Early in my career, I worked with a great guy for five years. As I was leaving the company for another opportunity, he told me I had been saying his name wrong. For FIVE YEARS! He laughed about it, but I was mortified.

That’s when I started deliberately asking how to pronounce names that aren’t familiar to me. Many times, people will say something like “just get close and I’ll respond.” That breaks my heart. Names matter. So while it may be awkward, I make an effort to learn correct pronunciations when I meet someone, and I invite them to correct me if I ever get it wrong.

And I keep a section in my Notes app full of recordings of correct pronunciations of the names I stumble with.

I’m sure I still mess up people’s names a lot, but I hope that when I stumble, my awkward, visible effort communicates the respect and care that my Southern accent fails to.