--- On Thu, 7/14/11, Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> > I care a lot about both spelling and pronunciation of my names.
> > I don't for example like when my surname is given an English
> > pronunciation.

> So why should I care about the pronunciation of my name?
> Well, for the same
> reason I care about the pronunciation of any word: it's two
> French words,
> followed by a Dutch word. Both should be pronounced
> according to the rules
> of the language they are from, because they are words in
> those languages. If
> there's anything I hate, it's how for instance French
> people distort English
> names, and vice versa. You don't need to get the
> pronunciation perfectly,
> but don't just use a reading pronunciation.

I actually feel quite the opposite about this. I have absolutely no
interest in trying to "correct" people into even a distant approximation
of my name's "correct" Gaelic pronunciation. First, of course, is the
fact that I am not Irish, but American. Second, I'd have to sort out *which* Gaelic was the intended dialect / accent / pronunciation. Since
a) the person that gave me the name is passed on and b) also did not
speak Gaelic, the point is moot. Since I don't speak Gaelic either, I
think it would be an exercise in futility to try to force a foreign
pronounciation on my name that neither I nor anyone else in the country
(exceptions noted) would even recognize.

I also don't like the way news readers *assume* that just because someone's
name is "Gonzales" that they are Spanish speakers recently arrived from
Madrid and that their name *must* be pronounced in Spanish. Irksome!

While I try not to horribly mangle foreign names *of foreigners*, neither
do I make herculean efforts to pronounce those names according to the
rules of the languages they are from. Just in my place of work, I would
have to study the phonological properties of some twenty or thirty
languages and dialects in order to do that. Not gonna happen! I don't do
that out of disrespect or anything, just as a matter of practicality.

For what it's worth, I agree on the laziness of anyone who tries to
make you a "Christopher". Your name is clearly not "Christopher"!

Grandsire is a perfectly good English word / name as well as French, so
don't be too hard on us if we say /'krIstOf 'gr&ndsajr/!

> Christophe Grandsire-Koevoets.

Padraic