of why my name is pronounced the way it is. I’ve learned to have pride in my unique name but also understanding that not everyone will pronounce it right the first, second, third or even fourth time! I swell with pride when people at restaurants and customer service call my name and pronounce it right! I’m always pleasantly surprised when someone who has met me once remembers how to pronounce my name the second time around. I’m always more gracious and quick to remember other people’s names and their kid’s names, especially when they are unique. I even went ahead and gave my children names that I loved, even though I knew they are very unique and would most likely be mispronounced and misspelled. After all, in the end, it’s not so bad.

So let’s hear it – is your name commonly mispronounced or misspelled? What is your name and how is misspelled or mispronounced? How have you learned to deal with this lifelong issue?

Suzanne. Pronounced Suz-ON, not Suz-ANNE (think how Anna in Frozen is pronounced). My parents lived and worked in a country whose primary language was French, and wanted to name me something that worked in both French and English. They named me Suzanne, and the pronunciation is the French form.

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Suzanne Hines
Hi, I'm Suzanne! I am a Christian, wife to Theo, Mom to Tera Evelynne (18 months) and foster Mom to some of the most precious foster kiddos placed in our home. I grew up far, far away from Dayton as a missionary kid in West Africa. After graduating from my international high school, I attended Cedarville University. A few months into my freshman year, I met an incredible man named Theo. Although I had sworn off dating, there I was...dating him! We were married by my junior year and the rest is history! We stuck around the area and I am now proud to call the Dayton area home. Theo works for the Dayton Fire Department and I am a stay at home Mom. Most of my day consists of chasing children, feeding children, cleaning up after children and driving them all around to their various appointments (foster care makes for A LOT of driving!!). In my spare time (har har har), I love to cook, run, browse Pinterest and Instagram and read books and maintain my blog (www.suzannehines.org). My family loves to explore outside, to attend festivals and events and to find frugal ways to live in the Dayton area. My favorite thing about motherhood is watching my children develop their own little personality! How did I create this walking, talking, living, breathing, giggling, kissing human being?!? What a miracle!

2 COMMENTS

  1. So my name is Samara, sah-MARE-uh. Most people say sah-MAR-ah which is technically correct. I was named after my great great grandmother and that is how they pronounced it. However my mom liked the name but liked to pronounce it differently, so here I am. I too have dealt with all the same feelings, thoughts, etc. over the years. So you aren’t alone! I just kinda go with it now because I’m so use to people not saying it “correctly”. I realized I had more important things to worry about and if they ended up being important ppl in my life they eventually caught on anyway.

    Our newest daughter has a unique name, so I’m curious to see how she’ll navigate it herself one day. ❤️

  2. We thought for about 10 seconds about naming you Ruth…. Until we pronounced it in French. I put a quick stop to that idea! R(make hawking noise in the back of your throat) oot.

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