My Name

Now, let's just make one thing clear. I do not have a problem with people mispronouncing my name. This is not about that. What I do have a problem with is people who make me feel like I don't know how to pronounce my own name, or maybe--more accurately--my parents didn't know how to pronounce my name. So, I'm hear to set the record straight.

If you are reading this and you speak Spanish, you already know how to pronounce Eva in Spanish. However, the question then becomes, how should Eva be pronounced in English? The easiest thing for me would have been simply to go by the English translation of my name--Eve. Simple. No one would mispronounce it. But, (sigh) my parents didn't get that started for me, and having people call me Eve just never occurred to me as a child. Other ideas did come to me, most notably the day I decided to tell the neighbor girl that my name was Isabel (my middle name) and when she came over and asked if Isabel could come out to play, my parents didn't know who she was talking about! So, you can't say I didn't try.

So back to the question at hand. How should Eva be pronounced in English? Some bearers of this name prefer to have it pronounced, Ava with a long a sound. I've never really preferred this because it just doesn't sound close enough to the Spanish pronunciation. Others prefer Eva to be pronounced with a long e sound as though it were short for Evangeline. This one I particularly dislike because it sounds the least like the Spanish pronunciation. Sadly for me, it is the most common pronunciation of my name, and, as I understand, a rather common southern name. My favorite thing that people ask me is, "So, do you pronounce your name 'ava' (long a) or 'eeva' (long e)?" Hmmmm......Neither. I prefer my name to be pronounced with a short e sound as though it were short for Evelyn. This sounds almost like the Spanish pronunciation of Eva, only people usually pronounce it "Ehvuh" as opposed to "Ehvah."

Now, again, I don't have a problem with people mispronouncing name. I get that people have different preferences for how they like their names pronounced. But if you ask me how to pronounce my name and I tell you how to say it, don't then say, "Oh, you're name is really Eeva (long e), but you just pronounce it Ehva (short e)." Really? Or how about, "Are you sure that's how you pronounce your name?"

Seriously.

And yes, that really happened.