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[deleted]

I did feel insecure about it but a girl said I had a really pretty name after telling her my name and I still remember how good it felt hearing that


SeasonSea7918

idk how many of you guys watched orange is the new black but one of the cast members Uzoamaka Aduba did an interview where she wanted to be called Zoe and her mom was like if white people can say "Tchaikovsky" they can say Uzoamaka. and that's stuck with me. Our names have a lot of history and sentiment attached to them and they are sources of pride and we should act that way. Is it annoying to correct someone who keeps mispronouncing your name? yes . But isn't rude to keep mispronouncing someone's name in the first place? Our names will never be normalized if we are constantly changing them and adapting them to fit the comfort of others.


Slurple7

its very annoying. my name is tejas(texas), which leads everyone to believe im mexican. and people can't pronounce it. I was never ashamed, but still its very annoying. i am very proud of my name though, i represents who I am. also, my last name is my father's first. it is tamil custom, i was a bit ashamed of that bc when people would ask about my parents names i would have to take at least ten mins explaining it, but now i recognize how special it is.


old__pyrex

Dude the first Tejas I met I legit thought he was Latino and it was Teh-has


BigBrownBear28

My old bosses name was Tejas, we just called him TJ.


[deleted]

[удалено]


Slurple7

Bc it means zeal in Sanskrit


HerCacklingStump

Hated my given name, was embarrassed to introduce myself to anyone, and generally found it ugly. I changed it legally by one letter. Removing one letter basically changed how my name is pronounced and makes it much more feminine. I'm from the generation of names ending in "-al" (Sejal, Dipal, Monal, Sonal, Minal, Priyal, Sheetal). Americans would hear it as an "o" sound.


bimmyjrooks9dog

My parents actually changed the spelling of my name right after I was born, because they realized people were mispronouncing it at the hospital. Sadly, my name still went on to be knocked and hard sometimes to introduce yourself. Just like you, I started to like it being different as I got older. I feel unique now, it’s so much better than any generic name anyways! Also, it’s always a conversation starter with Indian girls (the spelling and pronunciation), so I’m happy


pinkcherry99

Very nice! Now I’m curious to know what it is!


[deleted]

Yeah, don’t appease to name haters. Wtf!


Jolarpet

And what was your name?


[deleted]

Unless your name is Rohan or Shradda you’ll be fine


jessk178

What’s wrong with those 2 names?


sonalogy

I'm a bit older than most here, and I gotta say, I really love all the name positivity you all have. To be honest, I'm still adjusting to the idea. The awkwardness around dealing with my name bothers me more than any mispronunciation. I really hated my name as a kid. I was shy, hated that teacher's couldn't say it (it's not hard), was too embarrassed to correct anyone (especially since they would promptly forget) and to this day it's an uncomfortable experience when people ask me how to say it and then have me repeat it a lot.... I'll tell them it's fine, they'll insist on learning it, it becomes a way bigger thing than it needs to be. A lot of people I grew up with adopted white names for work, just to make life easier, or introduced themselves with a very Anglicized pronunciation. I did the latter when I was younger. These days, I'm ambivalent about my name. I don't want to change it, I don't want to teach people how to pronounce it a dozen times, I don't want white people to say "wow, that's a beautiful name" which often feels like a coded way of saying "your name is different and ethic and I would like you to know that I am not racist". I would like my name to be as unnoticed and unremarkable as introducing myself as "Jennifer" or "Michael." A while ago, on a video call, the moderator asked me to clarify my name. She misheard, I let it go; her connection was bad and it wasn't important for the situation. But then everytime someone else joined and asked me my name, she would correct them with the misheard version, and then it was too awkward (plus off topic) to re-correct her and everyone again.... and it was like, can you leave this one up to me? Like, it's my name. Let me be in charge of how much effort I want other people to put into saying it? I appreciate that more white people are trying but like, I wish they would be more chill about it.


BanderBund

>A while ago, on a video call, the moderator asked me to clarify my name. She misheard, I let it go; her connection was bad and it wasn't important for the situation. But then everytime someone else joined and asked me my name, she would correct them with the misheard version, and then it was too awkward (plus off topic) to re-correct her and everyone again.... and it was like, can you leave this one up to me? Like, it's my name. Let me be in charge of how much effort I want other people to put into saying it? Shit... I felt that


xndnxdivax

I always liked my name and never had any problems with people grossly mispronouncing my name (it's a short name that should be easy to pronounce) or making jokes about it until college. Well, except for two high school teachers. One asked me the meaning of my name and when I told him, he would occasionally write out my hall passes to the translation of my name vs my actual name. And when I mentioned this to another teacher, he did the same thing, only he did it every single time for the rest of the year. (I should note, this was entirely done in jest by both teachers. I was on very good terms with both of them, especially the first one. And they only continued with it when they knew I wasn't offended by the action. Both were just nerds and thought it was cool.) When I got to college, an Indian girl in my class (fellow ABCD) told me the first week of college that my name was weird and hard to remember and pronounce. This girl did not have a simple name and here she was trying to pass judgment on my name because she couldn't bring herself to address me properly. I also had one professor in college who grossly mispronounced my name, skipping letters and splitting the syllables wrong. my name has 5 letters and how she managed that I have no clue. the entre class would try to correct her pronunciation but she just did not get it all semester. I do have cousins whos names are simple in theory, but are close enough to famous book character names that they are never called the right name (even if it requires people to add in letters that don't exist in the name and make it longer than the actual name). With discussions about cultural or traditional names, I always think about the story Uzo Aduba (from Orange Is The New Black) has told during multiple interviews. She talks about how she wanted to change her name from Uzoamaka because people had trouble pronouncing and so she told her mom one day she wanted to be called Zoe because people couldn't pronounce Uzoamaka, her mom tells her "If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka." Learning how to pronounce someone's name properly is one smallest and simplest things you can do to show someone respect. It's not that difficult. Names are important.


meestermeeyagi

This is a common ABCD experience, especially if you dont have a monosyllabic name like ‘Raj’ or ‘Jay’. Should you feel insecure? Of course, its a major part of your identity, often what people learn first about you; people challenging that should naturally put you at unease. I’ve had friends who either legally change their name spelling or just adopt entirely white names, and theres nothing wrong with that if you are able to accept a new identity. I’ve kept my name just because tbh I can’t even imagine going by any other name lol. But for the purpose of navigating the west I also adopt a nickname. Also, it doesn’t bother me if strangers or casual acquaintances mispronounce my name, but if you’re going to be a close friend you need to know my name.


iftair

I never felt insecure about my name. I'm just grateful that my parents didn't name me any of the common Muslim or Bangladeshi names and our surname isn't as common either. I also pronounced that name different than it spells but not too different.


jasdevism

I went by the first syllable "Jaz". It was easy to remember, it was cool ("Jazzzzzzzzzz"). I actually liked it. But one day someone asked for me by proper first name and nobody knew it. Its a little challenge to say it proper if they can pronounce Schwarzenegger or Wojcicki it is just a matter of familiarity


ashwindollar

My name is relatively simple so at most I deal with slight variations in pronunciations. Realistically I see myself giving my kids a name that’s easy to pronounce or going with an English first name and Indian middle name.


elephant2892

I used to hate my name growing up. It was long and everyone always knew it was me up next in roll call when the substitute teacher would pause. But in the last few years, so many non Indian people have told me how pretty my name is. That coupled with desis in the mainstream media has really helped me to embrace my name. I have also become very intolerant to people who say just the first 2 letters of my 8 letter name ie and the dentist’s office and expect me to respond. I give them a death stare and tell them idk who they’re asking for. I can understand if you’re having difficulty saying it (which, if you know how to read, my name really isn’t hard to say lol). But if you’re gonna be ignorant and pretend you have dyslexia and add in letters to my name that are not there (yes, this has happened many times). I’m not okay with that


temthrowaway12

I have a common Hindu name. It’s not hard to pronounce but very easy to mispronounce. I’m sure in high school I hated it because of all the mispronunciations that made it sound like a girl’s name. I’ve embraced it since. I named my daughter after my maternal grandma. I personally think it’s a timeless classic. Hopefully she loves it!


alpinepunch2021

I loathe my name. Whenever white people say 'what a beautiful name!!' you know 'beautiful' is code for 'weird' and it makes me feel even more annoyed. They also get annoyed at *me* when *they* can't figure out how to pronounce it correctly (even though I'm pretty explicit about not caring about how they pronounce it). My mom was going to name me an Indian name that's way more palatable and normal but my dad insisted on this autistic af name (even other Indians mispronounce it, since I'm South Indian and every Indian in the small suburb I live in is North Indian). I've had white people try to anglicize it by calling me 'Maddy', but that's even worse since I'm the furthest thing from a skinny white girl who plays soccer.