People who mispronounce the name Alex as "Alec" are disgusting savages

I have noted that some people have real trouble pronouncing "Alex" and it grosses me out. Some people who are otherwise fully literate continually say "Alec" when they shouldn't, because the persons's name is clearly Alex. For example, someone just said "Alec Chilton." (It's Alex Chilton, you fuckwit.)

I first started noticing this about 15 years ago. I thought, at the time, that Alex must be a highbrow name and that it is simply difficult to pronounce for ordinary people, who tend to say "Alec." So, I started to think saying "Alec" was sort of like saying "Haitch" for the letter "H" (Aitch)—a marker of your class background.

But now I'm just mad because there's no reason to say it and no reason in this day and age to mistake an X—an X for fuck's sake—for a fucking C. Good night.

By the way I have never encountered an Alex in real life who self-identifies as "Alec." But still there's these cavemen out there going around calling Alexes Alecs.

you need bigger problems in your life

I have had this as a recurring issue my entire life, but I never got angry about it

BUT WHY DO PEOPLE DO IT? AN X IS NOT A C

You can't just choose to substitute a letter of your choosing for the last letter in someone's name.

Harold? That's cool, I'll just say Harolf.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec

Alec or Aleck is the Scottish form of Alex, a given name related to Alexander.

I hear Turkish people do this ffs. It's not a Scottish disease.

harolf would be a good nickname for harold soref (no relation)

I was thinking of suggesting a poll of the various forms of Alexander/Alexandra, but there's like a million of them

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander#Variants_and_diminutives

My dad's name is Alex and all his family call him alec, I always assumed it was a black/Caribbean thing

In conclusion fields of salmon you are a racist

i've been annoyed by this all my life but fields of salmon is making me rethink that

(though not really because don't fucking call me alec ffs)

smart alex

http://www.inseaworldwide.com/team-usa-harolf-dean/

All football commentators seemed to do this to Alex Ferguson for a number of years

last paragraph takes a turn xp

Oh dear, I hadn't read that far. Feel Bad about linking to it now.

All football commentators seemed to do this to Alex Ferguson for a number of years

I had to google him when I first read this thread because I couldn't remember if he went by Alex or Alec

fields of salmon, do you object to the name 'Alec' per se, or just people who self-identify as 'Alex' being misnomered? When I was a child I always though Alec sounded like an old man's name, but this may be because the only Alex I was aware of was Alec Gilroy from Coronation Street.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexmcleish2012.jpg

the only Alec I was aware of

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alec_Ferguson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Guiness

Guinness was born at 155 Lauderdale Mansions South, Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale, London as Alec Guinness de Cuffe

so he was actually christened Alec and not Alexander?

oh, it says two sentences later, sorry

I never realised but I tend to refer to all Alexes as Alec. I assume it's because I am Scottish. I get weirdly irrational at folk (usually American) who pronounce Graham/Graeme as Gram and Craig as Creg, so evidently it turns out I am a massive hypocrite. Mind you, I still haven't settled on a correct pronunciation of my own name, so I'm hardly the leading authority on this.

'elk'

Ailsa - 1) how does that make you a hypocrite? 2) I'm mystified as to how you could pronounce your name other than 'ale-suh'

elsa, ilsa, ay-eeelsa, bob

Always find it interesting, sounds that don't exist in certain languages, and how they get transliterated. The X - K - CH -GH (and other letters used to express similar phonemes) is an interesting one.

I always thought Ailsa was "Isle-suh" but then again, I recently got into an argument with two different Irishmen about whether the word Eire has one syllable or two (and each had a separate answer!) so I'm not the best person to ask.

Two *different* Irishmen? Not two identical ones?

Coming back to something in the original post, the 'haitch' thing drives me mad

Ha! Two different arguments. Also two different kinds of Irishmen.

I assume the Gram/Creg thing is a regional accent variation based on own country's usage, same as me defaulting to Alec vs Alex, but it annoys me when people do it to Graemes and Craigs whereas I do not see myself as a disgusting savage for giving messrs Ferguson, McLeish, Salmond etc the first name Alec (I was reminded of this when watching Graham Norton the other night and one of the Anchorman guys called him Graml.

I veer wildly between ale-suh and ale-zah wrt my own name.

I thought Gram was an actual separate nickname, rather than poor pronunciation? Creg is an accent thing, but I haaaaaaaaaaaate it.

Also it means Americans can't distinguish between Craigs and Gregs, which is just stupid.

'Gram' is how Americans usually pronounce 'Graham'. I work with one of each..

So was Gram Parsons actually called Graham/Graeme?

He was someone's grampa's son

I like that, but strongly doubt that's where the name came from

It's short for Ingram.

...Gram Parsons' name, that is.

Eire one syl iirc, the way bbc/uk presenters grapple with it always strikes me as (paranoid now) as a bit of a slap

That said as gaeilge i give it two syls. Shit.

How are you supposed to pronounce Graham and Craig? (I'm American, btw.)

Graham is like a grey yam. Craig is crayg.

Except that's not even correct, Graham is more Grey/Um.

pronounce graham as in gandalf and bedamned any dont embrace it

Eire one syl iirc, the way bbc/uk presenters grapple with it always strikes me as (paranoid now) as a bit of a slap

I went to school with an Ailsa who got both pronunciations, but she wasn't as badly off as an Aoibhinn (she pronounced it Ay-veen, emphasis slightly more on 1st syl) who got called "Even" constantly.

My mate just called her daughter Aoife, I've already told her the poor lass is for a whole lifetime of mispronunciations and misspellings, but would she listen? My pal + her partner pronounce it in different ways - Eefa vs Eva - and it's their daughter!

idk why they even need to use it

I don't think they do, really. It must be very rare that Darragh gets the opportunity to be riled by it.

i like how this fuckwit thread took 15 years to come to fruition

Graham is like a grey yam. Craig is crayg.

Got it. Blame the cracker for the widespread US mispronunciation of Graham.

(I think "Creg/Crayg is probably a US regional accent thing.)

maybe there's a person our there who right this second is noticing something that will become the subject of a fuckwit ilx thread 15 years from now

(I like this thread, though)

What other things do Scottish ppl mispronounce? I feel this bears more investigation.

Primark. Lidl.

alec's a better name than alex

Fuck all that. Eck will do for me.

What other things do Scottish ppl mispronounce? I feel this bears more investigation.

Well people named Hugh should of course be called Shug or Shuggie.

And Senga for Agnes

Peig for margaret obv

scottish people mispronounce george as doad

My son's name *is* Alec. Four out of five people persist in calling him Alex.

Alecs salmon'd

Anyway: I would like to point out that &c

alec the seal

My mate just called her daughter Aoife, I've already told her the poor lass is for a whole lifetime of mispronunciations and misspellings, but would she listen? My pal + her partner pronounce it in different ways - Eefa vs Eva - and it's their daughter!

― ailsa, Sunday, January 5, 2014 4:08 PM (7 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i'm thinking of naming my daughter "fields of salmon"