(no subject)

[vr_trakowski]

My RL last name is a bit odd (only a bit).  It is a common name but spelt slightly differently, which has the dual effects of people constantly misspelling it, and frequently mispronouncing it.  One dropped letter gets put back all the time; the missing letter gives the illusion of a different sound. 

One gets used to it.  It's not a problem; I do have to take care to check when I'm spelling out my email addresses, because people put in the missing letter automatically without realizing it, and if that isn't caught I don't get the emails, but the mistakes are natural and I'm not offended when people say it wrong. 

Correcting the mispronunciation is a reflex at this point.  But recently it dawned on me (one of those vast, boggling, ridiculously simple realizations that should have occurred forty years ago) that I don't have to pronounce it that way. 

It's my name as much as it's anyone's.  I can choose to pronounce it the way it's spelt if I want to, just as some ancestor dropped that one letter and made life more complicated for all their descendants.  I can choose. 

I'm not going to.  I don't like the way the mispronunciation sounds.  But the knowledge is there. 

Comments

[cincoflex]

Ooof, I agree with you--I don't think your name is odd at all, but getting the pronunciation right is a point of honor for me when it comes to that. I like to get names right the first time--otherwise the wrong name is going to lodge in my brain like a piece of stale corn chip.

And as you know MY last name changes depending on whether the speak puts the emphasis on the first or second syllable. (Second is preferred.)