Alaina is a great name and I'm glad you used it, Mom. Goes nicely with Mabaso, too.
Kathy Johns - 13 years ago
Sometimes I wish I had a name unique enough to pronounce incorrectly. However I do not regret naming you Alaina. I think it is an interesting name for a wonderful child who grew into a woman as beautiful as her name.
Jill: does correcting them once do the trick? If it doesn't, do you just let it go? I guess mispronunciation of names is even more universal than I thought.
Jill Brickman - 13 years ago
There's no such thing as "a nice, easy name that doesn’t confuse anyone." Take it from someone with a simple, phonetic name. Probably at least 30% of the time I'm called Jo Brinkman. If the mispronouncer is someone with whom I'll have regular contact I'll usually correct them once. If it's a one-shot contact, I usually let it go.
I am also privy to the perils of unwanted name shortening! I don't like it when people outside my immediate family shorten my name to "Lainie" or "Laina" or "Lain". Thanks for chiming in on the difficulties of "Patricia". I think "Patricia" is an elegant name and I will give all Patricias the full-name treatment unless they say they prefer "Patty" - you are Patricia to me!
Patricia Kissling - 13 years ago
Alaina I find this blog so interesting because this used to happen to me all the time. While Patricia isn't hard to say...it is a name that people LOVE to shorten. Growing up and during college many coworkers and professors would get into the habit of calling me Pat (which I HATE and had specifically stated not to call me that). I started out not correcting them; however, now I just correct them and willingly answer to anything but Pat.
Alaina is a great name and I'm glad you used it, Mom. Goes nicely with Mabaso, too.
Sometimes I wish I had a name unique enough to pronounce incorrectly. However I do not regret naming you Alaina. I think it is an interesting name for a wonderful child who grew into a woman as beautiful as her name.
Jill: does correcting them once do the trick? If it doesn't, do you just let it go? I guess mispronunciation of names is even more universal than I thought.
There's no such thing as "a nice, easy name that doesn’t confuse anyone." Take it from someone with a simple, phonetic name. Probably at least 30% of the time I'm called Jo Brinkman. If the mispronouncer is someone with whom I'll have regular contact I'll usually correct them once. If it's a one-shot contact, I usually let it go.
I am also privy to the perils of unwanted name shortening! I don't like it when people outside my immediate family shorten my name to "Lainie" or "Laina" or "Lain". Thanks for chiming in on the difficulties of "Patricia". I think "Patricia" is an elegant name and I will give all Patricias the full-name treatment unless they say they prefer "Patty" - you are Patricia to me!
Alaina I find this blog so interesting because this used to happen to me all the time. While Patricia isn't hard to say...it is a name that people LOVE to shorten. Growing up and during college many coworkers and professors would get into the habit of calling me Pat (which I HATE and had specifically stated not to call me that). I started out not correcting them; however, now I just correct them and willingly answer to anything but Pat.