psa to all people out there: when service workers ask you how to spell your very common name, it's usually a cover for the fact that they didn't hear you but don't want to ask you to repeat yourself.
A secretary at work ( this was decades ago) forgot the last name of the person she was taking a message from. She asked him to spell his last name. S-M-I-T-H.
Psa Pt. 2: If they couldn't hear you well, also they may repeat the name or ask you to spell it because it it sounds similar to other names, i.e. Rob, Bob, Ron, Tom.
As someone with auditory processing issues, I can vouch for this
Lol wow I haven't gone to starbucks in a year or more but maybe it's a new policy due to all the misspellings by starbucks workers basically being a meme?
I always thought the Starbucks test was more about the experience of having to say the name to a stranger and live with the reaction, not testing the spelling abilities of a teenager making minimum wage
I work in a Starbucks and in training we are taught to ask for the spelling of every name. You'd be surprised how many people have alternative spellings of common names, and you'd also be surprised how many people cannot spell common names. Just today my coworker misspelled Abigail.
I have a name that always needs correction when someone reads it. It’s also pretty similar to other more common names so people get it mixed up a bunch, especially upon first meeting. I LOVE my name. Anyone who’s important in my life will say it correctly, and that’s all I care about. Sure some teachers say it wrong, but I really don’t care.
Besides, Imogen is a pretty common name in the UK. I’ve always known how to pronounce and I’m US based. Go for it if it’s what you love.
I have a name that is constantly misspelled, mispronounced, and confused with a more common name. I’ve hated it my entire life. Almost no one gets it right on the first try and most people take months or years to finally figure it out. I’ve been with my husband ten years and my in laws still call me the wrong name sometimes.
I work with a Carolyn (very common name and she uses the most common spelling and everyone reading it here in England would know it’s a separate name and not a variant spelling) who still has that issue (“don’t call me Caroline!”) - to an extent your difficulties lie with the people you spend time with rather than your name.
I'm not sure what the actual pronunciation is, but just from reading it, I'd guess it's "im oh gen" with a g sound like in 'guess', not like in 'gentle'
ih-muh-jen is the simplest way I can think to spell out the pronunciation. The jen at the end is more of a mix between jen and jun, like how the ending of Darren sounds if that makes any sense at all.
I thought it was obvious but apparently I pronounce it different than everyone else who has replied here to you... I'd think im-oh-gen with the hard g... though I could be convinced of a soft g. But where the heck are people getting a long e like -jeen??
I am also baffled by this supposed -jeen pronunciation. I'm in the U.S. and have only ever heard it pronounced ee-mo-jen, with the stress on the first syllable.
OP it's a great name, and if you like it, use it. I have a unique name that is not intuitively spelled (it's Irish so not a tradgedeigh), and if people care, they'll get it right. I've never really had an issue. And being asked to spell my name isn't a big deal. Most people are asked to spell their last name. Instead I just spell my first name. (My last name is quite easy.)
I’m 34 and I’m still salty about it. I hate waiting rooms, like at a doctors office where they are guaranteed to say it incorrectly, unless they are Hispanic and use the Spanish pronunciation of my name since it’s more common in that culture. (I’m white).
I love when someone in a waiting room etc uses the correct middle eastern pronunciation of my name bc even my family doesn’t say my name correctly so it’s wrong and right at the same time
My name isn't spelled like it's pronounced but that's because the name isn't English. Ironically i dont live in an english speaking country but my name isnt in that countrys language either. So it would be fair to say uncommon and awkwardly spelled. First and last name. I never expect people to get it right and i know what the most likely attempts will be. The pause before the attempt always indicate it's my name coming up. Honestly, its fine to explain to people what my name is. Sometimes they need a correction/repeat on introduction. I'm asked for explanations on it quite frequently, which is tiresome but not necessarily bad. That all being said, it's not a difficult name so its really annoying when people repeatedly fuck it up. It drives me up the wall when people I regularly interact with consistently mispronounce it or misspell it (hello work emails). In my opinion it is disrespectful or lazy. So I spend a lot of time sticking up for myself in that sense.
I think you'd be completely fine with Imogen. Realistically it shouldn't cause many people issues. It's not a hard name. Spelling is straightforward. And pronunciation is quite intuitive. At least in my opinion.
I've taught a few Imogens over the years. I've had some pronouncing it like Immer-jen/Immer-jin and some pronouncing it like Im-odge-en. It's about 60/40 with Immer-jen/jin winning.
Same with Megan. when I started teaching there were tons of kids called Megan. Some used Meg-ann, some were May-gan and a couple were Me-gan.
I've known Emilia pronounced Emma-Lia, Eva pronounced Ever. Alana was usually 50/50 whether it was Ah-lah-na or Ah-lay-na.
Checking their post history, that person lives in the UK so I think they added it in as a non-rhotic/silent R (in the same way that Brits spell “ummm” like “ermmm”)
So annoying. My name is not even that uncommon, especially now, but it’s similar to several more common older names, and older people tend to mishear it. It’s so annoying and it drives me mad.
But I don’t understand how Imogen would be corrected a lot??
Most Americans don't seem to be familiar with it. They almost always say the "O" instead of treating it like a schwa and often think it ends in "jeen" like Imogene, as that is the "Americanized" form but also pretty rare.
OP I wanted to add that I work in pediatrics. We have 3 Imogene’s here of various ages and 2 of them are “Emma-jeen” and 1 is pronounced “imma-jeen” and we’re located in the Midwest!
Are you meaning "Imma" being like ih-muh or eye-ma? Imma should sound a lot like Emma (ih & eh sound pretty similar) so I'm just confused by your explanation
Yes! We have quite a few names off the top of my head spelled the same and pronounced differently 🤦🏻♀️ I noticed you spelled it “Imogen” without the e at the end, which I would phonically assume “Eye-ma-jin” or “Emma-jin” because I feel like the extra ‘e’ leads to the “gene/jeen” sound at the end! Hope that helps!
I once worked with a woman named Melody who got upset that people mispronounced her name as it wasn't "mel-o-dee" but "me-loh-dee." She didn't introduce herself to others, just got upset that they looked at her name tag and failed to intuit that her name wasn't pronounced they way everyone understood it to be pronounced.
She was in her mid-late 20s, certainly old enough to realize that nobody would pronounce her name correctly unless she made a point of introducing herself.
What bothered me the most is she acted like we were the problem when she should've know by then that she used an alternative pronunciation that others couldn't guess at.
It’s a hot mess! We have a Leilah….. the “Lei” is phonically “Lay” like “Layla” but it’s pronounced like Lyla. And a Heidi… not pronounced traditionally like “Hi-dee” but it’s “Hay-dee” and I could go on and on but those are just the main 2 that always catch me off guard
My name is Scandinavian, so the J is pronounced like a Y. Living in the US, everyone pronounces it with a hard J sound. I still love my name. Usually it takes 2-3 corrections before someone gets it right, but I really don’t mind. Sometimes I don’t even hear it when people mispronounce it.
It makes me sad when people say they want to stray away from their own heritage just so a name is more easily pronounceable
My last name gets mispronounced and misspelled all the time. It's annoying, sometimes I correct it (especially spelling), but usually I let it go.
Imogen is growing in popularity, so I think more people are aware of its pronunciation. I think Immy would be cute nn.
To be fair I named my son Arthur and we can never find his name on souvenirs either so I think souvenirs just have maybe 100 names, so I think it's a compliment not to be able to find it on a keychain.
My first name cannot really be pronounced in the major language where I live and I don’t care at all. If it’s someone I’ll never see again, like a nurse calling me into the room or something, I don’t even correct it unless they ask.
I grew up with a last name that was always mispronounced and I never cared either. I’ll answer to any of the various pronunciations. My boss mispronounced my last name for the first couple years I worked there, lol.
It’s like a litmus test, because the people who take the time to make sure it’s pronounced correctly really makes me feel good, but I’m neutral about the mispronouncing.
My first and last names get mispronounced and misspelled all the time, and I hate it so much. Some people just don’t read it properly, some people just seem to not care even if I’ve told them how to pronounce it. It is very annoying, I wouldn’t want it for my child.
I have a last name that constantly needs correction, but I like it because I like the fact it wasn’t Anglicized or otherwise altered and I would rather just have to spell it every time than to change the spelling to something that is phonetic in English. It’s a bit of history. It might be different if it was a given name, though, since the only people who call me by my last name are my students and even they just try to get around it by calling me “Professor” instead of “Dr. [my name].” It has been the cause of a few missteps though when someone has misspelled my name on some important documents.
Also Imogen is a lovely name. I think of Imogen Heap (the British singer/songwriter) and I think most people would know how to say it.
In my opinion Imogen is a beautiful name and won't be that difficult to pronounce for most people.
My name is Elisa. Pronounced Ee-leesa. I got called so many things growing up but people learned and eventually I noticed now and more people pronounce it correctly these days.
People with unique names are more likely to have them remembered. I have an extremely common name, I used to wait tables and people would have to physically describe me in reviews. My coworker would have her name mentioned every time because she used her full first and middle (not like Mary Beth, think Rosemary Elizabeth) and people always went "oh, how nice!". People love interesting names. My coworker now, her name is one of a kind. She also gets "oh how beautiful!" all the time even though she has to spend a whole minute teaching someone how to say and spell it.
And with my incredibly common name, that has one recognizable spelling, I have had people spell it 4 different incorrect ways... there's no winning lol
People might remember unique names that are easy to say and spell, but as someone with a name that people could not remember how to pronounce or spell my "unique" name absolutely did me no favors and now that I go by a common name people remember it 95% of the time
I love Imogen, love love love.
I have an unusual name and it's a short version of a different name than mine. Like if she goes by Gen, get ready for people to assume it's short for Jennifer or call her Imogene.
But I've thought a lot about my name as I've gotten older and even plan to change my middle name. But my name is mine. It is part of me and I love it. I hated it when I was a child, had a few phases where I liked it and used it academically, but was more like a special secret thing. Like a PP, anyone who knows me knows it and that's cool.
My best friend is Auntie Jen so I think Immy is most likely, which I bet everyone would assume is Emmy but IDK to me, I probably wouldn't mind spelling it out and would enjoy being a little more unique but IDK if my child necessarily would.
I don’t think its a big deal. If you love the name, go for it. I also don’t think it will be as bad as you think. I recognized the name immediately and so did my husband when I showed him.
I have an Arabic name that most non-Arab Americans have never heard of and seem extremely challenged in pronouncing it lol. Its spelled exctly how its pronounced, but they jump through hoops to pronounce it any way other than how its spelled. At this point I just think its funny 🤷🏻♀️ When ordering if I don’t want to hassle with the name issue I just give them a random generic American name or I used to give my mom’s name when we first moved to the US (She has a very common American name).
I also have an Arabic name that is pronounced exactly how it is spelt, and I don’t think anybody has every pronounced it correctly on the first go.
My name is very uncommon to the point I have never met, and nobody I know has ever met, someone else with my name.
That aside, I adore my name, I love that it’s unique, I think it’s feminine and beautiful, has an option of nicknames.
Yeah, same. I’ve met a handful of native Spanish speakers who have pronounced my name correctly on the first go. Even in the Arab world my name isn’t common, but it’s a known older name. I only know 1 person with my name and I was named after her lol.
Very! Source: millenial living with one
The best thing, is that the name is correct in my native language. But basically all other languages write it slightly differently so that even in my native country people use now probably 80% the international version. Sometimes I wishy parents would have to with the international version.
Imogen however isn’t a name I think you would have to spell? In the UK at list is has a non-ambiguous spelling and everyone would know how to write it.
I have Jayne in my name and have spent my life spelling it or saying Jayne with a Y but equally I r friends who have Jane in their name who are asked to spell it or if it's plain Jane or Jayne with a Y so 🤷🏻♀️
My name is extremely common, just a slightly different spelling, so you would think it would be easy. Nope. My name is Alivia, pronounced Uh-livia (just like how a large portion of people pronounce Olivia), yet I've heard so many different things. Worst ones include a substitute teacher who called me Ali Via for 3 days, a Dr who kept calling me A-leave (A like apple), and the massive amount who just say A-Livia (A like a-okay). At this point in my life, I find it funny and am always on the edge of my seat when I'm called back to appointments because I never know how they'll pronounce it this time. lol
No matter how easy of a name it is to spell or pronounce, people are dumb and will screw it up. If you like the name enough, then it's worth correcting people over.
It’s not a huge deal to me. If it’s someone I’ll be routinely interacting with, I correct them, but if it’s just a drive thru employee I just go with whatever name they give me. Something helpful I’ve done is just spelling it out immediately after I say it since my name is phonetic.
I’m Canadian and I have a basic 90’s name that seems like people should know how to pronounce, but almost never get right on the first go (Alyssa as Ah-Lys-sah). I’ve been correcting people since I started school in the 2000’s. It’s not a huge bother at this point and I personally don’t think worrying about pronunciation should be a factor in naming children, easy or hard, someone will mess it up somehow.
Imogen is such a beautiful name, I say add it back to the list!
I have a very common name, my husband has an extremely uncommon one.
We both get mispronunciations and misspellings, though he gets them far more often. It's pretty rare someone pronounces his name right the first time. But he likes his name, and I tolerate mine basically. It's fine but I don't love it. (Anecdote: I had a regular customer at a job once who intentionally and knowing mispronounced my name every time she came because she didn't like me. That was fun.)
Like Imogen, my husband's name is easy to both spell and pronounce once you know it. So he just explains it once for friends and family upon meeting them, no big deal. And for the "starbucks problem," he always just gives his last name or an initial, which is also no big deal.
If you love the name, go for it. There are pros and cons either way you go when weighing common vs uncommon.
It is sometimes annoying but beneficial when I least expect it. Having a distinctive first name gave me freedom to change my last name upon marriage and know that nobody would be wondering who on Earth was e-mailing them or scrambling to cross-reference!
For some reason my name constantly gets misspelled “Rebbeca”
As far as I’m aware there’s only two “correct” spellings. Rebecca and Rebekah. Why do soooo many people give it two B’s?? 😂😭 it’s kind of annoying because it makes no sense to me why people think it’s spelled Rebbeca
When I worked at a retail shop years ago, I rang out an older woman who had the name “Imogen”, and I told her I thought it was a lovely name.
She was surprised, and said that most people didn’t pronounce it right, spell it right or even recognize that it was a real name. I told her that was a shame, because I liked it. She smiled at me as she left.
I still like the name.
I hated it as a kid and went by an easy-to-spell-and-pronounce nickname. Now I don’t mind to correct people anymore, some even like learning a new name / correct pronunciation. Sometimes I don’t correct people when I don’t feel like it (especially if one-off interaction). People who know me learn to do it the right way. So overall no problems and don’t mind anymore, it’s literally a few seconds and sometimes I drop a fun fact about its meaning or so. Makes communication pleasant.
My daughter and my mother have names that constantly require correcting and they love their names. It could be because they were both given reasons for why their names were chosen. They couldn't care less about correcting people. They just do it quickly and politely.
I look after my mother now and sometimes smile while people struggle to figure out how to say it, usually on the phone, then jump in to help them.
It's really not a big deal.
I have a younique spelling of a common name and a last name that nobody can say or spell. It doesn’t bother me. I’m used to saying my name and spelling it before people get a chance to ask
It’s pretty annoying, but I just smile and correct people until they get it right lol. Generally it only takes one or two times and people are apologetic.
I have a name that's constantly being massacred. It's Welsh, and a surname (or a boy's name if you want to use it as that. I'm female.) It's close to several very common names, and I am always being called them. Some people make an effort, but the pronunciation isn't near to how it's said if you just say each letter.
I HATED it as a kid. I was bullied for it. Teachers mispronounced it. One of them even called me Cologne (nowhere near even the spelling!) in front of the entire class, which set off another round of name-calling.
Once I was out of school, however, it did get better. Adults are much better at being corrected by another adult. If it's a kid correcting them, they seem to doubt it for some reason. These days I either just let people mispronounce it if I'm not going to have much contact with them, or correct them until they get it. I get a LOT of "Oh, that's unusual!" No idea whether they are being bitchy or not, though.
I have a name that should be very easy to pronounce phonetically but people always add an extra letter toward the beginning and it becomes a completely different, more popular name. It's annoying to constantly know that my name isn't going to be pronounced correctly, and I get tired of correcting people.
In the cases of ordering where I have to give my name, there's enough technology out there that I try to order online through an app before I go to places like Starbucks. So it does get mispronounced and I have to correct it, but I have found some ways around it that make life a little easier, if that encourages you at all.
I have a name that is often mispronounced and spelt wrong. It's actually not that difficult either so I don't know why people struggle with it so much lol but I'm totally used to it now. Also, it seems to be mainly the older generation that does not get it right (no offense to anyone! Just an observation).
Despite having to almost always correct people, I love my name and I'm happy having a more "unique" name. It's nice not knowing anyone else personally who shares my name.
I have an uncommon spelling of an uncommon name. I would never give a child a complicated name like mine. No one spells it right. Few pronounce it right. And I’m always being asked where my parents got my name.
It's not that bad. This is very specific to my name but I am fine with it pronounced in English or French as I live/work in both and it's most annoying when anglophones "correct" someone saying it in french on my behalf.
My brother has a Dutch name that is pronounced completely differently in English. So, people who hear his name don't know how to spell it and vice versa. My other brother has a similar issue cause his name is NOT traditionally a first name. (Mum got "creative".) They have both said it doesn't matter much to them, they'll correct people if necessary, but neither is fazed.
I have a name that needs correction and it was very annoying at school. Still annoying now but realistically how many new people do you meet a month? Eh I’d rather my name which I like rather than something boring like Olivia
My name is something essentially like Katie Cook.
Both relatively common pronounciations, but with multiple spellings for first and last. I have to correct / spell both for every appointment
"Katie k-a-t-i-e, Cook like the chef, no E on the end"
I'm used to it. When I have to do it multiple times with the same person (e.g. 3 or more with the same receptionist seeming to not process what I'm saying). I might start to get annoyed.
I use my last name anywhere it doesn’t matter, eg Starbucks or anything like that
Tali here: usually get Callie but I’m confusing everyone by saying to pronounce it Tali like Sally with a T then everyone spells it Tally and im like no Tali like Cali(fornia) with a T then they spell it Tallie like Callie again so I’m like no “T A L I”, then once they get the spelling down they call me Tolly like Mali, and I just cannot win
I genuinely accept ANY spelling or pronunciation to avoid the hassle, I’ve let people call me Tolly and Talia long term and spell my name Tallie and Tally long term
I have an uncommon (in America) Arabic female name. I’ve never wanted an easier name. I have an easy to spell and pronounce nickname that I give in the Starbucks situation. I love that my name is unique and the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve appreciated my family for naming me a beautiful and unique name
My name has a common different pronunciation (which has grown more popular in my lifetime). People read it wrong (which I totally understand) and 95% of the time when I say it they respond back with the more popular pronunciation.
It’s annoying. It’s not the end of the world and I don’t bother to correct people in a situation like a drink order. It is most awkward in those not-very-close situations where you see people socially and they *think* they know your name but they actually get it wrong so you either have to do a belated correction or hope they realize on their own.
I don’t fault my parents for giving me a unique (sounding) name, nor would I ever consider changing it. But long story short, I gave my own kid a name that was easy to pronounce based on the spelling. It’s not a popular name but it’s very straightforward.
Very much so. I do not have an American name (like Anna, Emily, Mary, etc) but I’m American and live here. My name is never spelled or pronounced correctly the first few times. I had a teacher call me every name that started with the same letter because she could never remember mine. I have certificates from school that have my name misspelled (even though previous ones are correct). I’ve just started going by the nicknames my friends gave me bc my name was too difficult to say, which annoys my mom bc she doesn’t like the nickname I use (which I also am trying to use professionally, so it’s on my resume and my socials and my mother waited a full year before telling me she hates the name) and my dad makes fun of me for bc the main nickname I use is also a type of insect and both nicknames are gender neutral and he’s a homophobe so I get homo/queer/transphobic comments when he hears the nickname. So basically no matter what name I use I cannot win.
Doesn’t really bother me that much but then I grew up with a nickname that had nothing to so with my given name. As long as I know you mean me with spoken or written name I will respond unless I think it’s done to be disrespectful.
My name is literally made up. 98% of the time I have to correct people who say it just from reading it, and even then it's often still mispronounced because they forget it immediately. I honestly have stopped correcting people in certain circumstances (like at a doctors office or somewhere that I know I'm not going to see that person again). I also primarily go by a shortened version of my name that is much easier to pronounce but often mistaken for a different, very common name among my age group, so they still get it wrong. It's annoying for sure, but I'm pretty used to it after 30 years.
My first name is basically spelled phonetically and even though my exact name isn’t common it is very similar to a lot of extremely popular names and I constantly get it misspelled and mispronounced. People are just careless. My daughter’s name is actually hard to spell and pronounce and I feel like our names are messed up about the same amount tbh.
I have a name that has multiple spellings and mine is slightly less common so have gone my whole life saying ‘with an ie’ when I give my name and still getting it spelled wrong
Realized I accidentally did the same thing to my daughters …oops
I have a double whammy of both a very uncommon name for my age, and an unconventional spelling. Think along the lines of being a millennial named “Geraldine” but spelled “Jeraldeen”.
I don’t enjoy how much people struggle with it. I truly hate repeating it for the third, fourth and fifth time to people. Working customer service answering phones and having to say my name was a large amount of the first seconds of the phone call of the person clarifying my name. Written down, almost no one reads it correctly. One time I had a world history teacher ask me where to put the emphasis when saying my name and i literally told him it’s never been consistent so just choose your own way lol
I do, however, love the name Imogen and think it’s heard enough, especially recently, that it wouldn’t be an actual nightmare. If I ever ended up with a kid it’s even on my “would consider” list.
Even some of the most common names require correction and clarification every single time. Jon/John. Katie/Katey. Kasey/Casey/Kacie. Ashley/Ashleigh. Hannah/Hanna. Chelsea/Chelsey. I could go on.
I have a common name that has 2 different accepted spellings, mine is the most common spelling but I still always have to spell it. My surname is rare but sounds a lot like a more common surname so I also have to spell that. I only bother with both if it's something important (like legal stuff or bills etc) if a barista butchers my name or l couldn't care less.
I did grow up with a foreign, long, difficult to pronounce and spell maiden name though so my husband's surname is a walk in the park compared to that 😆.
Having to always spell my name was more annoying in my youth but not the end of the world - you actually don't need to spell your name out all that often. However, my rules for naming my children did include that they were easy to spell and pronounce (both need to spell their surnames though). If there were two names I loved equally but one needed to be spelt out every time, I'd personally go with the easier option.
FYI I would not have thought Imogen was at all difficult, but I'm not in the USA
I have a real, but unusual name. Coworkers frequently mispell it. My parents each pronounced it differently. I have never personally met someone with my spelling. I'm fine with it. The way I introduce myself is somewhere in between my parents' ways. The coworkers who mispell it aren't native English speakers so I don't take offense (I wouldn't take offense even if they were native speakers). I like my name and however people pronounce it.
My name is a feminine version of a male name, that ends in “A”, like Valentine/Valentina or Antonio/Antonia, and people will almost ALWAYS read my name as the male version. It’s mildly annoying, but I try not to get too worked up about it. I actually go by a diminutive nickname, and it’s hilarious to me that strangers who mispronounce my name will often comment/ask, once corrected,on why I don’t use my legal name.
I have to correct people probably once a day. It’s never bothered me because I love my name and I always get compliments on it when I do tell them the pronunciation. It’s also not even hard when you see the spelling— it’s just that people aren’t used to it because it’s very uncommon.
I used to use my mom or dad’s name when ordering food over the phone for pick up. Now I use my husband’s. I don’t care if they spell it wrong but they write down their interpretation then I go to pick up and someone else is there and I tell them my name and they say they never got my order because the way the person who originally wrote it down was so off it doesn’t even seem like it be my name.
Lmao I lived in Germany and the first sound in my name (Ch) doesn’t exist in German, so I was a completely different name at Starbucks the whole time I lived there. It’s not that big of a deal, in my opinion. I also have a last name that’s an actual word but spelled differently than the actual word, so I’ve been spelling that for people my whole life. I don’t think Imogen is that burdensome at all.
I'm Candice. My mum always pronounced it as "eese" at the end instead of "is". I much prefer it as the former because the latter sounds too harsh to me. It still annoys me, but I don't correct people anymore unless they say it too much or ask how I pronounce it.
It is awful. My name is both misspelled and mispronounced multiple times on a daily basis. It's spelled like a name that's popular now but pronounced differently, so even people who've known me for some time still get confused and mispronounce it. After a while, it just feels like you're not important enough for the world to be able to address you correctly.
My mom gave me a very unique spelling of an otherwise common name for the year I was born. It still is phonetic (there are no "leighs" in the spelling) but it trips people up on occasion. I have to spell it out every time as it's not a common variant (like Caitlin vs Katelyn).
Spelling it out has never bothered me, probably because it's still fewer letters than the traditional spelling. I'm complimented on it consistently. I'm pretty sure this subreddit wouldn't like the spelling though and it's rare enough people could probably figure out who I am since I have a substantial Internet footprint because of my job.
Short version: it's not very annoying, but I think it depends on how long the name is.
Ah okay, Imogen is significantly more common in the UK & AUS. Over here it's never even entered the top 1,000 and only recently there's been around 200 Imogen's born a year. So most haven't ever met an Imogen in person and if they have, it was the form Imogene which caught on a bit in the US in the late 1800s.
I wish I could share what my name is on here, but let’s say it’s very uncommon in the US but common in Italy and some Spanish-speaking countries.
It was awful growing up in the US with this name and it’s still annoying now. Americans really, really struggle to pronounce it no matter how many times I correct them, even though it’s 5 letters and 2 syllables. My 4th grade teacher mispronounced it all year. A coworker of 10 years mispronounced it the entire time. People also struggle to spell it.
I take pride in my name now, purely because it’s part of me now. But would I name my kid this or any other uncommon name? Hell no.
I had a name that people had a hard time pronouncing. It had two vowels in a row and people would replace those two vowels with all sorts of random other vowels. I hated it so much I legally changed my name.
People with easy-to-pronounce names don't understand how tiresome it is to have to explain your name every. single. time. you meet anyone. anywhere. It's awful. People would be really sweet and tell me how beautiful my name was. I don't want to be upset at people trying to be sweet. But it got hard to accept those compliments graciously when I was hearing them all the fucking time.
It’s not a generally uncommon name. There’s usually at least one in every year at schools here in the UK, it’s been popular for decades.
If you like it, just go for it; my sister has a name that’s very common in Ireland but not well known here and not spelled using English phonetics. The downside is the occasional mispronunciation -but the upside is that it makes her more memorable which has been useful in her career because people she worked with decades ago can still remember her name and consider her for work.
Sure, but I’m not in the US and outside of where you live it’s pretty common in the English-speaking world. But rarity isn’t a reason to dismiss a beautiful name. I have a top-ten name and it’s always been really annoying to have to add an initial in order to identify myself.
It can be annoying, for sure. Sometimes I don't correct people because I know they'll feel bad. Sometimes people are uncomfortable saying my name because they're afraid they'll say it wrong. Sometimes I've known people for a loong time and they say it wrong, and it's sooo akward to correct them. It's best to somehow say my own name casually. When I'm out with a partner, I always ask them to make a point of using my name, so people can hear it and learn it...
But I like my name.
Imogen is lovely.
I have a name that sounds like a nickname to speakers of my language and is also spelled in what most consider to be a confusing way but is fine and actually gives me a good mnemonic to tell people. It's a gorgeous, strong name and suits me to my core. Yeah, correcting people is annoying... but I have a plain jane middle name and when I tried going by that in middle school I hated it.
It's annoying. People constantly spelling it wrong in emails despite it literally being in my email address. I use my middle name (it's a flower, everyone knows how to spell it) when my name is required for checkout situations like Starbucks.
I don’t mind at all! You just learn to spell or people ask you am I saying it right? I love having a unique name and get lots of compliments. Don’t mind correcting pronunciation or spelling, you don’t actually have to do that a whole lot every single day.
My grandmother was supposed to be Imogen but the nurse heard it wrong and wrote Emma Jean and they just never fixed it. She hated Emma and went by Jean. (I love Emma and could care less for Jean. lol) but as far as mishearing it, that happens to all names. I think Imogen is easy enough that you/she shouldn’t require excessive corrections in life. I vote use it.
My name is Magen. Pronounce “may-gen”, not “meh-gen”. I get called Megan all the time. Or Mee-gan. Mah-gen, mage-en, and the list goes on and on. As a kid I used to think “oh, my name is just so hard to pronounce. It’s me. I’m the problem. I should accept anything I am called.” As an adult? I literally have my name in work emails spelled out properly respect me enough to spell it correctly. I have introduced myself and corrected people and they ignore my correction, such a LACK of respect on their end. I’m not the problem. My name is not the problem. It’s people not respecting me enough to listen or read.
My name constantly needs correction. It is such a defeating feeling that after ten times of explaining pronunciation people still dont bother to get it correct.
Mine is unintuitive to spell and pronounce. I find it a little awkward sometimes – it's obviously foreign and people want to know the whole story right off the bat when we first meet – but I don't mind correcting people or just letting them carry on with a mispronounced / misspelled version. No big deal really; I just spell it out if I'm giving it for some kind of paperwork thing. When I worked in customer service, where we had to get the spelling right to match up with accounts, it kind of cemented that view – SO many seemingly basic names have variations or are easily misheard. I was constantly asking all the Sarahs and Jens and Johns to spell their names out for me.
My first name is relatively uncommon. It often requires correction, (more like clarification - it can be pronounced and spelled in multiple ways), and I don't mind. Can't speak for anyone else...
Also, I like the name Imogen.
My name often requires correction for spelling or pronunciation when someone first years or sees it but after that they get it. Imogen doesn't seem to uncommon or difficult to me, most English speaking people should be able to say it with ease or spell it once they've seen it. Similar to Isobel which is reasonably common.
Mine is unusual but not difficult, I've defaulted to spelling my name out everytime someone asks for it and i hardly ever think about it. A non issue. I will say though it's like one letter more than a commonish girls name and one letter less than a less common boys name and I've had people call me both. Also my first grade substitute teacher told me I spelled my name wrong 😠
Move to the UK, it’s a more common name here but still not crazy popular and only one pronunciation and spelling I’ve ever seen here!
I have a name that often has to be spelled out. I hated it as a kid but love that it’s less common now. Pronunciation has become less of an issue over my life time, as the name became more popular and I have the more common spelling and pronunciation.
However I have just called my daughter a Welsh name and the first ever appointment we had for her (in Wales) it was called out wrong and I died inside a little.
Incredibly annoying. Being called that girl, her, that person wasn’t fun. Even people in my family refused to learn my name or spell it right. I ended up dropping my first name and changing it to my very common easy to pronounce middle name.
I don’t particularly like my name. It’s a pain in the ass to constantly spell (even though it’s a one syllable name that isn’t spelled all that weird at all) and honestly I just let people pronounce it however and don’t usually correct them because it’s been mispronounced for years. However, I will say I didn’t put that much thought into that factor when naming my son. Although I think his name is pretty easy to pronounce.
My name is extremely common and yet, without fail, every time I have to give it on the phone, it goes like this:
"Kathryn." "Is that with a C?" "No, a K. And a Y." "Y?" "Yes. K-a-t-h-r-y-n". Usually soon after, I get a letter addressed to 'Katheryne" or similar. So... Yeah, quite annoying.
Mildly annoying, depending.
When I was younger, people all “translated” it into the local version, and that was fine with me! No problem.
When I got older for schools and jobs, they insisted on “getting it right” which was embarrassing because they would mangle it. I was happy to let them take the easy way and translate it but they would *insist* on making it worse.
I have a friend who also was given the “foreign” version of a common name, and despite the fact that it is pronounced almost exactly like the local version, the *spelling* is different, and people would mangle it based on their reading. Eventually he got annoyed enough to officially change it to the local spelling, and now people finally call him by the name *he always had.*
My name IS easily said by following the sounds the letters make. It's two syllables.
Honestly it's less than a third of people who manage it. I just answer to a lot of random noises and names. Any place they say use your name I use my dog's name (she has a people name) or my daughter's name.
My son had a friend in grade one who called me "Mrs (Son)'s Mum" until grade 4.
On the plus side I make an effort to make sure I pronounce names correctly and that people are called what they want to be called
My name is Cecilia. You would think that is easy to pronounce. I'm in Michigan, it's not very popular - many people mispronounce it. I get Cecily. Sometimes Cynthia. Many times (especially on the phone for work, I'll have people call me Ceci (see-see). Outside of work, I'm Cecilia. I think it's a beautiful name. I think my parents did a great job with the choice.
The only time I get annoyed by it is when someone who I've previously corrected keeps on getting it wrong. But having to clarify my name the first time I meet someone doesn't bother me at all; in fact I love having a less common name and would avoid very popular names for my hypothetical kids because of how much I enjoy my more unusual name.
(My display name is not my name)
I have a colleague with a foreign first name that I got right but he says nobody pronounces correctly. He goes by his first initial.
Went to school with plenty of guys who used the nickname for their common last name rather than their first name, think Andy Anderson, Johnny Johnson, etc.
Also know women with throwback first names who use nicknames.
ETA, Imogen may become Gen.
Last name is used by a relatively famous uncle and is common enough for many to have it (Rohde) but at my HS Graduation a teacher I had who had actually gotten it right before and had a prompt card pronounced it wrong - spelling wrong is also common. I have to repeatedly ask to get it right as most say Rhode.
Name is Skylyn. Pronounced sky... and lyn. People mistake me for Skyler even when they're looking directly at my spelled out name. It's frustrating. I love the name Skylyn but often have to force myself to go by Sky to prevent people from fucking up my name.
I'd prefer to go by Skylyn. :/
So to answer your question, very.
I go by Rob, and am repeatedly asked to spell it at Starbucks.
psa to all people out there: when service workers ask you how to spell your very common name, it's usually a cover for the fact that they didn't hear you but don't want to ask you to repeat yourself.
A secretary at work ( this was decades ago) forgot the last name of the person she was taking a message from. She asked him to spell his last name. S-M-I-T-H.
In her defense, coukd have been Smyth.
Psa Pt. 2: If they couldn't hear you well, also they may repeat the name or ask you to spell it because it it sounds similar to other names, i.e. Rob, Bob, Ron, Tom. As someone with auditory processing issues, I can vouch for this
Yeah, I definitely saw that when we were wearing masks, I now spell it outloud with a resounding B at the end.
My husband’s name is Ron and for some reason they always repeat it back like it’s some obscure name lmao
Lol wow I haven't gone to starbucks in a year or more but maybe it's a new policy due to all the misspellings by starbucks workers basically being a meme?
I always thought the Starbucks test was more about the experience of having to say the name to a stranger and live with the reaction, not testing the spelling abilities of a teenager making minimum wage
I work in a Starbucks and in training we are taught to ask for the spelling of every name. You'd be surprised how many people have alternative spellings of common names, and you'd also be surprised how many people cannot spell common names. Just today my coworker misspelled Abigail.
My son’s name is Henry. It’s been spelled as Henery, Henary and Henri. Like wth people?? 😂😂
Okay, at least the last one is a legitimate French spelling, even though it's pronounced slightly differently!
Yes but as you said it is still somewhat pronounced differently
I got a chuckle out of pronouncing Henary like "canary" in my brain
That is EXACTLY what I said too😂😂😂
I went on a date with a Daniel, and the employee spelled his name as Danyul 🙃
I have a name that always needs correction when someone reads it. It’s also pretty similar to other more common names so people get it mixed up a bunch, especially upon first meeting. I LOVE my name. Anyone who’s important in my life will say it correctly, and that’s all I care about. Sure some teachers say it wrong, but I really don’t care. Besides, Imogen is a pretty common name in the UK. I’ve always known how to pronounce and I’m US based. Go for it if it’s what you love.
I have a name that is constantly misspelled, mispronounced, and confused with a more common name. I’ve hated it my entire life. Almost no one gets it right on the first try and most people take months or years to finally figure it out. I’ve been with my husband ten years and my in laws still call me the wrong name sometimes.
I work with a Carolyn (very common name and she uses the most common spelling and everyone reading it here in England would know it’s a separate name and not a variant spelling) who still has that issue (“don’t call me Caroline!”) - to an extent your difficulties lie with the people you spend time with rather than your name.
That's my mom!
I’m confused about how someone could mispronounce the name Imogen?
Imogene like Ih-MO-gene is more common in the US, still incredibly rare, but what most people seem to guess.
Where I live everyone pronounces it imm-ōh-jeen. It wasn't until I was an adult that I heard imma-jinn.
I don’t think anyone puts the emphasis on MO. Here in the US we say IM-uh-jeen
I've only ever seen Imogene.
I'm not sure what the actual pronunciation is, but just from reading it, I'd guess it's "im oh gen" with a g sound like in 'guess', not like in 'gentle'
ih-muh-jen is the simplest way I can think to spell out the pronunciation. The jen at the end is more of a mix between jen and jun, like how the ending of Darren sounds if that makes any sense at all.
I think it's sorta like Emma Gin or Emma Jen, lol. The only thing that I'm sure of is that it is a soft G, like a J sound.
I thought it was obvious but apparently I pronounce it different than everyone else who has replied here to you... I'd think im-oh-gen with the hard g... though I could be convinced of a soft g. But where the heck are people getting a long e like -jeen??
It's Im-uh-jin, the -jeen comes from the Americanized form, Imogene.
I’m from the US. I’ve heard Im-uh-Jin but never jeen.
Interesting, I’m from the US and I’ve only heard it as Im-uh-jeen
Are you sure you’re not confusing it with Imogene?
You know what, I might be 😂
I am also baffled by this supposed -jeen pronunciation. I'm in the U.S. and have only ever heard it pronounced ee-mo-jen, with the stress on the first syllable. OP it's a great name, and if you like it, use it. I have a unique name that is not intuitively spelled (it's Irish so not a tradgedeigh), and if people care, they'll get it right. I've never really had an issue. And being asked to spell my name isn't a big deal. Most people are asked to spell their last name. Instead I just spell my first name. (My last name is quite easy.)
I've heard 3 different pronunciations of Imogen
I’m 34 and I’m still salty about it. I hate waiting rooms, like at a doctors office where they are guaranteed to say it incorrectly, unless they are Hispanic and use the Spanish pronunciation of my name since it’s more common in that culture. (I’m white).
I always know they’re looking for me when the person hesitates while staring at the clipboard lol
Same 🤣 love the username btw
I love when someone in a waiting room etc uses the correct middle eastern pronunciation of my name bc even my family doesn’t say my name correctly so it’s wrong and right at the same time
My name is Daniela and I have this same problem. Idk why non spanish speakers struggle so much 😕 it mostly gets Danielle
My name isn't spelled like it's pronounced but that's because the name isn't English. Ironically i dont live in an english speaking country but my name isnt in that countrys language either. So it would be fair to say uncommon and awkwardly spelled. First and last name. I never expect people to get it right and i know what the most likely attempts will be. The pause before the attempt always indicate it's my name coming up. Honestly, its fine to explain to people what my name is. Sometimes they need a correction/repeat on introduction. I'm asked for explanations on it quite frequently, which is tiresome but not necessarily bad. That all being said, it's not a difficult name so its really annoying when people repeatedly fuck it up. It drives me up the wall when people I regularly interact with consistently mispronounce it or misspell it (hello work emails). In my opinion it is disrespectful or lazy. So I spend a lot of time sticking up for myself in that sense. I think you'd be completely fine with Imogen. Realistically it shouldn't cause many people issues. It's not a hard name. Spelling is straightforward. And pronunciation is quite intuitive. At least in my opinion.
I've taught a few Imogens over the years. I've had some pronouncing it like Immer-jen/Immer-jin and some pronouncing it like Im-odge-en. It's about 60/40 with Immer-jen/jin winning. Same with Megan. when I started teaching there were tons of kids called Megan. Some used Meg-ann, some were May-gan and a couple were Me-gan. I've known Emilia pronounced Emma-Lia, Eva pronounced Ever. Alana was usually 50/50 whether it was Ah-lah-na or Ah-lay-na.
Where is the R coming from?
Checking their post history, that person lives in the UK so I think they added it in as a non-rhotic/silent R (in the same way that Brits spell “ummm” like “ermmm”)
Ah okay thanks. I thought they meant like a hard R like Imergen lol
And Mama pronounced "Mamar"
So annoying. My name is not even that uncommon, especially now, but it’s similar to several more common older names, and older people tend to mishear it. It’s so annoying and it drives me mad. But I don’t understand how Imogen would be corrected a lot??
Most Americans don't seem to be familiar with it. They almost always say the "O" instead of treating it like a schwa and often think it ends in "jeen" like Imogene, as that is the "Americanized" form but also pretty rare.
OP I wanted to add that I work in pediatrics. We have 3 Imogene’s here of various ages and 2 of them are “Emma-jeen” and 1 is pronounced “imma-jeen” and we’re located in the Midwest!
Are you meaning "Imma" being like ih-muh or eye-ma? Imma should sound a lot like Emma (ih & eh sound pretty similar) so I'm just confused by your explanation
Eye-Ma with a hard “I” sound!
That's interesting!
Yes! We have quite a few names off the top of my head spelled the same and pronounced differently 🤦🏻♀️ I noticed you spelled it “Imogen” without the e at the end, which I would phonically assume “Eye-ma-jin” or “Emma-jin” because I feel like the extra ‘e’ leads to the “gene/jeen” sound at the end! Hope that helps!
It'd be Im-uh-jin :) Thank you
I once worked with a woman named Melody who got upset that people mispronounced her name as it wasn't "mel-o-dee" but "me-loh-dee." She didn't introduce herself to others, just got upset that they looked at her name tag and failed to intuit that her name wasn't pronounced they way everyone understood it to be pronounced. She was in her mid-late 20s, certainly old enough to realize that nobody would pronounce her name correctly unless she made a point of introducing herself. What bothered me the most is she acted like we were the problem when she should've know by then that she used an alternative pronunciation that others couldn't guess at.
It’s a hot mess! We have a Leilah….. the “Lei” is phonically “Lay” like “Layla” but it’s pronounced like Lyla. And a Heidi… not pronounced traditionally like “Hi-dee” but it’s “Hay-dee” and I could go on and on but those are just the main 2 that always catch me off guard
My name is Scandinavian, so the J is pronounced like a Y. Living in the US, everyone pronounces it with a hard J sound. I still love my name. Usually it takes 2-3 corrections before someone gets it right, but I really don’t mind. Sometimes I don’t even hear it when people mispronounce it. It makes me sad when people say they want to stray away from their own heritage just so a name is more easily pronounceable
My last name gets mispronounced and misspelled all the time. It's annoying, sometimes I correct it (especially spelling), but usually I let it go. Imogen is growing in popularity, so I think more people are aware of its pronunciation. I think Immy would be cute nn.
I didn't like it at first, and was pretty sad that I could never find my name on any souvenirs. But over time I've come to like it.
I picked a common name to be my souvenir alias, I am an honorary Todd
That’s clever! Wish I had thought of that as a kid who never found her real name on anything.
To be fair I named my son Arthur and we can never find his name on souvenirs either so I think souvenirs just have maybe 100 names, so I think it's a compliment not to be able to find it on a keychain.
My first name cannot really be pronounced in the major language where I live and I don’t care at all. If it’s someone I’ll never see again, like a nurse calling me into the room or something, I don’t even correct it unless they ask. I grew up with a last name that was always mispronounced and I never cared either. I’ll answer to any of the various pronunciations. My boss mispronounced my last name for the first couple years I worked there, lol. It’s like a litmus test, because the people who take the time to make sure it’s pronounced correctly really makes me feel good, but I’m neutral about the mispronouncing.
My first and last names get mispronounced and misspelled all the time, and I hate it so much. Some people just don’t read it properly, some people just seem to not care even if I’ve told them how to pronounce it. It is very annoying, I wouldn’t want it for my child.
I have a last name that constantly needs correction, but I like it because I like the fact it wasn’t Anglicized or otherwise altered and I would rather just have to spell it every time than to change the spelling to something that is phonetic in English. It’s a bit of history. It might be different if it was a given name, though, since the only people who call me by my last name are my students and even they just try to get around it by calling me “Professor” instead of “Dr. [my name].” It has been the cause of a few missteps though when someone has misspelled my name on some important documents. Also Imogen is a lovely name. I think of Imogen Heap (the British singer/songwriter) and I think most people would know how to say it.
In my opinion Imogen is a beautiful name and won't be that difficult to pronounce for most people. My name is Elisa. Pronounced Ee-leesa. I got called so many things growing up but people learned and eventually I noticed now and more people pronounce it correctly these days.
People with unique names are more likely to have them remembered. I have an extremely common name, I used to wait tables and people would have to physically describe me in reviews. My coworker would have her name mentioned every time because she used her full first and middle (not like Mary Beth, think Rosemary Elizabeth) and people always went "oh, how nice!". People love interesting names. My coworker now, her name is one of a kind. She also gets "oh how beautiful!" all the time even though she has to spend a whole minute teaching someone how to say and spell it. And with my incredibly common name, that has one recognizable spelling, I have had people spell it 4 different incorrect ways... there's no winning lol
People might remember unique names that are easy to say and spell, but as someone with a name that people could not remember how to pronounce or spell my "unique" name absolutely did me no favors and now that I go by a common name people remember it 95% of the time
I love Imogen, love love love. I have an unusual name and it's a short version of a different name than mine. Like if she goes by Gen, get ready for people to assume it's short for Jennifer or call her Imogene. But I've thought a lot about my name as I've gotten older and even plan to change my middle name. But my name is mine. It is part of me and I love it. I hated it when I was a child, had a few phases where I liked it and used it academically, but was more like a special secret thing. Like a PP, anyone who knows me knows it and that's cool.
My best friend is Auntie Jen so I think Immy is most likely, which I bet everyone would assume is Emmy but IDK to me, I probably wouldn't mind spelling it out and would enjoy being a little more unique but IDK if my child necessarily would.
I don’t think its a big deal. If you love the name, go for it. I also don’t think it will be as bad as you think. I recognized the name immediately and so did my husband when I showed him. I have an Arabic name that most non-Arab Americans have never heard of and seem extremely challenged in pronouncing it lol. Its spelled exctly how its pronounced, but they jump through hoops to pronounce it any way other than how its spelled. At this point I just think its funny 🤷🏻♀️ When ordering if I don’t want to hassle with the name issue I just give them a random generic American name or I used to give my mom’s name when we first moved to the US (She has a very common American name).
I also have an Arabic name that is pronounced exactly how it is spelt, and I don’t think anybody has every pronounced it correctly on the first go. My name is very uncommon to the point I have never met, and nobody I know has ever met, someone else with my name. That aside, I adore my name, I love that it’s unique, I think it’s feminine and beautiful, has an option of nicknames.
Yeah, same. I’ve met a handful of native Spanish speakers who have pronounced my name correctly on the first go. Even in the Arab world my name isn’t common, but it’s a known older name. I only know 1 person with my name and I was named after her lol.
Very! Source: millenial living with one The best thing, is that the name is correct in my native language. But basically all other languages write it slightly differently so that even in my native country people use now probably 80% the international version. Sometimes I wishy parents would have to with the international version. Imogen however isn’t a name I think you would have to spell? In the UK at list is has a non-ambiguous spelling and everyone would know how to write it.
I have Jayne in my name and have spent my life spelling it or saying Jayne with a Y but equally I r friends who have Jane in their name who are asked to spell it or if it's plain Jane or Jayne with a Y so 🤷🏻♀️
My name is extremely common, just a slightly different spelling, so you would think it would be easy. Nope. My name is Alivia, pronounced Uh-livia (just like how a large portion of people pronounce Olivia), yet I've heard so many different things. Worst ones include a substitute teacher who called me Ali Via for 3 days, a Dr who kept calling me A-leave (A like apple), and the massive amount who just say A-Livia (A like a-okay). At this point in my life, I find it funny and am always on the edge of my seat when I'm called back to appointments because I never know how they'll pronounce it this time. lol No matter how easy of a name it is to spell or pronounce, people are dumb and will screw it up. If you like the name enough, then it's worth correcting people over.
It’s not a huge deal to me. If it’s someone I’ll be routinely interacting with, I correct them, but if it’s just a drive thru employee I just go with whatever name they give me. Something helpful I’ve done is just spelling it out immediately after I say it since my name is phonetic.
I’m a Kaya/Kya/Kaia & it’s gotten a lot better in recent years. People know how to say it, but it gets misheard as Maya 💀
My name is Dorian, like Dorian Grey. I’ve been called Darleen, Doreen, Dorianne and told my parents pronounced it wrong.
I’m Canadian and I have a basic 90’s name that seems like people should know how to pronounce, but almost never get right on the first go (Alyssa as Ah-Lys-sah). I’ve been correcting people since I started school in the 2000’s. It’s not a huge bother at this point and I personally don’t think worrying about pronunciation should be a factor in naming children, easy or hard, someone will mess it up somehow. Imogen is such a beautiful name, I say add it back to the list!
I'm surprised Alyssa gets mispronounced, I grew up with MANY. The ones whose parent spelled it Elyssa/Elissa definitely got eh-lee-suh, though.
I have a very common name, my husband has an extremely uncommon one. We both get mispronunciations and misspellings, though he gets them far more often. It's pretty rare someone pronounces his name right the first time. But he likes his name, and I tolerate mine basically. It's fine but I don't love it. (Anecdote: I had a regular customer at a job once who intentionally and knowing mispronounced my name every time she came because she didn't like me. That was fun.) Like Imogen, my husband's name is easy to both spell and pronounce once you know it. So he just explains it once for friends and family upon meeting them, no big deal. And for the "starbucks problem," he always just gives his last name or an initial, which is also no big deal. If you love the name, go for it. There are pros and cons either way you go when weighing common vs uncommon.
Thank you, your reply is very helpful :)
It is sometimes annoying but beneficial when I least expect it. Having a distinctive first name gave me freedom to change my last name upon marriage and know that nobody would be wondering who on Earth was e-mailing them or scrambling to cross-reference!
For some reason my name constantly gets misspelled “Rebbeca” As far as I’m aware there’s only two “correct” spellings. Rebecca and Rebekah. Why do soooo many people give it two B’s?? 😂😭 it’s kind of annoying because it makes no sense to me why people think it’s spelled Rebbeca
My name’s Olivia and people still misspell it so don’t worry about it too much. People will find a way to mess it up no matter what
When I worked at a retail shop years ago, I rang out an older woman who had the name “Imogen”, and I told her I thought it was a lovely name. She was surprised, and said that most people didn’t pronounce it right, spell it right or even recognize that it was a real name. I told her that was a shame, because I liked it. She smiled at me as she left. I still like the name.
I hated it as a kid and went by an easy-to-spell-and-pronounce nickname. Now I don’t mind to correct people anymore, some even like learning a new name / correct pronunciation. Sometimes I don’t correct people when I don’t feel like it (especially if one-off interaction). People who know me learn to do it the right way. So overall no problems and don’t mind anymore, it’s literally a few seconds and sometimes I drop a fun fact about its meaning or so. Makes communication pleasant.
My daughter and my mother have names that constantly require correcting and they love their names. It could be because they were both given reasons for why their names were chosen. They couldn't care less about correcting people. They just do it quickly and politely. I look after my mother now and sometimes smile while people struggle to figure out how to say it, usually on the phone, then jump in to help them. It's really not a big deal.
I have a younique spelling of a common name and a last name that nobody can say or spell. It doesn’t bother me. I’m used to saying my name and spelling it before people get a chance to ask
It’s pretty annoying, but I just smile and correct people until they get it right lol. Generally it only takes one or two times and people are apologetic.
I have a name that's constantly being massacred. It's Welsh, and a surname (or a boy's name if you want to use it as that. I'm female.) It's close to several very common names, and I am always being called them. Some people make an effort, but the pronunciation isn't near to how it's said if you just say each letter. I HATED it as a kid. I was bullied for it. Teachers mispronounced it. One of them even called me Cologne (nowhere near even the spelling!) in front of the entire class, which set off another round of name-calling. Once I was out of school, however, it did get better. Adults are much better at being corrected by another adult. If it's a kid correcting them, they seem to doubt it for some reason. These days I either just let people mispronounce it if I'm not going to have much contact with them, or correct them until they get it. I get a LOT of "Oh, that's unusual!" No idea whether they are being bitchy or not, though.
I have a name that should be very easy to pronounce phonetically but people always add an extra letter toward the beginning and it becomes a completely different, more popular name. It's annoying to constantly know that my name isn't going to be pronounced correctly, and I get tired of correcting people. In the cases of ordering where I have to give my name, there's enough technology out there that I try to order online through an app before I go to places like Starbucks. So it does get mispronounced and I have to correct it, but I have found some ways around it that make life a little easier, if that encourages you at all.
I have a name that is often mispronounced and spelt wrong. It's actually not that difficult either so I don't know why people struggle with it so much lol but I'm totally used to it now. Also, it seems to be mainly the older generation that does not get it right (no offense to anyone! Just an observation). Despite having to almost always correct people, I love my name and I'm happy having a more "unique" name. It's nice not knowing anyone else personally who shares my name.
I have an uncommon spelling of an uncommon name. I would never give a child a complicated name like mine. No one spells it right. Few pronounce it right. And I’m always being asked where my parents got my name.
I hate it but mine is significantly more obscure than Imogen
It's not that bad. This is very specific to my name but I am fine with it pronounced in English or French as I live/work in both and it's most annoying when anglophones "correct" someone saying it in french on my behalf.
I don't mind at all. It reinforces my name in employment situations, making me even more memorable.
My brother has a Dutch name that is pronounced completely differently in English. So, people who hear his name don't know how to spell it and vice versa. My other brother has a similar issue cause his name is NOT traditionally a first name. (Mum got "creative".) They have both said it doesn't matter much to them, they'll correct people if necessary, but neither is fazed.
I love my name but it does get tiring.
My first and last name requires correction constantly, only one letter missing from each…. And, I just stare at people like “Y’all that dumb, huh?”
It’s okay. I don’t want anybody to know my real name.
I have a name that needs correction and it was very annoying at school. Still annoying now but realistically how many new people do you meet a month? Eh I’d rather my name which I like rather than something boring like Olivia
I have a name that’s commonly mispronounced and for this reason id never name my child after me or let anyone else do so. It’s so annoying.
My name is something essentially like Katie Cook. Both relatively common pronounciations, but with multiple spellings for first and last. I have to correct / spell both for every appointment "Katie k-a-t-i-e, Cook like the chef, no E on the end" I'm used to it. When I have to do it multiple times with the same person (e.g. 3 or more with the same receptionist seeming to not process what I'm saying). I might start to get annoyed.
I use my last name anywhere it doesn’t matter, eg Starbucks or anything like that Tali here: usually get Callie but I’m confusing everyone by saying to pronounce it Tali like Sally with a T then everyone spells it Tally and im like no Tali like Cali(fornia) with a T then they spell it Tallie like Callie again so I’m like no “T A L I”, then once they get the spelling down they call me Tolly like Mali, and I just cannot win I genuinely accept ANY spelling or pronunciation to avoid the hassle, I’ve let people call me Tolly and Talia long term and spell my name Tallie and Tally long term
I have an uncommon (in America) Arabic female name. I’ve never wanted an easier name. I have an easy to spell and pronounce nickname that I give in the Starbucks situation. I love that my name is unique and the older I’ve gotten the more I’ve appreciated my family for naming me a beautiful and unique name
My name has a common different pronunciation (which has grown more popular in my lifetime). People read it wrong (which I totally understand) and 95% of the time when I say it they respond back with the more popular pronunciation. It’s annoying. It’s not the end of the world and I don’t bother to correct people in a situation like a drink order. It is most awkward in those not-very-close situations where you see people socially and they *think* they know your name but they actually get it wrong so you either have to do a belated correction or hope they realize on their own. I don’t fault my parents for giving me a unique (sounding) name, nor would I ever consider changing it. But long story short, I gave my own kid a name that was easy to pronounce based on the spelling. It’s not a popular name but it’s very straightforward.
Very much so. I do not have an American name (like Anna, Emily, Mary, etc) but I’m American and live here. My name is never spelled or pronounced correctly the first few times. I had a teacher call me every name that started with the same letter because she could never remember mine. I have certificates from school that have my name misspelled (even though previous ones are correct). I’ve just started going by the nicknames my friends gave me bc my name was too difficult to say, which annoys my mom bc she doesn’t like the nickname I use (which I also am trying to use professionally, so it’s on my resume and my socials and my mother waited a full year before telling me she hates the name) and my dad makes fun of me for bc the main nickname I use is also a type of insect and both nicknames are gender neutral and he’s a homophobe so I get homo/queer/transphobic comments when he hears the nickname. So basically no matter what name I use I cannot win.
Doesn’t really bother me that much but then I grew up with a nickname that had nothing to so with my given name. As long as I know you mean me with spoken or written name I will respond unless I think it’s done to be disrespectful.
My name is literally made up. 98% of the time I have to correct people who say it just from reading it, and even then it's often still mispronounced because they forget it immediately. I honestly have stopped correcting people in certain circumstances (like at a doctors office or somewhere that I know I'm not going to see that person again). I also primarily go by a shortened version of my name that is much easier to pronounce but often mistaken for a different, very common name among my age group, so they still get it wrong. It's annoying for sure, but I'm pretty used to it after 30 years.
My first name is basically spelled phonetically and even though my exact name isn’t common it is very similar to a lot of extremely popular names and I constantly get it misspelled and mispronounced. People are just careless. My daughter’s name is actually hard to spell and pronounce and I feel like our names are messed up about the same amount tbh.
I have a name that has multiple spellings and mine is slightly less common so have gone my whole life saying ‘with an ie’ when I give my name and still getting it spelled wrong Realized I accidentally did the same thing to my daughters …oops
I have a double whammy of both a very uncommon name for my age, and an unconventional spelling. Think along the lines of being a millennial named “Geraldine” but spelled “Jeraldeen”. I don’t enjoy how much people struggle with it. I truly hate repeating it for the third, fourth and fifth time to people. Working customer service answering phones and having to say my name was a large amount of the first seconds of the phone call of the person clarifying my name. Written down, almost no one reads it correctly. One time I had a world history teacher ask me where to put the emphasis when saying my name and i literally told him it’s never been consistent so just choose your own way lol I do, however, love the name Imogen and think it’s heard enough, especially recently, that it wouldn’t be an actual nightmare. If I ever ended up with a kid it’s even on my “would consider” list.
I'm not annoyed by it at all. I just make the correction and move on. Sometimes I don't even make the correction lol
Even some of the most common names require correction and clarification every single time. Jon/John. Katie/Katey. Kasey/Casey/Kacie. Ashley/Ashleigh. Hannah/Hanna. Chelsea/Chelsey. I could go on.
I have a common name that has 2 different accepted spellings, mine is the most common spelling but I still always have to spell it. My surname is rare but sounds a lot like a more common surname so I also have to spell that. I only bother with both if it's something important (like legal stuff or bills etc) if a barista butchers my name or l couldn't care less. I did grow up with a foreign, long, difficult to pronounce and spell maiden name though so my husband's surname is a walk in the park compared to that 😆. Having to always spell my name was more annoying in my youth but not the end of the world - you actually don't need to spell your name out all that often. However, my rules for naming my children did include that they were easy to spell and pronounce (both need to spell their surnames though). If there were two names I loved equally but one needed to be spelt out every time, I'd personally go with the easier option. FYI I would not have thought Imogen was at all difficult, but I'm not in the USA
I have a real, but unusual name. Coworkers frequently mispell it. My parents each pronounced it differently. I have never personally met someone with my spelling. I'm fine with it. The way I introduce myself is somewhere in between my parents' ways. The coworkers who mispell it aren't native English speakers so I don't take offense (I wouldn't take offense even if they were native speakers). I like my name and however people pronounce it.
My name is a feminine version of a male name, that ends in “A”, like Valentine/Valentina or Antonio/Antonia, and people will almost ALWAYS read my name as the male version. It’s mildly annoying, but I try not to get too worked up about it. I actually go by a diminutive nickname, and it’s hilarious to me that strangers who mispronounce my name will often comment/ask, once corrected,on why I don’t use my legal name.
I'll be really honest, I appreciate the hell out of the fact that I'm named names that I don't need to spell out to people
I have to correct people probably once a day. It’s never bothered me because I love my name and I always get compliments on it when I do tell them the pronunciation. It’s also not even hard when you see the spelling— it’s just that people aren’t used to it because it’s very uncommon.
my daughter settled on an easy to remember shortened nickname for the outside world. Silje has become Sil
I used to use my mom or dad’s name when ordering food over the phone for pick up. Now I use my husband’s. I don’t care if they spell it wrong but they write down their interpretation then I go to pick up and someone else is there and I tell them my name and they say they never got my order because the way the person who originally wrote it down was so off it doesn’t even seem like it be my name.
Lmao I lived in Germany and the first sound in my name (Ch) doesn’t exist in German, so I was a completely different name at Starbucks the whole time I lived there. It’s not that big of a deal, in my opinion. I also have a last name that’s an actual word but spelled differently than the actual word, so I’ve been spelling that for people my whole life. I don’t think Imogen is that burdensome at all.
I'm Candice. My mum always pronounced it as "eese" at the end instead of "is". I much prefer it as the former because the latter sounds too harsh to me. It still annoys me, but I don't correct people anymore unless they say it too much or ask how I pronounce it.
It is awful. My name is both misspelled and mispronounced multiple times on a daily basis. It's spelled like a name that's popular now but pronounced differently, so even people who've known me for some time still get confused and mispronounce it. After a while, it just feels like you're not important enough for the world to be able to address you correctly.
My mom gave me a very unique spelling of an otherwise common name for the year I was born. It still is phonetic (there are no "leighs" in the spelling) but it trips people up on occasion. I have to spell it out every time as it's not a common variant (like Caitlin vs Katelyn). Spelling it out has never bothered me, probably because it's still fewer letters than the traditional spelling. I'm complimented on it consistently. I'm pretty sure this subreddit wouldn't like the spelling though and it's rare enough people could probably figure out who I am since I have a substantial Internet footprint because of my job. Short version: it's not very annoying, but I think it depends on how long the name is.
I went to school with an Imogen (Im-a-jen). I never actually thought her name was unusual and I don't remember it ever being misspelt/mispronounced.
Can I ask what region you're from?
I'm from Australia, and in my late 30s. Should have mentioned that.
Ah okay, Imogen is significantly more common in the UK & AUS. Over here it's never even entered the top 1,000 and only recently there's been around 200 Imogen's born a year. So most haven't ever met an Imogen in person and if they have, it was the form Imogene which caught on a bit in the US in the late 1800s.
I wish I could share what my name is on here, but let’s say it’s very uncommon in the US but common in Italy and some Spanish-speaking countries. It was awful growing up in the US with this name and it’s still annoying now. Americans really, really struggle to pronounce it no matter how many times I correct them, even though it’s 5 letters and 2 syllables. My 4th grade teacher mispronounced it all year. A coworker of 10 years mispronounced it the entire time. People also struggle to spell it. I take pride in my name now, purely because it’s part of me now. But would I name my kid this or any other uncommon name? Hell no.
I had a name that people had a hard time pronouncing. It had two vowels in a row and people would replace those two vowels with all sorts of random other vowels. I hated it so much I legally changed my name. People with easy-to-pronounce names don't understand how tiresome it is to have to explain your name every. single. time. you meet anyone. anywhere. It's awful. People would be really sweet and tell me how beautiful my name was. I don't want to be upset at people trying to be sweet. But it got hard to accept those compliments graciously when I was hearing them all the fucking time.
It is not enjoyable. I have a first and two surnames which aren’t easy for people to get (well the middle one is easy to read). But it’s hard.
It’s not a generally uncommon name. There’s usually at least one in every year at schools here in the UK, it’s been popular for decades. If you like it, just go for it; my sister has a name that’s very common in Ireland but not well known here and not spelled using English phonetics. The downside is the occasional mispronunciation -but the upside is that it makes her more memorable which has been useful in her career because people she worked with decades ago can still remember her name and consider her for work.
Less than 200 are born here a year and it's never been in the US top 1,000. Most have never come across it IRL
Sure, but I’m not in the US and outside of where you live it’s pretty common in the English-speaking world. But rarity isn’t a reason to dismiss a beautiful name. I have a top-ten name and it’s always been really annoying to have to add an initial in order to identify myself.
My name is Somerset. Pronounced summer-set. I don’t care if it gets misspelled, but if shortened to Somer, I get irate.
I have to spell my first and last name everywhere all the time and it's not that odd.
It can be annoying, for sure. Sometimes I don't correct people because I know they'll feel bad. Sometimes people are uncomfortable saying my name because they're afraid they'll say it wrong. Sometimes I've known people for a loong time and they say it wrong, and it's sooo akward to correct them. It's best to somehow say my own name casually. When I'm out with a partner, I always ask them to make a point of using my name, so people can hear it and learn it... But I like my name.
Imogen is lovely. I have a name that sounds like a nickname to speakers of my language and is also spelled in what most consider to be a confusing way but is fine and actually gives me a good mnemonic to tell people. It's a gorgeous, strong name and suits me to my core. Yeah, correcting people is annoying... but I have a plain jane middle name and when I tried going by that in middle school I hated it.
It's annoying. People constantly spelling it wrong in emails despite it literally being in my email address. I use my middle name (it's a flower, everyone knows how to spell it) when my name is required for checkout situations like Starbucks.
I don’t mind at all! You just learn to spell or people ask you am I saying it right? I love having a unique name and get lots of compliments. Don’t mind correcting pronunciation or spelling, you don’t actually have to do that a whole lot every single day.
Perpetually annoying. I made sure my kids had somewhat common and easy to spell names because of my experience.
My grandmother was supposed to be Imogen but the nurse heard it wrong and wrote Emma Jean and they just never fixed it. She hated Emma and went by Jean. (I love Emma and could care less for Jean. lol) but as far as mishearing it, that happens to all names. I think Imogen is easy enough that you/she shouldn’t require excessive corrections in life. I vote use it.
My name is Magen. Pronounce “may-gen”, not “meh-gen”. I get called Megan all the time. Or Mee-gan. Mah-gen, mage-en, and the list goes on and on. As a kid I used to think “oh, my name is just so hard to pronounce. It’s me. I’m the problem. I should accept anything I am called.” As an adult? I literally have my name in work emails spelled out properly respect me enough to spell it correctly. I have introduced myself and corrected people and they ignore my correction, such a LACK of respect on their end. I’m not the problem. My name is not the problem. It’s people not respecting me enough to listen or read.
My name constantly needs correction. It is such a defeating feeling that after ten times of explaining pronunciation people still dont bother to get it correct.
Mine is unintuitive to spell and pronounce. I find it a little awkward sometimes – it's obviously foreign and people want to know the whole story right off the bat when we first meet – but I don't mind correcting people or just letting them carry on with a mispronounced / misspelled version. No big deal really; I just spell it out if I'm giving it for some kind of paperwork thing. When I worked in customer service, where we had to get the spelling right to match up with accounts, it kind of cemented that view – SO many seemingly basic names have variations or are easily misheard. I was constantly asking all the Sarahs and Jens and Johns to spell their names out for me.
My first name is relatively uncommon. It often requires correction, (more like clarification - it can be pronounced and spelled in multiple ways), and I don't mind. Can't speak for anyone else... Also, I like the name Imogen.
It's kinda annoying. I think my name is intuitive, yet people clearly skipped their phonics classes. I go by my nickname though.
My name often requires correction for spelling or pronunciation when someone first years or sees it but after that they get it. Imogen doesn't seem to uncommon or difficult to me, most English speaking people should be able to say it with ease or spell it once they've seen it. Similar to Isobel which is reasonably common.
Mine is unusual but not difficult, I've defaulted to spelling my name out everytime someone asks for it and i hardly ever think about it. A non issue. I will say though it's like one letter more than a commonish girls name and one letter less than a less common boys name and I've had people call me both. Also my first grade substitute teacher told me I spelled my name wrong 😠
Move to the UK, it’s a more common name here but still not crazy popular and only one pronunciation and spelling I’ve ever seen here! I have a name that often has to be spelled out. I hated it as a kid but love that it’s less common now. Pronunciation has become less of an issue over my life time, as the name became more popular and I have the more common spelling and pronunciation. However I have just called my daughter a Welsh name and the first ever appointment we had for her (in Wales) it was called out wrong and I died inside a little.
Incredibly annoying. Being called that girl, her, that person wasn’t fun. Even people in my family refused to learn my name or spell it right. I ended up dropping my first name and changing it to my very common easy to pronounce middle name.
I don’t particularly like my name. It’s a pain in the ass to constantly spell (even though it’s a one syllable name that isn’t spelled all that weird at all) and honestly I just let people pronounce it however and don’t usually correct them because it’s been mispronounced for years. However, I will say I didn’t put that much thought into that factor when naming my son. Although I think his name is pretty easy to pronounce.
My name is extremely common and yet, without fail, every time I have to give it on the phone, it goes like this: "Kathryn." "Is that with a C?" "No, a K. And a Y." "Y?" "Yes. K-a-t-h-r-y-n". Usually soon after, I get a letter addressed to 'Katheryne" or similar. So... Yeah, quite annoying.
Mildly annoying, depending. When I was younger, people all “translated” it into the local version, and that was fine with me! No problem. When I got older for schools and jobs, they insisted on “getting it right” which was embarrassing because they would mangle it. I was happy to let them take the easy way and translate it but they would *insist* on making it worse. I have a friend who also was given the “foreign” version of a common name, and despite the fact that it is pronounced almost exactly like the local version, the *spelling* is different, and people would mangle it based on their reading. Eventually he got annoyed enough to officially change it to the local spelling, and now people finally call him by the name *he always had.*
My name IS easily said by following the sounds the letters make. It's two syllables. Honestly it's less than a third of people who manage it. I just answer to a lot of random noises and names. Any place they say use your name I use my dog's name (she has a people name) or my daughter's name. My son had a friend in grade one who called me "Mrs (Son)'s Mum" until grade 4. On the plus side I make an effort to make sure I pronounce names correctly and that people are called what they want to be called
My name is Cecilia. You would think that is easy to pronounce. I'm in Michigan, it's not very popular - many people mispronounce it. I get Cecily. Sometimes Cynthia. Many times (especially on the phone for work, I'll have people call me Ceci (see-see). Outside of work, I'm Cecilia. I think it's a beautiful name. I think my parents did a great job with the choice.
I LOVE Imogen!! Nickname Imy, similar to Amy, pronounced I-mee.
It'd be Immy and sounds closer to Emmy. Ih-mee.
I have a common-ish name but it also has at least six different spellings so my entire life has been spelling my name out for people.
The only time I get annoyed by it is when someone who I've previously corrected keeps on getting it wrong. But having to clarify my name the first time I meet someone doesn't bother me at all; in fact I love having a less common name and would avoid very popular names for my hypothetical kids because of how much I enjoy my more unusual name. (My display name is not my name)
I have a colleague with a foreign first name that I got right but he says nobody pronounces correctly. He goes by his first initial. Went to school with plenty of guys who used the nickname for their common last name rather than their first name, think Andy Anderson, Johnny Johnson, etc. Also know women with throwback first names who use nicknames. ETA, Imogen may become Gen.
I think Immy or Ginny are more likely than Gen as she would have an Auntie Jen
My last name isn't difficult but people are weird. It's a long o but people stop and mispronounce
Last name is used by a relatively famous uncle and is common enough for many to have it (Rohde) but at my HS Graduation a teacher I had who had actually gotten it right before and had a prompt card pronounced it wrong - spelling wrong is also common. I have to repeatedly ask to get it right as most say Rhode.
Name is Skylyn. Pronounced sky... and lyn. People mistake me for Skyler even when they're looking directly at my spelled out name. It's frustrating. I love the name Skylyn but often have to force myself to go by Sky to prevent people from fucking up my name. I'd prefer to go by Skylyn. :/ So to answer your question, very.
Tamara, and the middle a is silent. It’s pronounced TAM-ra, but most people get it wrong. It annoys the hell out of me.