In the wake of the hullaballoo over folks refusing to say Quvenzhané Wallis’ name got me to thinking: what’s the most hilarious/horrifying experience people have had regarding their “unconventional” or “ethnic” names?
Got any stories/gripes of your own? Post ‘em up!
My name is Wasi – it rhymes with Lassie. You’d think it would be pretty simple…
Pronunciations I get: Wazzy – Wozzy – Wossy – even Wah-zi and Vassy – and on the phone: Wesley (I am not a guy, thank you), Ashley, Lesley…
Ashley? Lesley? wtf?
But on the good side, the benefit of having a hard-to-pronounce name is that it makes it that much easier to identify telemarketers & creditors when they call.
People can pronounce my last name, but its Scottish. It amazes me how many White people ask, “I don’t understand, how do you have a Scottish last name?” And then I have to explain that once upon a time there was this thing called slavery…