'Difficult' (?!) names - Djamoladin Abdujaparov

[Cyril Haearn]

The Grauniad has a funny piece about people with 'difficult' names being asked if they might downgrade to something 'simpler', Marcin from Poland upgraded to 'Magic', Plus One!
I had a colleague called Balasubramanian, no problem, just needed a moment to learn how to pronounce it
..
Used to like reading race reports in Cycling Weakly, many names suggest speed and glamour
Jean-Luc Vandenbroucke
Gilbert Duclos-Lasalle
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber (was he a cyclist?)
Barry Hoban of course
..

[mattheus]

this was a really interesting post !

... until the Politics crept in at the end.

Wiki says his nickname was The "Tashkent Terror" - does anyone else remember pundits using " ... Tank" instead? Just me??

[Cyril Haearn]

Removed the politics

[slowster]

Wiki says his nickname was The "Tashkent Terror"

The nickname I remember, alluding to his sprinting style, was 'Abdupushemoff'.

[Mike Sales]

I only remember Abdujaporov as the Terror of Tashkent.
How about Daniel Teklehaimanot?
Or Tsigabu Gebremariam Girmay?
I hope I've got them right.

[Cyril Haearn]

Phil Liggett always enjoyed pronouncing 'Djamoladin Abdujaparov', that is why I remember him
Alternative spellings are possible

[drossall]

I had a clubmate by the name of Farquharson. He generally said that it was pronounced, "Smith".

[661-Pete]

Anyone here called Featherstonehaugh? Or Cholmondely?

[661-Pete]

We've a new Town Councillor (LibDem) whose surname is nice and easy: "Hussain". His first name is a real tongue-twister though - can't even remember what it is, and I don't think the Returning Officer pronounced it right. Everyone addresses him as "Hussain". I think he prefers it!

[Cyril Haearn]

We've a new Town Councillor (LibDem) whose surname is nice and easy: "Hussain". His first name is a real tongue-twister though - can't even remember what it is, and I don't think the Returning Officer pronounced it right. Everyone addresses him as "Hussain". I think he prefers it!

Please to find out the full first name and post it here so we may practice

[Tangled Metal]

I had a few mates from Malaysia and Thailand. I was good with difficult names. Although Malaysians often took English names that were kind of old fashioned. Stanley, George, etc.

I still preferred to call my Thai mate by his first name. It was the easiest. I did however learn his surname by reading it with an English speaker's eye. Taking each syllable at a time. Then I tried speeding it up and finally learnt the various intonations that made it right.

I would possibly not bother doing all that if he wasn't a good friend because tbh they liked to laugh at our serious attempts to get their names pronounced right. In the end they really weren't bothered and preferred friendship and nicknames westerners could pronounce.

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. Occasionally offensively wrong but that's another matter.

[Mick F]

We had a chap in the RN with an unpronounceable Polish name.
We called him Fred.

[thirdcrank]

How can somebody have an unpronounceable name?

[Tangled Metal]

How can somebody have an unpronounceable name?

Incorrect pronunciation at a high rate counts as making it unpronounceable I reckon.

[thirdcrank]

Shout louder and point at them.