'Difficult' (?!) names - Djamoladin Abdujaparov

[Mick F]

How can somebody have an unpronounceable name?

When you heard it a few times and you practiced, you could repeat it.
If you read it and didn't know him, it was almost impossible to get it pronounced correctly.

Sorry, can't remember his name, other than "Fred".

[Mick F]

There's a family near here we know quite well. With Polish names, the man's surname ends in a -ski and his wife's surname ends with a -ska as does their daughter.

Sexist surnames.

[mattheus]

I like a lot of cricketers names. The indian sub-continent players tend to have elegant, sing-song, exotic sounding names, that (to my ear) are quite easy to get right once you've heard them once.

Whereas a lot of our eurpoean neighbours have names I struggle more with. This is quite fun:

"
Novak Djokovic gives Jim Courier a quick lesson in pronunciation following his win over Radek Stepanek
"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nDdtvbu8hw

[Mike Sales]

There's a family near here we know quite well. With Polish names, the man's surname ends in a -ski and his wife's surname ends with a -ska as does their daughter.

Sexist surnames.

Icelandic names end in son or dottir, added to the father's name. As in Jonsson or Jonsdottir, children of Jon.
The President used to be Vigdis Finnbogadottir.

[Cyril Haearn]

There's a family near here we know quite well. With Polish names, the man's surname ends in a -ski and his wife's surname ends with a -ska as does their daughter.

Sexist surnames.

First names are sexist in English, so what? Best to have several
Here are some of my Polish Favourites
Bronislawa, Arkadiusz, Agniesca, Donald T(usk)

[Mick F]

There must be some consent on these sexist surnames.

What happens if the woman wants to be gender-less? Can't be a -ski coz it's a man's name, and can't be a -ska coz it's a woman's name.

First names are generally sexist, but not all by any means.

[Mistik-ka]

How can somebody have an unpronounceable name?

From the Oxford English Reference Dictionary: "Yahweh … a form of the Hebrew name of God (YHVH) used in the Bible. The name came to be regarded by Jews ( c. 300 BC) as too sacred to be spoken, and the vowel sounds are uncertain."

[thirdcrank]

How can somebody have an unpronounceable name?

From the Oxford English Reference Dictionary: "Yahweh … a form of the Hebrew name of God (YHVH) used in the Bible. The name came to be regarded by Jews ( c. 300 BC) as too sacred to be spoken, and the vowel sounds are uncertain."

I don't think that's what was meant in this context. I could see that some names might amount to what I thought was a shibboleth but having just googled, it seems either that has changed meaning or I have got it wrong.

[Cyril Haearn]

I get people with similar names confused sometimes
Robert Millar rode the TdF, won the spotted jersey
Robert Mueller investigated the PotUS
British Rail had a chairperson named Robert Reid, and a chairperson named Bob Reid

[drossall]

I've got an unusual but very simple surname. It's pronounced as it's written but everyone bar a very rare handful get it wrong.

Ditto. Some just say the nearest common surname, which you can kind of understand because it's not reading properly. Some however do read it right, then go to amusing contortions to avoid saying what's plainly written in front of them.

[Pastychomper]

I used to know a lass with a Gaelic-derived name that was easy to pronounce but hard for English natives to spell. Once her brother told me that, out of dozens of birthday cards she'd received from non-relatives, only two were spelled correctly - both from lads about her age.

[661-Pete]

I get people with similar names confused sometimes
Robert Millar rode the TdF, won the spotted jersey
Robert Mueller investigated the PotUS
British Rail had a chairperson named Robert Reid, and a chairperson named Bob Reid

Well, I know there's a Teresa (sic) May out there - though it's difficult to get google to filter her piccies out from the better-known one. She's usually depicted wearing somewhat less clothing than her namesake - that's how to tell them apart.

WARNING: this search link is not entirely work-safe.

[661-Pete]

From the Oxford English Reference Dictionary: "Yahweh … a form of the Hebrew name of God (YHVH) used in the Bible. The name came to be regarded by Jews ( c. 300 BC) as too sacred to be spoken, and the vowel sounds are uncertain."

Not so much 'unpronounceable' as 'ineffable' - i.e. forbidden from being uttered. All there in the Ten Commandments "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord in vain". YHVH is written out in full in the Hebrew Bible, but traditionally without vowels. In versions where vowels have been inserted (to aid non-Hebrew speakers), the vowels belonging to a different word "Adonai", meaning "Lord", were inserted, as a reminder to the reader to utter this alternative word instead.

Hence the name "Jehovah" - much used by some religious sects - which is a misnomer arising from a literal reading of the mis-vowelled word (don't ask how the first 'a' becomes an 'e' - it's complicated...)

[Mike Sales]

Thanks Pete, that is interesting. One learns things on this forum which are nothing to do with cycling.
Is the word "h.....s" ineffable here, only to be pronounced in the secret subforum?

[661-Pete]

Thanks Pete, that is interesting. One learns things on this forum which are nothing to do with cycling.
Is the word "h.....s" ineffable here, only to be pronounced in the secret subforum?

Learnt all this as a kid (brought up Jewish) in 'cheder' - sort of equivalent to Sunday School. Sorry!

I suppose we could put the wrong vowels into "h****t" to disguise the word. Many anti-compulsionists refer to "lids" but that's only one vowel. How about "plastic"? "Halmits"???