Foreign people pronouncing your name

Its often the case that people of a foreign land will probably pronounce your name in some other way. I think they try to relate it to their own speech/langauge. My name is Nikhil. During my univ stay , here at baltimore ,usa , I have found many different ways that I can pronounce my name.

One observation is , different groups in america will pronounce it differently, and all the people of that group will pronounce it in the same way. (Based on my observation, which is atleast 5 different people from same group).

I'll add new entries as I get to hear them. Also remember that they werent just given the name and told to speak. In each case I had pronounced my name loud-and-clear.


1. Arabs,irani,afgani,yemen,etc :
nikhil becomes ni-khai-el (to me this sounds kyrgiz or russian like mikhail)

2. mostly white of baltimore area(I dont know where they actually come from):
nikhil becomes nicole or ni-kh-ole (damn! I dont like this one bit...)

3. black of baltimore area(dont know where they come from,must admit this happend only 3times):
nikhil became nicolai? (I dont get the relation in this one).

4. chini people(dont know actual origin):
nikhil --> nikeel (no 'ha' sound at all)

so till now

pronounce={nikhil,nikeel,nicolai? ,nicole,nikhail}

[:D] I just think this is funny.


I think this is natural,but I would like to think that I would be able to pronounce foreign names more accurately in first try.


One indication is that this means usa is a diverse country , and if this continues , it will probably end up like India one day.