When you meet new people, how often do they pronounce your name correctly on the first try?

[evan@cosocial.ca]

When you meet new people, how often do they pronounce your name correctly on the first try?

#EvanPoll #poll

[virtuous_sloth@cosocial.ca]

@evan I said often but really it is always, but often only after they ask me to repeat my name. That is, they often do not hear my name the first time. Maybe I pronounce my own name ambiguously?

[danyork@mastodon.social]

@evan I answered “Always” because most people on the planet know of New York, and “Dan York” is short and simple. However, reading some of the other replies, I realized that I do sometimes get variations on “Dan”. I say it with the shorter “a” of “pan” or “can”, but some people will say it sounding more like “D-ah-n” or even “Don”. It’s still close enough to be fine by me. 😃

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@danyork so, your name is one that I can see people using an over-familiar diminutive of. How often do people you just met call you "Danny"?

[johnefrancis@cosocial.ca]

@evan only mispronounced on the rarest occasions by non-English speakers whose language has a very different sound for the character J.

[relet@flipping.rocks]

@evan

The correct pronounciation of my name sounds a bit funny in the country I live in*, so I don't mind if they don't.

*it basically sounds exactly like trying to hush someone.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@relet so it's like if in English your name were Shutup, and when people ask you how to pronounce it, you tell them to shut up?

[bathyspherehat@mastodon.online]

@evan It probably won't surprise you to learn that my answer to this over the past ten years and my answer to this over the last few months are very different.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@BathysphereHat "raw-beet"

[jszym@cosocial.ca]

@evan Hard to blame them when I've historically pronounced my own name wrong ("Zim-boar-skee" instead of "Shim-boar-skee").

[wjmaggos@liberal.city]

@evan

I need a "sometimes". but I'm no longer sure I'm pronouncing it correctly based on learning some Greek.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@wjmaggos "often" and "rarely" are both "sometimes"!

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@jszym oh, that's interesting!

[suehle@social.afront.org]

@evan I clicked "Never," but that is not 100% accurate. It happened exactly once, from a guy delivering my groceries, and when I asked how he knew, he said, "That's the way it's spelled." No, it's not, my man.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

@suehle what the

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@evan I get "Jeff" approximately 90% of the time. Obviously, if they read my name, they pronounce it right, but if I said it and they say it back, they nearly always hear "Jeff".

[cogdog@cosocial.ca]

@evan My name is about easy as one can get on pronunciation but this odd thing happens repeatedly when some reads my name from say a reservation many times they address me as "Adam".

[evan@cosocial.ca]

This is really fascinating. I have some thoughts.

[evan@cosocial.ca]

I started this poll because I was thinking about how Andrew Cuomo and to some extent Curtis Sliwa, in the New York mayoral race, repeatedly and intentionally mispronounced Zohran Mamdani's name, in an obvious attempt to other him. Here's a clip about it.

https://youtube.com/shorts/X0ID0TodtOc

[evan@cosocial.ca]

He eventually called out Andrew Cuomo on stage during the debates about it.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DK0c8-oxU-r/