Pronouncing names; was Re: "Business takes Vi[z]a"

[Barbara Need]

I certainly know an Aleesha (spelled Alicia). I have realized,
however, that I wouldn't know how to pronounce it unless the person
with that name told me! A-li-si-a sounds foreign to me. (I.e., not
English.)

My sister (Laura) once complained that people on the Boston North
Shore could not pronounce her name properly. When I checked, she said
I did it right, and  I say Lora (or something like that. I don't know
what the pronunciation is that she objected to.

Barbara

Barbara Need
Chicago

On 17 Aug 2008, at 14:04, Doug_Harris wrote:

> I was (and remain) under the impression that parents
> are largely responsible, in the beginning, anyway, for
> how their kids' names are pronounced. Regardless of
> class or other considerations, parents may and do decide
> a Lisa should be a Leeza or a Leesa (or is that LIza and
> LIsa?), or Andrea, AnDREA-ah or even an AHN-dre-ah. And
> I've heard Alicia pronounced as if it were Aleesha --
> similar to the Marcia / Marsha pronunciation.
> With most such names, the pronouncer has a 50/50 chance
> of getting it right. With many other names, namely some
> of those that most often are attached to blacks, even
> after having _heard_ it pronounced, it's not hard to
> imagine the name-giver got an unfortunate assortment of
> letters in his or her alphabet soup bowl.
> dh

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