Friday, December 14, 2012

What's Your Name?


I work with someone who has the first name Guillermo, which is Spanish for William and pronounced something like “Ghee-yermo.” That is not exactly it, of course, but it is much closer than an old coworker of ours was. She insisted on calling him “Ghill-ermo.” It made me cringe every time I heard it. Are Spanish names that hard to pronounce? There was a time when I worked with a man named Javier, which is pronounced something like Hah-vee-air, but several of our coworkers insisted on making his name rhyme with caviar. Feel free to tell me the worst mispronounced Spanish name you have heard in the comments.

Famous Hat

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is a fun post!

Actually Javier is more like Khah-bee-air. That would be "B" as in "Bictor". (I feel your pain.) My friend Juan's name, Wh[nasal eh]n, might appear to be simple but it feels funny to pronounce it the way he does.

Try the Guatemalan National bird! Quetzal. Comes out kind of like 'ettle (rhymes with kettle).

Famous Hat said...

You are right about Javier. Richard Bonomo pronounces it like "Hah-veer."