SHOULD you be embarrassed if you don’t know how to pronounce a name properly?

I am not good at pronunciations and steer clear of even saying a name if I can avoid it. Of course you can’t get through life like this as sooner or later you will get found out and then it is tough living it down.

Take my name for instance. When at school I was called Shu-ab. This is clearly wrong but it was the eighties and I was far too polite to tell people that they were pronouncing it incorrectly.

I do blame the teachers for not actually having the common decency to ask how the name was pronounced but I think it all had to do with the spelling.

When the name the registered the ‘i’ and the ‘a’ are simply in the wrong order. It is spelt incorrectly in the first place. It should actually be spelt ‘Shuaib’.

The forgiving chap I am I do tend to spell out the name when someone calls so I don’t embarrass the caller.

There is nothing more quintessentially British I think for apologising for someone else’s mistake. We all do it because we simply do not want to offend the other person or just out of good manners.

But what happens when the name is plainly obvious to pronounce and you still get it wrong? Should we be just as forgiving?

I have people tell me they actually change their names to Jim or Bob because Manawar isn’t something that has that same pitch with customers.

As long as the person is happy with it then I don’t see a problem.

What I do find annoying is those who decide themselves they cannot pronounce a name and make a nickname up for the sake of it. This I’m afraid a complete ‘no-no’.

The best thing to do is actually ask. On the whole people are quite considerate and understanding.

I do think however, that people should make an effort. For example the Polish shops on King Street in Blackburn. I am now able to pronounce every single name on there correctly thanks to my boy who attends the school opposite and has done his research.

It did help that having followed the legendary Polish national side in the 1982 World Cup I did have a good understanding of names.

By the way ‘Smak Polski’ translates as Polish Shop. Pretty obvious when you think about it.