I often have difficulty in remembering people’s names – to a weird degree – and I wonder if it’s my subconscious enacting revenge for the fact that my name is often mispronounced. It’s Smyth to rhyme with Life; but I generally get – at least until I correct it, which I usually don’t – Smith, or the near-miss of Smythe. When I worked as a teacher in a very rough-and-tumble secondary school in London in the 90s, 8P used to regularly call me ‘Mr Smurf,’ with all the respect that this implies.
Thanks for this, Adam - I sympathise! We are Wikeley pronounced Like-ly, but most people go for "Wik-er-ley" if they haven't heard better, and the more the world becomes text based the harder it becomes to hold the line. The original spelling was probably Wykeley. I wonder if there's something going on here with accents and vowel shifts... (Wykeley's/Wikeley is originally a midlands name).
During my childhood, in Israel, our last name was very often misspelt (in Hebrew), with no less creativity than that laser printer's, but letters still came through the post. Except those that may have not and got lost to history. Nowadays my first name's k has a tendency to turn into a c, even by people who had spelt it correctly before. It was a rather long while before I learned that I had pronounced a friend's Russian last name incorrectly, misstressed (accentuation in Russian is irregular, and somewhat a big deal). I admit I found the Smurf part very amusing.
Wait, your surname is pronounced "Smife", not "Smithe", or are we talking half-rhymes here? My own name is not unproblematic, but that's ... unusual.
My friend Rob Fuke (yes, you can imagine...) used to delight in sending me letters (in the long-ago days when students sent each other letters) addressed to "Balloil Collage". Well, it seemed funny at the time.
Thanks for this, Adam - I sympathise! We are Wikeley pronounced Like-ly, but most people go for "Wik-er-ley" if they haven't heard better, and the more the world becomes text based the harder it becomes to hold the line. The original spelling was probably Wykeley. I wonder if there's something going on here with accents and vowel shifts... (Wykeley's/Wikeley is originally a midlands name).
Strange and worthy accidents, no less!
During my childhood, in Israel, our last name was very often misspelt (in Hebrew), with no less creativity than that laser printer's, but letters still came through the post. Except those that may have not and got lost to history. Nowadays my first name's k has a tendency to turn into a c, even by people who had spelt it correctly before. It was a rather long while before I learned that I had pronounced a friend's Russian last name incorrectly, misstressed (accentuation in Russian is irregular, and somewhat a big deal). I admit I found the Smurf part very amusing.
Wait, your surname is pronounced "Smife", not "Smithe", or are we talking half-rhymes here? My own name is not unproblematic, but that's ... unusual.
My friend Rob Fuke (yes, you can imagine...) used to delight in sending me letters (in the long-ago days when students sent each other letters) addressed to "Balloil Collage". Well, it seemed funny at the time.
Mike