mispronouncing charcters name

I'm guessing the difference on "Honoria" is that people are saying "onner-ia" (rhymes with the STD) versus "on-oria"? I could be wrong.

As a suggestion, you could try a very similar name, Honora. It removes the possibility of the name being pronounced like a disease, if that bothers you.

I have a character who goes by a Greek pseudonym. It starts with an "a", but instead of being pronounced as such, it sounds like a "u." I didn't actually know that until I listened to a pronunciation of it. I realized no one would pronounce it right, which I liked, so I stuck with it. Now in the second chapter the character is listening to people discuss him by his pseudonym and lamenting that no one can pronounce it correctly.

Not an option; the book's already through production

Admittingly, I have used name books and websites to find names when I can't think of anyi like easily. I don't specifically search on personality though. I'll search by ethnicity, then out of the ones I like the flow of, I'll make a final choice based on definition. I really don't see the harm in this if its in character forthe parents to choose that name.

I do like to use different or rare names, but I don't purposefully go for obscure except for my latest nanowrimo project. I had a father whose first two children were girls, and when his third was a boy, he insisted that he name the child something based on his heritage, and so he chose Fearadhach. I type it out full in narration, but his sisters call him Farry, except when they are teasing him.

keepcalmandwriteon said:

Hello all. I have a male character whose name I'm afraid my readers will mispronounce. If I spell it the way it sounds it would look weird. Is it taboo to have "difficult" to pronounce names, or is it okay if I have a scene where he tells how his name is pronounced.

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Recently I found myself having to change my mc's last name because it was too difficult.
a family member in the writing business/community has helped me pour over my query, and one day she said "their last names are really hard to pronounce, I'd consider changing them."
she forwarned me because if a name is hard to pronounce or remember, you can easily confuse your reader, and an agent/editor trying to get through your ms won't want to be distracted by a difficult name either.
The easy fix for it was to, yes, change the name, but to something easier that still greatly resemembled the original name.

Shiliow (shill-ee-ow) was changed to Shillow. I admit, it took me a little while to say good bye, bury the name and leave it behind, however, if it's the difference between a rejection and a request for some pages I'm willing to make the sacrifice.

jjdebenedictis said:

I saw Terry Brooks speak at a conference once. It turns out he pronounces Shannara as "SHAN-a-rah".

Meanwhile, the rest of the world seems to pronounce it "shan-AR-ah".

He said he does not have a problem with this, and that he thinks it's good to leave the reader some space to "own" the story that blooms in their mind. The little differences between one person's interpretation and another person's are often the things that make the story matter, emotionally, to that reader.

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That's cool. Having people not be able to pronounce your characters' names is an occupational hazard with Fantasy and Sci Fi. I remember thinking Legolas the elf was Leg o LAS for the longest time, until one of those people who was better than I am at decoding all those little pronunciation symbols they put in dictionaries, glossaries and appendices (and who had spent time learning all those runes in the appendices) told me it was Leg O las. Lost my nerd credentials that day

These proper pronunciation arguments remind me of an incident many years ago, when a German woman insisted that we were pronouncing our own family name wrong (claiming it was WEEbur). It's been in America for quite some time, and is no longer pronounced the German way (by our branch, at least: WEHbur.) Actually, the original founder of this particular line came to America after a several-generation layover in Russia: his pronunciation of his own surname was VAYbor.

So it doesn't just happen to fantasy names... And, no, I can't remember how the subject came up; I just remember this stranger being very irritated that we weren't saying our own name right.

Mangled first name, mispronounced last name... I'd go by my middle name, but it's weird, too. (And people wonder why I go by Brightdreamer online...)

The question is, unpronouncable to whom? Particularly to those whose native languages prounounce certain letters in the roman alphabet differently to the way they are pronounced in English.

For example, I do know how to pronounce Polish names (though clearly lots of people don't). But when I visited Budapest a few years ago, the SZ sound tripped me up - it's "sh" in Polish but just a "s" in Hungarian, so the city of Szeged is pronounced with a silent z. But until I got used to that, I kept thinking of it as "Sheged" (with short e-sounds, by the way). And the final syllable of Budapest is pronounced "pesht" as a single "s" is pronounced "sh" in Hungarian. And that's not the only pronunciation oddity in that language.

The protagonist of my WIP has a Polish name - Agnieszka (with a four-syllable surname). I did put in a bit where another character has a good go at pronouncing it. And she's usually known as Aggie to the non-Polish characters in the novel.

I have a surname that's often misspelled and mispronounced. When I visited China I realised that it's completely unpronouncable to the Chinese, so our guide just called me by my first name. My surname begins with a C which in pinyin transliterations is pronounced like a "ts" as in "cats".

Buffysquirrel said:

I remember one of my husband's Russian students mentioning that nobody British could pronounce his name and he was resigned to them getting it wrong. His name was Boris. Mind you, over time I did learn how to pronounce Ivan, Yulia, Sergei, and a few others.

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You've got me curious now- how are they pronounced?

In my sci-fi, I've had a couple of mispronounced things- a character's name and a planet. I liked the planet's newname enough that I've kept it, but had to explain the character's away in dialogue. Don't want anyone doing that one wrong.

eyeblink said:

The question is, unpronouncable to whom? Particularly to those whose native languages prounounce certain letters in the roman alphabet differently to the way they are pronounced in English.

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Not a character name, but I've run into this with my penname, which is an old nickname.

The name's Josin, which to me is Jo'zun.

I've heard Joe-sin (most common, to the point I tell people to pronounce it this way), Jaw-sin, Yo-sun, and most recently - Ho-seen.

After reading through this, I personally think it's not so much how it's pronounced but if it can be pronounced. If I'm hearing a name wrong, not a big deal (Herm-ee-own or Leggo-lass - who cares?). But if I keep stumbling over the thing - that's a big deal, because it interrupts the reading.

jjdebenedictis said:

I saw Terry Brooks speak at a conference once. It turns out he pronounces Shannara as "SHAN-a-rah".

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Gosh. Who knew?

I'm afraid I'm guilty of sha NAR ah

Roxxsmom said:

told me it was Leg O las. Lost my nerd credentials that day

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Well, if that's the case, Peter Jackson et al got it wrong.

In the movies they pronounced it LEG-o-las, or sometimes (Aragorn, mostly) Leg-o-LAS.

Here's a different spin on this. I write with an Apple product. I know how to turn off auto correct, but I prefer to use it. I'm one of those who constantly hits two keys when I only want one.

Odd names are a pain for me as a writer too. I wrote a few snippets of Spanish in a story and getting the special symbols was a pain.

I'm old enough to remember a scene from MASH where Kinger was trying to pronounce Winchester's sister's name; Honoria. It was hillarious.

I'm rather sad that remembering MASH qualifies me as old.

You can leave the reader to pronounce it however they feel is right (My husband is dyslexic, imagine what LOTR was like for him...almost everyone who wasn't a hobbit got nicknamed/mangled)

You can have the character correct someone if it's not an intuitive spelling/pronunciation for your target audience

Or, depending on the tone of your piece you can play on it:

The Bucket residence, lady of the household speaking! No, dear, it's pronounced Bouquet.

Virgilante said:

Odd names are a pain for me as a writer too. I wrote a few snippets of Spanish in a story and getting the special symbols was a pain.

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Ha, I've changed characters's names for that reason; they were a pain to type out repeatedly. And I made the mistake of naming a character Keith, not realizing that my fingers are so used to typing "er" after "eith" that every damn time I refer to him I call him Keither and have to go back and fix it.

Brightdreamer said:

These proper pronunciation arguments remind me of an incident many years ago, when a German woman insisted that we were pronouncing our own family name wrong (claiming it was WEEbur). It's been in America for quite some time, and is no longer pronounced the German way (by our branch, at least: WEHbur.)

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We have the same issue with our German derived family name (which is spelled the same as a famous composer's surname but its beginning is pronounced the same way American's say the word "wag.") It doesn't help that my first name has a Teutonic sound to it as well, so some people think we really are German and "should" be pronouncing the name to reflect more pride in our heritage. Actually, I have as much English and Scottish in me as I do German, and all the branches of our family have been here for a while, which is really boring, but eh.

It is my understanding many German-descended Americans "Anglicized" the pronunciation, and even the spellings, of their names during WWI). Not sure if this is what happened with my last name or not.

Still, most people pronounce our name the way we do, as it's a pretty common name. But telemarketers and people at customer service call centers often have trouble with it in recent years.

I get to experience the embarrassment of mangling student names during the first couple weeks of class every semester. I always feel so clever when I get an unfamiliar one right, but I feel so stupid when there's one I can't get after several tries. I don't think I'm dyslexic, but I tend not to "see" the letters correctly in long, unfamiliar words (this has grow worse as my eyes are aging words look a bit blurry on a page anyway). I also have a terrible verbal memory, so I struggle with remembering unfamiliar names, which sound like random assortments of sounds to me.

In my own fantasy writing, I've tended to go with relatively simple names that are derived from real world ones. Many writers will pick relatively simple nicknames for characters with longer names as well.

Roxxsmom said:

It is my understanding many German-descended Americans "Anglicized" the pronunciation, and even the spellings, of their names during WWI). Not sure if this is what happened with my last name or not.

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I'm not sure when the shift happened, or the reason, but I remember Dad mentioning that, during WW1, his grandfather (the original immigrant) was briefly investigated by federal forces for sending money to Germany to help with their war. I'm not sure if a man who still supported Germany (despite technically having been born in Russia) would have deliberately Anglicized his name. I suppose it was just something that happened over time, part of the melting pot process.

Roxxsmom said:

I get to experience the embarrassment of mangling student names during the first couple weeks of class every semester. I always feel so clever when I get an unfamiliar one right, but I feel so stupid when there's one I can't get after several tries.

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As a kid, I always knew I could zone out during roll call until I heard the teacher hesitate and stumble; then I knew my name was up. Very convenient for a perpetual daydreamer... so, for the sake of your students, keep it up.

Don't feel bad Roger J. Carlson. I can remember 30 year old television; what I did yesterday, not so much.

I understand all those with foreign sounding names. Doesn't really matter where you are, if it's foreign to that soil. My grandmother changed the original spelling of her name. It was Gwladys.

Just remember if you name a character 'KlicBootsole, you have to spell it correctly throughout your MS.

keepcalmandwriteon said:

And the name is Stievenous (sty-va-nis)

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Only problem I have with that is that my 8th grade German teacher would tell me it has to be spelled Steivenous to be Sty instead of Stee.

Reziac said:

Only problem I have with that is that my 8th grade German teacher would tell me it has to be spelled Steivenous to be Sty instead of Stee.

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I agree with your 8th grade German teacher.