Aw-nay-shuh.

December 30, 2015 7:54 AM

"There was power in a name, and I figured if mine were Elizabeth, maybe the blue eyes and blonde hair would follow. I would look more like her. My mother. She has stories of walking around—me in her arms, my brother in a stroller—and people asking what country we were adopted from. My mother is too polite to say things like, The country of my vagina." "Where I'm Writing From" by Onnesha Roychoudhuri.
posted by roomthreeseventeen (7 comments total)

As someone with an unusual name and brown skin, I totally get this. I even do the my name is x, it you can call me y, even though my name is dead simple.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 8:22 AM on December 30, 2015

This is very good. Thanks for sharing.
posted by Solon and Thanks at 9:12 AM on December 30, 2015

This is a good read. Shades of my childhood correcting pronunciation and spelling of my unusual but simple surname.
posted by a halcyon day at 9:36 AM on December 30, 2015

Enjoyable read, thanks.
posted by Secretariat at 9:49 AM on December 30, 2015

We have a very talented, somewhat shy guy named Vimal at our firm, who started four years ago. His boss introduced him to us with the pronunciation "Vih-MAHL" and we had all been calling him that and he was too nice to correct us. We found out accidentally (I think someone outside the company who knew better told his boss) that it's "VIH-muhl."

We were pretty embarrassed but I'm glad that everyone is taking the effort to say it correctly now.

I wonder how many times that's happened to him, living in Texas?
posted by emjaybee at 10:16 AM on December 30, 2015 [3 favorites]

We have a very talented, somewhat shy guy named Vimal at our firm, who started four years ago. His boss introduced him to us with the pronunciation "Vih-MAHL" and we had all been calling him that and he was too nice to correct us. We found out accidentally (I think someone outside the company who knew better told his boss) that it's "VIH-muhl."

Monteé Ball had the same problem:

When he arrived in Madison from Wentzville, Mo., in 2009, everyone called him Mon-TEE, and he didn't correct them. Badgers coach Bret Bielema understands Ball's reasoning. "When you're an 18 year old and your coach is calling you something," Bielema said, "you don't correct him out of respect."

Okay, I'm really just linking to that article for this line:

In 2000, while referring to Arizona Cardinals receiver MarTay Jenkins, Rushin typed the finest sentence ever composed regarding the subject of athlete names. "The difference," Rushin wrote, "between a Marty and a MarTay, it goes without saying, is the difference between a party and a partay."

posted by Etrigan at 11:40 AM on December 30, 2015 [11 favorites]

I'm brown and was named Sharon, specifically because my father (Indian) did not want people to exoticize me based on my name. Surely no one could have a problem spelling or pronouncing Sharon, and largely, they didn't.

Ironically, it was when I moved to Australia 15 years ago from my Asian home country, that my name started feeling oddly exotic - every time I tell an Australian my name is Sharon, they ask how it's spelt. Because, they explain when pressed, I look too exotic to be a "normal Sharon". And then they ask if my parents had lived in Australia hence the naming. Like the name somehow belongs to non-brown Australians.
posted by shazzam! at 9:55 PM on December 31, 2015 [1 favorite]