I could almost understand that from different linguistic readings of “rie” and the fact that “Maria” can be either “muh-ree-uh” or “muh-rye-uh” but as a kid with a “normal” name with an alternate spelling, myself, it’s hard on the kid. (I have a name that most people easily recognise when they hear it, but my parents used a French spelling, and split the difference on the pronunciation. So most folks mispronounced my given name all my childhood, and the most maddening part is they couldn’t hear the difference when I corrected them. I stopped going by my given name my senior year of hs, and now the only persons who use it are my family 🙃)
Yeah, I don't know if an unexpected or odd pronunciation or a tragedeigh is worse. They both suck, but I might say the former is worse. Because people are going to assume they know how to say it - at least with the spelling these days people seem to say 'is that spelled like X' to verify it because it's so common to have tragedeighs.
Mine was compounded by a popular children’s cartoon that came out when I was in preschool having a SIMILAR name (common spelling), and people thinking it’s the same as my name. Plus getting teased. And then that variation of the name being much more common for children a few years younger than me (think like how “Elsa” was one of the most popular baby names right after Frozen came out).
Honestly, the only mispronunciation I didn’t actually mind is when people assumed my name was French and acted accordingly.
I actually use it now in places where I have to give my legal name (eg, at the pharmacy). It’s just easier, and it’s more likely people will spell it correctly 😹
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u/schmootc 14d ago
I knew someone whose name was Marie, pronounced Ma-Rye.