Explaining Your Name

by Plearn Janvatanavit

Having a foreign name can make self-introductions slightly difficult:

“What’s your name?”

“My name is Plearn.”

At this point, people either:

a) misunderstand that my name is “Claire” (I really don’t understand how Plearn and Claire sound similar but yeah);

b) ask me to repeat and/or spell out my name;

c) reply with “nice to meet you” without trying to learn my name.

If you have a foreign name you might also encounter this sticky situation. So, how should we explain our names? Honestly, there is no correct or best way to do this so it really depends on you and which method is best suited for your name, but here are several suggestions.

Some people might find it easiest to spell out their name, whilst some may ask people to repeat their name syllable by syllable to get the correct intonation across. In my case, I discovered that finding an English word that sounds similar to my name is the best and most memorable way to explain my name. Now, whenever I meet someone new, I would explain that “my name is Plearn, like learn but with a P at the beginning.” After I began to articulate my name in that manner, people learned more easily how to say it correctly easier and fiound it easier to remember. So you should explore some of these methods and find which, if any, works best for you. Also, you should remember to be patient, your native language may have some sounds or intonations that others aren’t familiar with, thus it may be more difficult for those who don’t share your native tongue to learn your name.

And yes, there may be times when you might be frustrated by your name. In my Japanese class, we have to address each other by our surnames. My surname is “Janvatanavit” (pronounced as “jane-wa-ta-na-wit”). When converted to Japanese, my surname is six syllables long and consists of ten katakana characters. There was a point where I started thinking about a way to shorten my surname, maybe it could be “Janvata” or even “Jan”, since I was so frustrated with having to write my whole name on every sheet of homework and felt bad for my classmates and teachers who have to call me by my surname every time they address me during class. But then I remembered the meaning behind my name and I realised that I don’t want to lose that part of my identity just because it is long and hard for others to remember. So, take pride in your name. There will be times when people just butcher it, like when teachers read our names from the roster for the first time, and people might have more difficulty remembering our names, but the people who are sincere will try to learn them and pronounce them correctly.