[Opinions] Re: How do I spell my name so Americans pronounce it correctly?
in reply to a message by Anonymous
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.
- mirfak
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.
- mirfak
Replies
Thanks! Great answer! :)