What's in a Name?

I know I've written before about names.  This is not a post about the interesting names that I've come across over my months of subbing.  This post is about my ineptitude at correctly pronouncing names.  Even easy names!   There are so many names where one small letter can change the pronunciation, and more importantly the gender, of a name.  Like the name Louis.  I know that this is generally a boys name.  Yet, is it pronounced like C.S Lewis or like the king of France.  Then you can add an "e" to make it Louise.  I have to somehow have to remember in the split second that I look at the name on my attendance list how I'm supposed to say this name.  I often get it wrong, and in turn get laughed at by the class.  I have a similar problem with Gabriel and Gabrielle.  There's just not enough time in my brain to make a decision and correctly impart to my mouth how I'm supposed to say the name.

More embarrassing is my inept ability to say easy names I've seen all my life.  I could blame it on the mass population of Indians (East Indian, not Native American) in the area.  For some reason, I've started to pronounce the name Adam  "Uh-dom."  There really is no reason that I should think that name is said that way.  I really do no better.  One of the first Bible stories I learned was Adam and Eve.  My last manager was named Adam, and I was his assistant!  I've met numerous Adams in my life and never tried to call them "Uh-dom."  I think the constant change in students is starting to mess with my brain ability.

It's for these very language mix-ups that I've started to warn students about my roll-call failures.  I always tell them to just say "here" if they hear their name or something that sounds similar to their name.  I really hope these students can forgive my failure to say names correctly.