Nobody can pronounce my American name!

Edited: thanks for the help everyone!

I find the same happens to me in the US (I'm British) - my name is Kirsten (pronounced Kur-sten) but everyone in the US seems to want to call me either Kier-sten or Kris-ten (which is more common),

I think in your case it's probably that it's not a very common name here so people aren't as familiar with saying/pronouncing it as with other similar names.

However, my instinctive thought when I see 'Alyssa' is that it's pronounced 'Uh-Lih-Suh'. And really once you've told your coworkers how to say it, they shouldn't really have any excuse not to get it right.

Not really sure what advice I can give - if it were me, I'd probably remind them again how it should be pronounced and say that you would appreciate if they could say it correctly... maybe emphasise that it's like 'Melissa'. Do you have anywhere in the office where all the names are written on a list somewhere - i.e. Tea/coffee preferences? Maybe you could write the pronunciation phonetically in brackets after your name?

Btw, I think Alyssa is a lovely name .


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I'd shy away from the nickname idea....they have weird ways of generating them here.....you'll end up as Alizzers or Babs.

How does Madonna = Madge?

I find the same happens to me in the US (I'm British) - my name is Kirsten (pronounced Kur-sten) but everyone in the US seems to want to call me either Kier-sten or Kris-ten (which is more common).

My cousin is Kirsten (but KIER-sten) and she gets really wound up if she's called kur-sten or kri-sten. I remember vividly that they called her the wrong name at her graduation ceremony.  She tends to go by KJ (her initials) so it's not mispronounced.

My name, Amy, is common enough but when I worked with kids in Italy, they usually called me Emily spelled in all sorts of ways - Amyli, Emilee, Emylee. My middle name is Lee so it was fine and I didn't mind. I decided it was easier to just be entertained by the spellings they made than correct them each time. I was only with each group of kids for a week, so it wasn't a permanent thing.

I do feel for you. While I don't mind variations of my first name, I hate being called by my first name and just my last name initial. I'd much rather be called my full name (first and last) than have my surname abbreviated. If someone's doing it regularly (in school there were a few Amys in my class), I'd correct them and explain what I want to be called.

Hopefully they learn to pronounce your name correctly.

After telling them dozens of times, Id begin to wonder just how thick headed they really were. Alyssa is not that hard to pronounce, especially if they have been told.

Kirsten, pronounced with the Kur sound at the beginning, seems popular enough people should get it too.

When I lived in the UK, everyone insisted on calling me Tamara. I'd introduce myself, and sure enough, it was immediately and forever after the formal  version of my name. I managed to convince my core group of family and friends they didn't have to be formal, but for the rest of the people I encountered, it was always Tamara.

I'm surprised that they are still saying it wrong too!  It's not hard.

A couple of years ago at work, we found out that we were pronouncing our off-shore area lead's name incorrectly.  We were all pretty horrified and told him he should have told us long before.  From that day forward, we pronounced his name correctly (well, at least a lot closer, it isn't an easy name).

I think you should stress that it's like Melissa without the M.

TF - there were 2 girls in my graduating class with the same first and last name.  Both had brown hair and blue eyes.  One was an ice skater.  So they have forever been "ice skater Jessica Haynes" and "the other Jessica Haynes"   

When I lived in the UK, everyone insisted on calling me Tamara. I'd introduce myself, and sure enough, it was immediately and forever after the formal  version of my name. I managed to convince my core group of family and friends they didn't have to be formal, but for the rest of the people I encountered, it was always Tamara.

People do this to DH all the time, although I think it bothers me more than it bothers him.

His family is British-Indian and he's got an Indian name, but shortens it to what happens to be a more common 'Western' name. People think they're being formal and showing respect by lengthening it to the full version... of the Western name.

Sorry, but that's not his name. Best call people by the name they introduce themselves as.

DH has a tough time calling my parents by their first names. He was raised to call elders by Mr and Mrs or the Punjabi equivalent.

After calling my dad Mr (surname) and my (very casual) dad insisting that DH calling him by his first name, he's started calling my dad 'Amy's Dad' or 'Mr-Amy's-mom's-husband, Sir' (both to his face).

It's pretty funny and my dad gets a kick out of it.

TF - there were 2 girls in my graduating class with the same first and last name.  Both had brown hair and blue eyes.  One was an ice skater.  So they have forever been "ice skater Jessica Haynes" and "the other Jessica Haynes"   

Hehehe.

When I worked as an au pair in Switzerland there were three other non-Swiss girls in our group of friends named Amy.

One was Miss Amy (she was a teacher)
One was Aussie Amy (an Australian)
I was American Amy (although I never liked it)

The worst confusion we had was when it was my birthday. A few of us went out and at the end of the evening, one of the girls commented that it was (Aussie) Amy's birthday get-together and she didn't even show up.

Um, sorry, but it's MY birthday.

I get annoyed by people constantly misspelling my first name.  It ends --ly NOT --ley!
   I know this is Yorkshire and all places names seem to end in --ley but NOT my name.  Especially annoying when it's some official type document they've done it on.

TF - there were 2 girls in my graduating class with the same first and last name.  Both had brown hair and blue eyes.  One was an ice skater.  So they have forever been "ice skater Jessica Haynes" and "the other Jessica Haynes"   

That is funny!

Some Guy: Dude, I asked Jessica to the dance next Saturday.
Friend: Cool. "Other"?
Some Guy: Ice skater.
Friend: Cool...

Ahhh name mispronunciation! I taught at a diverse school to the east of London with lots of Middle Eastern, African, Indian/Bangladeshi, and Asian second generation students as well as a fair portion of white British students (I so hope that is not an offensive way to differentiate, I am very sorry if it is). And I was working very hard to pronounce unfamiliar to me names, making sound charts on my register, etc. I had called one of the girls Nicola - Nee-cola (like in coca cola) for weeks until one day it just dawned on me that it was Ni-ca-la and I stood mortified in front of the class. I was like, "why didn't you say anything?!" she just shrugged.

In reverse, I have an Americanized German last name, and the vowels are always pronounced the British way by coworkers and students, and I felt that was a not big deal for me. But I would be very frustrated by the not saying my first name properly. Especially, as you say, they say it regularly as part of another first name

My maiden name was a singular and so many people try to add an 's' to it! And I am constantly thinking, 'No, my name is not Plural!' haha.

And my first name usually ends in 'ea' but my name ends in 'ia' so very few people spell my name right. Lucky for me all my official documents have not had any spelling mistakes!

It's also made it to where I am VERY sensitive about saying and spelling other people's names right.

I feel your pain!  Although to be honest, people had trouble pronouncing my name in the States, too.

People seem to especially struggle with the spelling of my name.  It's Jadyn.  I often get Jayden or Jaydn, but the most creative spelling has been Jaidon (from my husband's Italian side of the family).  Most of the time I tend to not care because I don't particularly like my name anyway, and I jokingly tell people that I respond to "hey, you" just as easily.

If it does bother you, however, there's not really an excuse when it comes to pronunciation -- especially if you've made it a point to tell them already.  If I was in your shoes, I would just politely remind people of the correct pronunciation of your name whenever they say it incorrectly.

I always chuckle at Brits pronouncing Sara and Sarah differently. Just seems so unnecessarily formal.


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My name is mispronounced nearly daily by people in the US and the UK. Come to think of it, my husband's family called me "Lorona" for years. It's probably why my brother-in-law and my husband's cousin called me "My Sharona" for a while. When I last worked in England in 1996, I was introduced in the workplace and the looks on their faces when they heard my name was pretty funny. Almost immediately a guy christened me "Macarena" which was a big hit then and it stuck for the entire 18 months I worked there.

Now, I get the real big chuckle out of Americans pronouncing my English surname of Sankey. I have been called Mrs. Stanley, Mrs. Stankey, Mrs. Swanky, Mrs. Spanky, and Mrs. Skanky!! The last one has me in stitches!

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I always chuckle at Brits pronouncing Sara and Sarah differently. Just seems so unnecessarily formal.

This.  This is my life.

On the funny side, the husband's Dutch grandmother still isn't sure how to spell my name.  She will write 'Sara' on the front envelope and 'Sarah' on the card.