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Help[Opinions] How do I spell my name so Americans pronounce it correctly?
Hi, here's a sound sample of me saying my given and patriarchal names. They're my "first" and "last" names in the US.
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0hYVGjQk3gW
Could any Americans and Canadians here try spelling my name "like it sounds?" Thank you!
http://vocaroo.com/i/s0hYVGjQk3gW
Could any Americans and Canadians here try spelling my name "like it sounds?" Thank you!
Archived Thread - replies disabled
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Replies
Sounds like Eric Duran to me.
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Erik Duran.
However you're still going to have to correct people. English has so many conflicting pronunciation rules, and so many people like to have "unique" names that correcting pronunciation or spelling is normal here. Even if you tried to spell your name most phonetically, ie, Areek or something, someone will still mispronounce it. :P
However you're still going to have to correct people. English has so many conflicting pronunciation rules, and so many people like to have "unique" names that correcting pronunciation or spelling is normal here. Even if you tried to spell your name most phonetically, ie, Areek or something, someone will still mispronounce it. :P
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There's no ideal one.
Personally I'd go with Eriek Douraan because it looks the most like a name and is likely (not guaranteed) to be pronounced right, or at least be easy to teach.
However, Erik Duran or Eric Duran pronounced as you do is plenty teachable too, and if it is pronounced differently at first, you could just figure they say your name in their own accent, rather than thinking of it as incorrect. People don't mind being corrected, generally, although it's a bother for you.
Ereke
Ereek
Eriek?
Eriq?
Erique?
Ereke doesn't resemble anything much except Zeke ("zeek"), and the final -e insists on a long vowel before it according to the rules of English. However, it is prone to be mispronounced er-eh-keh by folks who think they have to try hard to get "foreign" names right.
Ereek looks awful, but is very likely to be pronounced as you want.
-ique will get you -eek if people remember names like Dominique and Monique and the word unique, but it might also cause people to recall Enrique and say -ee-keh.
Eriek might make people think it's a creative spelling of Erik and they might say Erik regardless, but it should only take one correction. Anyway in English -iek is always said -eek. So it should get some right pronunciations.
Eriq would be said like Eric at first, but would be easy to teach because it reminds of Arabic names like Malik or Rafiq which are widely known to be -eek.
Surname:
Douraan
Dourahn
Dooraan
Doorahn
I think the "ou" forces the oo sound as well as "oo" would, and also looks nicer.
Double a also forces ah sound, and looks nicer than ah.
Personally I'd go with Eriek Douraan because it looks the most like a name and is likely (not guaranteed) to be pronounced right, or at least be easy to teach.
However, Erik Duran or Eric Duran pronounced as you do is plenty teachable too, and if it is pronounced differently at first, you could just figure they say your name in their own accent, rather than thinking of it as incorrect. People don't mind being corrected, generally, although it's a bother for you.
Ereke
Ereek
Eriek?
Eriq?
Erique?
Ereke doesn't resemble anything much except Zeke ("zeek"), and the final -e insists on a long vowel before it according to the rules of English. However, it is prone to be mispronounced er-eh-keh by folks who think they have to try hard to get "foreign" names right.
Ereek looks awful, but is very likely to be pronounced as you want.
-ique will get you -eek if people remember names like Dominique and Monique and the word unique, but it might also cause people to recall Enrique and say -ee-keh.
Eriek might make people think it's a creative spelling of Erik and they might say Erik regardless, but it should only take one correction. Anyway in English -iek is always said -eek. So it should get some right pronunciations.
Eriq would be said like Eric at first, but would be easy to teach because it reminds of Arabic names like Malik or Rafiq which are widely known to be -eek.
Surname:
Douraan
Dourahn
Dooraan
Doorahn
I think the "ou" forces the oo sound as well as "oo" would, and also looks nicer.
Double a also forces ah sound, and looks nicer than ah.
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Thanks! Great answer! :)
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Is the problem you're having is that your name, Eric or Erik, is being pronounced eh-rick instead of eh-reek? I know quite a few people with the surname Duran and it's always doo-rahn like you said.
Maybe spell it Erike? Ereek looks odd.
Maybe spell it Erike? Ereek looks odd.
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Yup those are the problems. Thanks for the help.
Duran always gets pronounced as DOO-ran though for me :( Or even worse, DUR-in.
Duran always gets pronounced as DOO-ran though for me :( Or even worse, DUR-in.
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