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My sister Sarah talks about how she likes the name Anna pronounced AH-nah but she'd get tired of correcting people, and it makes me want to roll over and die. You say it Ah-nah if you're Italian or Spanish, and if you're in the South, you happen to say it Ann-a. (hard to describe the difference to some people.) And then today at lunch we were talking about politics and my friend Kelsey was like "It's ee-RAHN, not ee-RAN!" No! It's the same thing! Saying it in an accent that isn't yours is very pompous IMO. Ivan is IE-van here and ee-VAHN in Russia and that was always fine with me when it was my second favorite name. I say Katarina cat-a-reena, but if I were speaking Spanish I would say it cah-ta-reena, and I like both ways fine. This is one of the reasons that article you posted about the Mexican guy who insisted his son David be called Dah-VEED in English speaking contexts bugged me a lot. If I happened to go to Mexico with someone whose son was named DAY-vid, and they had the audacity to correct people who said it dah-VEED, I would think them very pompous and annoying. My name is Emma here and EH (more like ae)-mah in Spanish class.

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Anyway the point is: Kah-tah-REE-na is the spanish/italian/etc way, and some American dialects I suppose, and Kat-a-reena is the way other dialects say it, and each way is perfectly respectable and dignified and if you name your child one you are also naming it the other.

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Dadgummit! /endrant