My last name is always mispronounced. But I don't bother to correct people, except students.

I hate when people at a place like starbucks want me to spell my first name so they can write it on a cup. What's the point?

OMFG, what an ass. And not a very good zombie, either. And is it just a coincidence that he's chasing all black people (except for the one white guy on the b-ball court)? WTFF.

That was my thought too, smonster. Fucking asshole.

I think of my names as easy enough to pronounce although I have to admit I use variant spellings pretty much all the way. But about 20 years ago, strangers switched from usually guessing my name correctly to usually butchering it almost beyond recognition. So now when anyone calls me asking for Mrs Ash-er or Mrs Ah-shay-ah, I know it's a marketing call right away.

Thanks for the birthday wishes, everyone. Other than work, my strategy for the day has been to refuse to do anything I don't want to do.

I hate when people at a place like starbucks want me to spell my first name so they can write it on a cup

This is why as much as I go by just my first name in many places, sometimes I just go by the last. It's a perfectly normal surname that almost everyone spells correctly. And it could totes be my first name--whatever--you wanted something you can write down and I'll notice when you call? Trust me, this is the way it works best.

My friend's last name is Orzechowski, and whenever anyone askes for his last name, he says "smith"

We have a guy here that we call [name changed to protect the innocent] Rob B. He's not the only Rob B here, but he is the Rob B, because no one, including him and his father are sure about how his last (Thai) name is pronounced. I actually feel I can do a good job at its pronunciation, but I absolutely cannot get Outlook to autocomplete it correctly. I have to look up all the Robs and go from there.

And there's one (Indian) woman here whose name I totally guessed kinda right, but my old boss mispronounced consistently and deliberately--up to the point where I had to say it wrong in front of him to avoid being corrected. Poor woman. I spent two weeks going "Say it again...wait, you sure? That's not what I've been told..." to her.

And, jesus, when we had an Eda here it was a continual nightmare. Like, C/Katha/erines of the world? I don't know how you do it. People would come up to me, start conversations,, and then go "...Wait...sorry....wrong one..." and then leave. Not to mention all those times she'd be referred to in meetings and I'd have to check if it was time to pay attention or not.

My last name has an "a" sound. (You know - like it's initial.)

Typically people try to pronounce the first part of my name like Sum-iko. Rather than Su-mi-ko. (oo like Sue) You know, if I didn't introduce myself.

No, that's probably about right, amych. (Not trying to speak for sumi, but we share a name.) But it's amazing how wrong people will pronounce Japanese names. My maiden name, more than my middle: people would just randomly put extra sounds in there. It was always mystifying to me, because Japanese has so few pronunciation exceptions, unlike English. But since any person I was encountering was unlikely to have ever encountered another minority, let alone a Japanese person, I suppose that was too much to expect.

I always try to spell my last name before I pronounce it. Especially over the phone. I did that today and the woman I was talking to said "but how do you pronounce it?" So I told her and she replied "yeah I would have gotten it wrong."

Usually people try to throw an L at the beginning.

I also always say Z as in Zebra (because Americans don't have the very helpful zed) and sometimes people still put in Vs or Ds.

People don't mispronounce my first or last names, though almost everyone defaults to spelling my last name with a "y" instead of an "i" if I don't say anything. Because of the famous and amazibg comedian, I guess, though I think it is more often spelled with a "y" even without that reference.