Personally, I would attempt to pronounce their name to the best of my ability. On the other hand, my own name is particularly difficult for native English speakers to a point where I readily accepted ‘hey you’ as a mode of address.

For something like the example you shared, I don’t think so. For a name in a significantly different language that doesn’t have a direct equivalent in my own, I’ll do me best to use the appropriate phonemes - but not an “accent” per se.

From experience speaking with Americans, Bahb would get really confused because he probably can’t hear the difference between his name and Bob.

I thought this post would be about calling a French guy Pierre vs. pee-Air, even when speaking English, lol

For some names/languages, it does kinda help me pronounce them correctly. Japanese and French names are some examples I can think of where it could be useful.

if the name is from a language you both speak (like the bob example) and the difference is only how you enunciate then dont worry about it. People dont care if its just a regional thing. Otherwise you should copy the pronunciation not the accent. idk if that’s what you mean but for example don’t do an italian accent in your english voice to “sound more italian” you’d get weird looks. Enunciate (the name only) the way they do.

This has me thinking of Marnus Labuschagne

I think the risk of that approach is that if you attempt to copy their accent too literally it can sound like mockery, especially if you are clumsy in your imitation. Like you’re breaking out of your own accent on purpose because you think their name spoken in their accent sounds silly, and by repeating it in an exaggerated way you’re demonstrating how silly it sounds to you, and that kind of response can be interpreted as mocking or sarcastic.

I think it’s safer if you try to strike at most a middle-ground between your own accent and their pronunciation, use it as guidance for the sounds but still keep it clearly in your own voice. When somebody has an accent I expect my name to be spoken at least to some degree in that same accent, so it’s not going to need to be an exact facsimile of the sounds I made.

That’s my thoughts anyway, as a native English speaker.

Pronounce their name as best as you can. Im sure both of you can be native and non-native speaker to each and own tongue.

There are some people will upfront dislike you or gives negative impression for saying their name in not a proper way. (Dont worry you’ll encounter them less)

I think a better example to convey what you mean is rolling Rs. Like for most native english speakers, they would pronounce “Roberto” with a soft Rs, while the hispanic pronunciation would use a hard R. That said, I pronounce it depending on who I’m talking to and mirror how they say it.

If there’s a common way of pronouncing it in your accent/dialect use that one unless asked to use a different one.

Otherwise it might come off as you making fun of either their name or accent.

So in the example you gave maybe use “Baub” instead of “Bahb”.

Some languages you just can’t copy the sounds.

Like Chinese names with the tones. I’m Chinese-American and I just gave up on even trying to get teachers to get my name right, and use the Americanized pronnonciation of the pinyin instead, without the tones. Like I don’t feel offended or anything, its a tough language, besides I speak Cantonese at home, so idk what pronounciation I would even give. I think a English speaker attempting to pronounce my name in Mandarin or Cantonese and then proceeds to butcher it, its gonna make me feel even more embarassed/cringe at my name so I don’t bother. (I mean I’m not embarassed at my name, to be clear. I just feel cringe for the teacher when I hear the wrong pronounciation used, and cringe is contageous)

I’d say just pronounce the English version of it. I mean I could probably pronounce the Chinese name of a fellow Chinese-American classmate, but the teacher would have no idea who I’m referring to since they wouldn’t be able to pick up on the tones. So I’d just go with a English pronounciation.

I think it depends on whether the sound difference actually makes a phonemic difference in the source language—like, would a native speaker hear it as an oddly-pronounced version of the correct sound, or as a distinct, different sound in that language?

I would probably be a bit offended and think you were making fun of my accent if you copied me.

I try to say it exactly like they say it.

I had a coworker named Mahmoud, and all my native-English-speaking coworkers heavily anglicized the pronunciation, removing the throat-clearing sound of the h, and changing the first vowel to the a in “math” rather than the a in “wall”. Whenever I spoke to him, I tried to copy his inflection as best I could, and and he seemed delighted, but I never clarified if it was about my pronunciation.

IMO, yes. Proper nouns should be pronounced properly. I recognize that this has implications, such as: Mazda Matsuda! But that’s what i believe.

When i had a French friend named Marion, i didn’t call them “Mare-ee-uhn”.

Wild thought: this could’ve saved the Mitsubishi Pajero in Latin America.

It’s normal to come across words you don’t know how to pronounce in your native language. When you do, you either ask someone for the pronunciation or stumble along until someone corrects you. Names are no different and you shouldn’t be made to feel ashamed by any earnest attempt to pronounce them. Forget about the accent and focus on the specific sounds involved in the name. If you cannot form sounds that are foreign to you, the owner of the name will likely help you pronounce it in the language you’re comfortable with. They are probably used to doing this.

My name is pretty much impossible for most people to pronounce properly, outside of my own language and some sister languages. I usually don’t mind if people butcher the pronunciation as long as they don’t try to give me a nickname (friends can, I’m talking about colleagues that I rarely talk to) or shorten it. I don’t like using westernized names, and always pronounce my name as it should be pronounced, but it’s alright if other’s don’t. But I’m very happy if they try.

So that’s my advice, especially if it’s from a language that you don’t speak. They’ll probably be happy that you tried. Just don’t overdo it. Asking me to repeat my name 5 times is annoying. (This has happened to me more than one would expect. They probably meant well, but damn was it annoying.)

This reminds me of the time when I met a British girl during my backpacking days in Australia. She got very upset every time anyone called her Sarah (American accent), because her name was Saaaarah (long first vowel). Everyone around her did their best to accommodate her. But it never even crossed her mind that all of us intentionally pronounced our own names in a very English friendly way, to make it easier for her as an English native speaker to address us 🤦🏻‍♂️

I always present myself with a pronunciation that is easier to pronounce in English. Saying my name as my mother calls me is just weird and strange when you say it in the middle of an English sentence. And likewise, I think it’s strange of people to assume that I should be using sounds that don’t exist in my native language to pronounce their name, if that is the language we’re speaking together.

If the name depends on an accent, I’d say yes, but only to an extent.

A good example is the name Jesus. We tend to think of Christ, the Christian figure, when we read the name and think “Gee-zuhs.” But it’s a common Hispanic name and it’s pronounced “Heh-zoos.” Die Hard 3 made a joke about this. Samuel L. Jackson’s character is called Zeus. One of his people says “Hey, Zeus” and Bruce Willis’ character calls him “Jesus” but pronounces it the same. “Do I look Puerto Rican to you?!” Jackson cries out to him. “He said Jesus,” Willis says. “As in hey Zeus, shove a lightning bolt up your ass ZEUS!” Been ages since I watched it but I still remember that part.

Asking people how to pronounce their names and asking them back, attempting to do so, if it’s fine, and not only listening to what they say, but reading their body language, is the way to go.

I once knew a guy, can’t remember if he was Cambodian or Vietnamese, he didn’t give people his name because nobody could pronounce it correctly. I asked him to let me try. Took me a few tries, but I got it. Oddly I still remember it. Can’t fucking type it to save my life though. He did ask I still call him by the same name others do, so as not to create confusion, but he was happy I learned to say his name. And if it was just us, I could use it.

There’s way too many languages and dialects with way too many sounds out there for this to be practically doable. For foreign names some basic degree of approximation is desirable, but nothing more than that. In principle you shouldn’t expect or demand people to produce sounds not found in their native dialect (unless they’re actually learning the foreign language).

Besides, it’s not even odd for people not to be able to pronounce stuff according to the standard norm of their own native language, due to the dialectal variety within the same language.

As for names from within the same language, it could sound artificial and even condescending if you tried to go for a pronunciation not native to you. Bob is just Bob, no need to stress that he’s “American/British Bob”.

My name is unpronounceable for most non-native French speakers. I tell them to not even try, as there are sounds in French that don’t exist in English. Instead, I introduce myself by butchering my own name, or by using the English equivalent to my name.

I guess it makes the most sense to do what feels natural. In my case that’s pronouncing the name in the language I’m speaking at that moment.

It’s a good question. I always wonder the same thing about the US vs UK versions of Craig and Graham.

US - “kregg”, “gram”

UK - “krayg”, “gray-um”

My birthname is anglicized French. The English form is well-known. I hate it. I cope. No one’s gonna get it right.