The UNPRONOUNCABLE names

valley girl

Wed, Sep 01 2010, 3:04 pm

Atali wrote:

For some reason no one who isn't frum can pronounce the name "Shneur". The most common mispronunciation is "Shner".

I don't get what is so hard about it. There isn't even a "ch" and people do just fine with saying my DD's name (Shaina) which has many of the same letters.

my husband's name is shneur, and some of our frum friends call him "shneer" or "shnay-or"

amother

Wed, Sep 01 2010, 3:10 pm

Atali wrote:

LOL! My daughter calls a relative named Shneur "shneer". How's that for flattering?

(Anonymous bec. this is well known in my family and I don't want my SN to be busted!)

Chana Miriam S

Wed, Sep 01 2010, 3:30 pm

I have an ariel who is called ariella, and aerial. she is ar ee EL. on the other hand, my name is not a hebrew name and in high schoo, my home room teacher could never get it right. I know of at least three ways to pronounce it. oh well, I am always happy when people get it in the ball park. or at least try.

eschaya

Wed, Sep 01 2010, 3:33 pm

some family names:
Elyakim (a Jewish king) - my great uncle called him "elokim"
Chanoch - as if one "ch" wasn't bad enough

dmum

Wed, Sep 01 2010, 5:17 pm

About Faigy... I knew my DD was going to be in hospital for a long time after she was born, so we specifically decided to call her by her second name (Faigy) as opposed to her first, which has a "ch" in it.
But the nurses constantly asked if the g in Faigy was silent, making it Fay! Don't know where that came from. I had to keep repeating: You say it like it's spelled!

eschaya

Wed, Sep 01 2010, 7:40 pm

I tell people at work my name is Kaya, and I get so many compliments on it!
If I don't spell it K-A-Y-A then I get kaya, kaiya, haya, shaya, chaya (as in "chair") and beyond. It doesn't help that my last name is long and very polish , so people can't even refer to me by my last name.

Ruchel

Thu, Sep 02 2010, 5:36 am

Oy Polish names lol.
I thought I would marry a Blum or Klein and be done with it, but no, dh's name is even worse for a Francophone! LOL

suomynona

Thu, Sep 02 2010, 6:02 am

c.c.cookie wrote:

How about unpronouncable screen names, like suomynona?

even I don't know how to pronounce it!
(I don't even know why I clicked on this thread right now...but I happened to)

amother

Thu, Sep 02 2010, 6:23 am

My name in Israel is mispronounced all the time. I'm Mindy and I have to pronounce it Meeeendeeeee otherwise I get called Mendy....
I think sometimes about just using my second name, maybe when I get a new job...

Atali

Thu, Sep 02 2010, 5:08 pm

suomynona wrote:

c.c.cookie wrote:

How about unpronouncable screen names, like suomynona?

even I don't know how to pronounce it!
(I don't even know why I clicked on this thread right now...but I happened to)

I always pronounce it in my head as "Sue-oh-my-no-na"

Rodent

Thu, Sep 02 2010, 6:10 pm

Atali wrote:

suomynona wrote:

c.c.cookie wrote:

How about unpronouncable screen names, like suomynona?

even I don't know how to pronounce it!
(I don't even know why I clicked on this thread right now...but I happened to)

I always pronounce it in my head as "Sue-oh-my-no-na"

I pronounce it as "anonymous backwards"...

LiLIsraeli

Mon, Sep 06 2010, 2:35 am

Rodent wrote:

Atali wrote:

suomynona wrote:

c.c.cookie wrote:

How about unpronouncable screen names, like suomynona?

even I don't know how to pronounce it!
(I don't even know why I clicked on this thread right now...but I happened to)

I always pronounce it in my head as "Sue-oh-my-no-na"

I pronounce it as "anonymous backwards"...

I do the same! Smile

chavamom

Mon, Sep 06 2010, 2:39 am

amother wrote:

I have to agree about Elisheva! I have a daughter Elisheva and no matter how slowly I say it, everyone says it back in one of these two ways:

Eh-LEE-shuh-vuh

or

Ella-SHEE-va

and I thought she was going to have an easy name!! but no!!

There is an African American cashier in the gift shop at the hospital, not Jewish. Her name badge says "Elisheva". I one day asked her about it. "Eh-LEE-shuh-vuh, it's Biblical," she told me. Uh, yeah. I know LOL

amother

Mon, Sep 06 2010, 2:44 am

eschaya wrote:

some family names:
Elyakim (a Jewish king) - my great uncle called him "elokim"
Chanoch - as if one "ch" wasn't bad enough

I know a family who has lots of kids with interesting name combinations.

One is Yitzchak Chanoch.
Another is Tzirel Shoshy.

I can't even pronounce their names half the time!

(Anon in case anyone else knows them and figures me out!)

chavamom

Mon, Sep 06 2010, 2:46 am

I've also noticed a small trend of young marrieds who were born and raised with Hebrew names giving their kids English names. Witness the local who recently named their kid "Gavin". I could site a few others in the past few years. Dh says "Growing up, they probably got sick of trying to teach people how to pronounce their unpronounceable names and decided they would never do that to their kids." Hmmm. Wonder if he's on to something.

mae1984

Mon, Sep 06 2010, 6:28 am

One of our criteria when we named our daughter was that the name had to be pronouncable in English and Hebrew.

louche

Mon, Sep 06 2010, 9:22 pm

amother wrote:

I have a friend with a son Chesky/yechezkel and when asecular people ask her what his name is she tells them "Chaz" (here the ch is like the word "chair" not "challah")
I thought this was a cute idea. I was with her when she called him Chaz and the other person did not blink at all. Apparently thought it was a perfectly fine name for a little boy. I guess people have odder names for their kids out there....

Chaz is short for Charles, taken from the now-obsolete abbreviation of Charles as Chas. Other abbreviated English names are James (Jas.) Robert (Robt.) and William (Wm.)

amother

Wed, Sep 08 2010, 12:11 pm

I just put this on the unusual names thread, but I think it belongs here too:
brachayahu Very Happy