What to Do When Someone Mispronounces Your Name
Photo: WalterFoto (Shutterstock)
For most of my life, my name has been mispronounced or misspelled by seemingly everyone unfamiliar with its cultural relevance. Often they’ll replace it with something more common (Alicia) or something spelled similarly (Asia) without realizing their mistake. But constant mispronunciations (or the assignment of a nickname because your name is “tricky” to say or remember) are examples of name-based micro-aggressions that can result in anxiety when introducing yourself, and perhaps even evidence of an indifference to your feelings that amounts to a form of bullying. It can leave you feeling utterly demoralized, and ignoring the behavior only allows for the mistreatment to persist.