Do you like your first name?

[Xantipius]

Mine is Vitali.
I always disliked it, but now I'd say: I love it.
I hate names Sergei, Igor, Alexandre and many other
(name Ivan in Russia is very very rare, cause it is associated with "Ivan the fool" - a personage from Russian fairy tales).
I never met name "Vitali" in Russian literature of the 19th century.
After 1917 it got into fashion for several decades, then it faded away.
Now pop names here is: Maxim, Denis, Kristina, Darya, phhhhhhhhh...
Names Nadezhda, Luyobov', Zoya, Maria, Marina (my beloved female name) totally disappeared

[Reverend Jim]

My given names are Richard James but my mother decided I should go by my middle name which is a royal pain in the a$$ because every bleeding form in the world asks for my first name and maybe my middle initial. Thus, whenever the receptionist in the doctor's office calls for me it's always "Richard" which I don't respond to. If she wanted to call me Jim then they should have named me James Richard.

Short answer? No.

[Ancient Dragon]

I don't have a problem with my first name -- Melvin, but my friends just call me Mel. There was a period of time when the name Melvin was a joke -- Jerry Lewis made fun of it all the time for a few years.

[Xantipius]

And what's its origin? Smth druidic in it - Melvin.

[GrimJack]

My first name is Gregory; my middle name is Rodger - sometime in the early1970s I decided to go by Rodger. My family all call me Greg/Gregory, my friends all call me Rodger (if someone calls me 'rog' I say you must have mis-heard, my name is Rodger). Phone calls are easy to sort as all my documents are in Gregory. I don't dislike my first name and at work my phone lists me as Greg so my boss and my lead call me Greg because that is what they see all the time. It no longer makes a diff to me but I used to be really serious about what my name is.

[pixelsoul]

Why does this feel like some sneaky attempt by Xantipius to trick us into giving up our first names? :-P lol just kidding...

I used to hate my name "Oliver", but now I am fine with it. It's a pretty rare name in America so it helps make me a little more unique I guess (though I really didn't need any help in that department).

[Xantipius]

I always liked name "Oliver" ("Oliver Twist" by Dickens)
It's associated for me with the Sun & the Vines & Italians olivas.

[mike_2000_17]

I have the same problem as Rev. Jim, my names are Sven Mikael. Mikael is the given name I go by, and Sven is my forename, like a middle name (not used) but that goes before my given name, which is usual in Sweden, but not in Canada, where I live and grew up. And like Jim, every form I have to fill in will either allow just a first name or first and middle names (or initial), I never know what to do, I would usually put Mikael as the first name, and just omit Sven. Still, that gets annoying, and sometimes troublesome. And this is also constantly a problem for all Swedes because the forenames are pretty useful, because in Sweden there is a rather small set of common first names, and a rather small set of common last names, so, any given first and last name combination often yields hundreds of people with the same name, so it becomes pretty useful to use the forename to differentiate. For instance, when working at ABB (Swedish robotics company), there were 3 other employees in the email-system called Mikael Persson. When I got stopped at security in a US airport, they had more than 200 files to plow through that had my name (since they couldn't allow forenames in their database), I was stuck there for an hour.

I would say that the only thing I don't like about my first name is that it's often hard for people to pronounce. I'm part french canadian and part swedish, so I accept both pronounciations (which only differ in intonation), but I don't like the English pronounciation (i.e., "Michael"), and you wouldn't believe how hard it is for an anglophone to pronounce "Mikael" the french/swedish way, it's like their mouths just can't bend that way. But I can always go by Mik or Mike instead.

My mother told me that calling me Mikael was a toss up between that or Harald. So, I think I got off reasonably good.

[<M/>]

My name is Michael, and i always loved it. It is a common and well known name (found in religion originally). My name is supposed to represent an arch angel, so yeah... AWESOME!

So... if you were wondering (again) I love/like my first name but i hate it when someone spells my name wrong, as if it were "Micheal"... It is a super well known name and nobody spells it like that lol.

[Ancient Dragon]

you wouldn't believe how hard it is for an anglophone to pronounce "Mikael" the french/swedish way, it's like their mouths just can't bend that way.

Yes I would believe it -- most, if not all, Chinese have a really difficult time speaking English for the same reason. I have no clue how to pronounce "Sven", maybe like "seven"???

[bumsfeld]

Luckily Henri and Henry are pronounced the same in America.

[Reverend Jim]

So what is the correct (ie your) pronounciation of Mikael? Is it me-KALE, mih-KALE, ME-kel, me-KEL? Am I getting close?

[<M/>]

I thought it was always pronounced like: "mih-Khail"

[Agilemind]

I thought it was pronounced Mi-kay-ell? like the former GG.

[mike_2000_17]

I have no clue how to pronounce "Sven", maybe like "seven"???

Kinda. Like "seven", if you omit the first "e", and the last "en" is more like in the word "pen".

So what is the correct (ie your) pronounciation of Mikael? Is it me-KALE, mih-KALE, ME-kel, me-KEL? Am I getting close?

It's something like that I guess (I'm not sure what your options actually mean when you pronounce them). The French pronounciation is "me-KA-l" (you say the "l" like you would if you were saying the alphabet), in other words, "me" like the English word "me", "KA" like in "cat", with emphasis on the "KA" syllable, and then a separate "l" like in "bell". The Swedish pronounciation is more like "MEE--kel", that is, an emphasized "ME" like the English word "me" with the last vowel stretched out a bit, followed by a slightly aspirated short pause (to be accurate), and then "kel" like the word "bell" but with a "k" (in other words, the "a" is silent, although some may pronounce it as part of a diphthong with the "e"). I think the most trouble for English speakers is to separate the "KA" and the "l" sounds of the French pronounciation, and also putting emphasis on the middle syllable seems difficult too (in English, emphasis is usually either none at all, or on the first syllable).

I thought it was always pronounced like: "mih-Khail"

That sounds more like the russian Mikhail. There is actually a page here for the French (France), (Southern) Swedish and Finnish pronounciations of Mikael, that's gives you an idea, and here is a typical English-speaker's pronounciation.

most, if not all, Chinese have a really difficult time speaking English for the same reason.

Yeah, I've read that the register of speech and hearing is mostly established in the early years (0 to 5 or so), and quickly freezes afterwards. And so, any foreign sound or phonetical subtlelty that just isn't in your register will just fall through the cracks or be approximated as something else, the result is that you literally cannot hear (as part of speech) sounds that you are not already familiar with and you cannot make those sounds or phonetic subtlelties (in the same way that deaf people can't talk). For example, a thai friend of mine literally does not hear any difference at all between the letter L and R, and thus, always pronounces L. And even when you can hear the sound when clearly presented, you may never be able to make the sound as part of "fluent" speech. For example, for the French word "maïs" (means "corn", should be pronounced "MA-ISS" like "ma" from "matter" and "iss" from "miss", and both sounds must be separated), my father can pronounce it well if doing so carefully, but he always pronounces it wrong in fluent speech (he says it as MAI-SS, with "ai" like in "thai"). Everyone is limited by the register they construct at a young age, things do get better with time, but at some point, it's just stuck. My father knows French perfectly and has been living here nearly 40 years now (more than half of his life), and he still has a recognizably foreign accent and still gets asked by strangers where he's from and all that.

On the opposite, people who have a rich register from their early years (like myself, speaking French / Swedish from birth) will typically be able to lose an accent very quickly, and also recognize / reproduce regional accents much better. When I started using English regularly, I lost most of my accent within a few months, and for many years now, I pass incognito (native English-speakers generally guess I'm English-Canadian (~ Ontario) or American (~ northeastern)). When I learned German, I also lost my accent much faster than I learned the language, which can be a blessing or a curse. And I'm also getting quite good at distinguishing less-obvious English accents, I mean, second-language speakers generally cannot make subtle distinctions like Alabama vs Tennessee or even more obvious ones like NYC vs Boston (let alone first-language speakers being able to!).

[mike_2000_17]

My name is supposed to represent an arch angel, so yeah... AWESOME!

Yeah, there is the arch-angel Michael (or Mikael, or Mikhail, or Michele, or whatever translation) from abrahamic religions (judaism / christianity / islam). But, apparently, it also literally means "who is like God", which is even more awesome! We're pre-destined for greatness!

[ddanbe]

My first name is Daniël, but all my friends call me Danny.
To Xantiplus who likes the name Marina so much, here is a song by an italian who immigrated to Belgium long time ago : Click Here

[mike_2000_17]

My first name is Daniël, but all my friends call me Danny.

I would have thought people would call you Dan (much more usual short for Daniël, at least, here in Quebec).

here is a song by an italian who immigrated to Belgium long time ago

Nice song. It's a bit weird to here an Italian singing a German-polka song. He must be from northern Italy.

Edit: he's from southern Italy, even weirder.

[Ancient Dragon]

But, apparently, it also literally means "who is like God", which is even more awesome! We're pre-destined for greatness!

I thought you are atheist, so that should mean nothing to you. On the otherhand, if you mean like greek gods, that's a different story altogether :)

[ddanbe]

@mike _2000_17: I believe it was a number one hit in America in 1959.
Oh and about pronounciation Click Here a sound not found in English. Enjoy!
Edit: just noticed you're from Quebec somewhere, so you know the sound I guess, so you would not pronounce déja vu as dejavou

[Reverend Jim]

I had a professor once who spent the better part of an hour trying to tech me how to pronounce pouilly fuisse. I just couldn't get my mouth to cooperate. It started out as poo-ee-foo-ee-say but the best I could manage was pwee fwee-say. It wasn't for lack of trying. When I am told to make an oo face but make an ee sound something just short circuits in my brain. I can do the sound but actually putting it to use in a word is difficult.

So perhaps I'll just stick with Mike should I ever have to pronounce it.

[mike_2000_17]

Oh and about pronounciation Click Here a sound not found in English. Enjoy!
Edit: just noticed you're from Quebec somewhere, so you know the sound I guess, so you would not pronounce déja vu as dejavou

Yeah, I definitely cringe a bit every time I here the borrowed "dejavou" expression used in English. It's weird that English doesn't have this letter even though most of its root-languages have it: French / Dutch has it (written as "u") (all latin languages have it too), all scandinavian languages (even Finnish) have it (written as "y"), and German has it (as "ü").

I had a professor once who spent the better part of an hour trying to tech me how to pronounce pouilly fuisse.

Pouilly-Fuissé (proper spelling). Wow, your teacher was a sadist. I even have trouble pronouncing that. I guess it is something like Poo-(ee)-yee Fü-ee-ssay (where "ü" is of course that extremely common sound that does not exist in English for some weird reason, can't even think of an English word that has a sound remotely like it). I understand you have trouble, I think it contains many of the things that anglophones have trouble with: the "ou-i" and "u-i" diphthongs, the "ill" sound (kind of a diphthong of "i" (or "ee", but short) and "ll" (like "y" in "yes")), and obviously, the letter "é" which all anglophones have trouble with (like "ey" in "hey!", but shorter and higher).

When I am told to make an oo face but make an ee sound something just short circuits in my brain.

Maybe this will help. My Finnish teacher did a really good job at explaining vowels. Finnish has 8 vowels: 3 weak-strong pairs, and 2 neutral. The "oo" face (or kissing face) with the tongue down gives you the English "oo" (like "zoo") which is the Finnish "u" (strong) and the French "ou". The "oo" face with the tongue up (arched) gives you the Finnish "y" (weak), the French "u", and German "ü". The same applies for "o" (tongue down) and "ö" (tongue arched), both have the "o" face (like a jolly old man going "Ho! Ho! Ho!"), and "ö" is the French "eu". And finally, the largest face, the Finnish "a" (tongue down) and "ä" (tongue arched), corresponding to the French "a" / "è", and the English "a" (like when the dentist says to say "aaahhh") / "e" (like in "bed"). In Finnish, there are actually language rules to keep strong vowels (a-o-u) together and weak vowels (ä-ö-y) together so that you don't have to move the tongue up and down as much.

[happygeek]

I'm David on my birth certificate, my mum calls me Dave but pretty much everyone else knows me as Davey. I'm happy enough with it, but then I don't believe that the name defines the person so it makes no difference anyway...

[<M/>]

I don't believe that the name defines the person so it makes no difference anyway...

So true... anyone here could be named something good/bad but really is the opposite.

[ddanbe]

Pouilly-Fuissé! Don't pronounce it, drink it! Chilled and accompagnied with an almond trout or (it's the season!) asparagus the flemish way. Mmmmm!

[<M/>]

almond trout or (it's the season!) asparagus the flemish way.

Almonds on a trout? Haven't tried that yet, maybe in the future I will sneak in a few almonds on a trout (or any fish...)

[ddanbe]

Yes, where I live, it's a rather classic dish Click Here

[<M/>]

the good part is about the dish is that it is completely healthy (if everything is raised and grown properly).

[vinnitro]

My first name Vinod.
It means joke in english.
I was never teased by any people in my school or even in college.

Later after playing CS with friends I was called as Vinnitro rather than my original name.