We went into town this morning so I could be interviewed. That was quite a bit of fun, and the fellow whose production it is seemed pleased, and it’ll be neat to see the final product.
However. There are at least 34590870 little girls named Catie in this country. I know: I’ve heard their names being called out. Why is it that Irish adults hear my name is Catie and immediately start calling me Cathy? Mostly if they read it they say Cat-ee, if they hear it they say Cathy. Whyyyy? It’s maddening. I am not especially keen on being called Cate, but I’ve learned to introduce myself as Cate because I *hate* being called Cathy. And in Ireland “Kit” is a boy’s name, so probably that would bewilder them even more. Sigh. Anyway, as you might have guessed by now, everyone today called me Cathy (except, I think, the Canadian guy, but I’m not sure he called me by name at all). Nrgh. But overlooking the fact that nobody got my name right, it was a lot of fun. :)
After dat Ted and I went out for lunch, where I had really excellent pasta, cooked just perfectly, and Ted had a spicy something or other that wasn’t really spicy but was quite tasty anyway. Ted then went forth to get his provisional lisence, which he now has, and I went forth to ask the people at the fair trade shop (yes, the one on French Church Street) if they’d like me to come in and volunteer. They, in fact, asked what day I could come in, and were it not for the fact that the woman in charge eventually wanted my phone number, I’m not sure they’d have ever so much as asked my name. :) So I’m going in next Wednesday morning. Hopefully that will work out in a reasonably fun way.
Oh. I thought I’d posted this. Apparently I hadn’t. o.o
miles to Dunharrow: 104
Yay for volunteering! Yay for pasta! Boo for ‘Cathy’!
I’m not going to stand up for the Irish and their pronunciation of names. I recently got a parcel addressed to Mail Corcan. (See username for obvious differences.) I don’t see what the problem with Catie is either.
And Kit is a car’s name, isn’t it?
[ducks thrown fair trade pasta]
nah, introduce yourself as Kit. i’m reece. they take much more to girl being named boy’s name than slaughtering a name ::::grins:::
of course i keep hearing timmy everytime my friend tammy speaks :D
‘Cat-ee’?
Hmm, that’s not what I thought it was, either.
I suspect that the problem is that it’s neither of the common pronunciations. There’s the Katie (long a) pronunciation, and then there’s the Kathy (short a) pronunciation. People are hearing the short ‘a’, and flipping to the second version.
(Of course, there’s the word ‘catty’, but since that’s an obvious insult, that couldn’t possibly be your name, so nobody would be rude enough to use it. It’s hard enough when some large American guy wants to be called Horny, or Randy, or whatever.)
The Irish are only good at pronouncing obscure and strange names like Sadhbh, or Síóbhan, or Fiachra.
On occasion I’ve been called Michael rather than Michelle so I settled for Shelly.
Also…
Sure now you decide to go and work close by…
I think ‘Catherine’ has a nice stately ring to it!
neither of the common pronunciations for values of common on this side of the big pond, that is.
Do most of them see your name first? If so, I bet it’s a spelling issue, since the name has “Cat” in it, and we all know how to say THAT. I’d be willing to bet that the vast majority of those girls with your name spell it with a K.
It *is* Catie with a long A. They pronounce it Catie with a short A if they see it written and “Cathy” if they hear me say it.
Catherine is a nice stately name. You may have noticed I’m not an especially stately person, though.
That’s the thing. If they see it they say Cat with a short A, but if I *say* it they say Cathy. I can understand the visual thing but I’m bewildered by the audio thing.
No, no, they *do* say Catty, if they see it written down. If I say, “My name is Catie,” they promptly start calling me Cathy.
Maybe I’ll just start telling them all my name is Kit.
How *does* one pronounce Fiachra?
And, um, well. I didn’t deliberately go find work close by just because you were leaving!
No, that’s Kitt. :)
Maybe I will, ’cause ye gods.
I’ve given my formal first name over the phone in the US (and to one Canadian tourist organization), and then gotten mail addressed to Ms. Danielle Goodman.
Perhaps the accent? Maybe they’re trying to translate your accent to theirs and they soften the t? Or maybe they’re just all insane.
Personally, speaking as if I were your mother or something, I think you should just become Cate, which is a lovely name altogether, and comprehensible. Or, alternately, you could become Katy, which will readily be pronounced just as it looks.
I think the Catie/Cathy thing comes from the fact that many Irish do not pronounce ‘th’. They say the ‘t’ and the ‘h’ disappears entirely. (Three-thirty becomes tree-tirty, or more likely, half-tree).
We met an Irish woman named Catherina. She pronounces her name as if it were spelled Katrina.
I’ve never been overfond of being called ‘Rose’, meself. However, for some reason when I say my name is ‘Rosie’ I end up being called Ruthie. If I say I’m Rose or Rose Anne, there is no problem at all, at all.
Re Interview – he was in touch and said that the interview went well, and he is very pleased. I knew you’d be a good choice.
Hmm – who could you possibly mean?
OK, they’re just weird.
(I misunderstood the ‘cat-ee’ part of your post. Whoops. The alternative strained my credibility.)
Perhaps the ones seeing it written down aren’t clicking with the Katie spelling more common at least in the UK (and I know, I know, trying to generalise that out to Ireland is probably error prone). But you’re got to be pronouncing it weirdly (by their lights) for them to think you’re shortening the a to the point that it could be ‘catty’ … ‘katty’ … ‘kathy’.
The ‘t’/’th’ confusion I can sort of understand, since it
does seem to be common, though usually the other way – a number of Americans will pronounce Anthony with the ‘th’ sound (an understandable difference), only turning it to the ‘t’ sound if it’s spelt ‘Antony’.
I’m learning Japanese at the moment, and that language doesn’t have an ‘r’/’l’ distinction. Depending on the speaker, I can hear it wobbling anywhere from one end to the other of that range – they don’t consistently always use ‘r or ‘l’, it’s more a personal (or regional) accent. And my wife used to have problems with the Minnesotan accent – she couldn’t hear the difference between ‘marry’ and ‘mary’ and ‘merry’ when a Minnesotan spoke those words. So it may be that what you consider to be a clear phonemic difference is imperceptible to them.
Actually, not a certain Irish con chair in particular – I’d forgotten his existence. My apologies to him – and my commiserations. It must be a pain living somewhere where one’s nickname evokes so many sniggers.
The ‘t’/’th’ confusion I can sort of understand, since it does seem to be common, though usually the other way – a number of Americans will pronounce Anthony with the ‘th’ sound (an understandable difference), only turning it to the ‘t’ sound if it’s spelt ‘Antony’.
…you know, I bet you’re right. Lots and *lots* of Irish turn ‘th’ into ‘t’ or ‘t’ into ‘th’. That actually makes a lot of sense.
I’m going to start calling myself Kit. -.-
Yes, but I don’t *like* being called Cate. It’s better than Cathy, but it’s not good. I’d rather be Kit.
Which they’d probably say Cate. It’s still better than Cathy.
I didn’t click at first, but that’s the most likely explanation. The locals *think* they’re saying Cathy and are actually saying Cat-dy or Catty. We Irish have a lot of problems with the ‘th’. Listen to Bertie Ahern sometime and you’ll it goes all the way to the top of the political ladder too.
Dis, dat, dese and dose.
Sigh. I’m sorry my countrymen and women can’t get your name right.
Hey, at least I can speak proper. I never said I could spell.
And in Ireland “Kit” is a boy’s name
What? Did I miss a memo? I’ve never met a man called Kit in this country in my very nearly half century of life…
FEE-(uch)-RUH pronounced in one go, with the first two parts as one short syllable. more or less…
Ok, I finished up the second of the “Study” books today and at the end, they had a nice little announcement about “if you liked this book” check out audbile for the first one of the series, as well as…. Urban Shaman and Thunderbird Falls.
Looks like Harlequin is all about the psychology of voice. ;)
My Godfather was called Kit. (At least by his wife, who is a Kate. Kit & Kate. Hmm. Yes, Christopher and Catherine.) But he was Hungarian, not Irish, so that’s not much of a counter example.
Then that’s what we shall call you, too.
Oh, well, in that case, thank God, I can go about being Kit without a problem. And if people decide to call me Kitty, that’s still 34593458607293478 times better than Cathy. :)