That recommendation was the coda of his article about a fascinating subject: how (and why) we mispronounce names.

I’ve been thinking about this very topic because, as I’ve done more and more podcasts over the last year coinciding with the release of my book, I have been amazed at all the ways my last name gets mispronounced. 

But the hilarious thing is that how I pronounce my name is itself a mispronunciation! To actually be pronounced correctly, I would need to make the German umlaut sound for the combination of vowels in the first syllable. However, that vowel sound isn’t part of American English (I live in the U.S.), so the anglicized pronunciation I learned from my parents is the one I request people to use — the very one I’m often having to clarify for podcast hosts.

This brings me to a truism I tell the people I coach who are speaking English as a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th (or more) language: having an accent or not often depends not on how you’re saying your words, but on where you’re saying them!

The two countries with the largest populations of English speakers are not in the Western hemisphere or Europe; they are India and China. If a person in Bangalore speaks English with an “Indian accent,” is that because of their accent or the fact that they’re speaking English in Dublin or Austin or Edinburgh?

This subject is particularly crucial for the start-up founders I coach. Many hail from countries other than the one in which they’re trying to raise money. Frequently they feel a degree of self-consciousness about their “accent,” and that can manifest most problematically when saying their name and their company’s name. It’s usually in the first sentence of the pitch; listeners miss both names and tune out within the first ten seconds. I coach them to invert this habit and lean into both names. After all, for many companies, the only words with which we’re unfamiliar in their initial sentence during a pitch are those two names.

Regardless of whether you are a founder of a start-up, savoring the pronunciation of your name when introducing yourself can be a tiny but powerful way to improve your communication. To ensure that a new acquaintance correctly understands your name’s pronunciation, you will automatically have to do many of what I call “The Behaviors of Confidence.” You will need to:

       I. breathe to ensure you have sufficient vocal power

      II. enunciate dynamically so we can not only hear, but even see your name (remember, we get a lot of our comprehension from watching how people’s mouths move when they speak)

    III. because of the previous bullet point, look at your listener to see if they’re seeing your mouth move, and therefore activate better eye contact

    IV. unleash sufficient vocal variety so the emphasized syllables in your name stand out from the others

     V. open your mouth wide enough to allow sufficient sound to escape (which is a good precursor to… you guessed it … smiling!)

And if you do all those same things while someone is introducing themselves to you, they’re going to like talking to you more, and you will probably remember their name. (Nothing feels worse than ambling around a party or life, uncertain about a person’s name that “you really should know by now,” and then trying to camouflage your ignorance!)

So as holiday party season barrels down on us, consider this Good Talk your invitation to improve your communication in the slightest degree by savoring the pronunciation of your own name when you introduce yourself, and mastering the pronunciation of those you meet. 

And if we have a chance to meet and have a conversation, I’ll do the same (btw, Hoeppner is pronounced Hep-ner… like step, prep, rep — or rather mispronounced if you say it that way in Germany).

Cheers,
Michael Hoeppner and the GK Training Team
 

P.S. The end of the year is coming, and to practice the accountability I preach, it’s time for an update to this Good Talk from earlier in 2025. Did you read a book this year? I committed to getting through Moby Dick by Jan 1, 2026. I have roughly one-third left. I’ll let you know if I complete it in the next newsletter. Did you read the book you wanted to this year? If not, it’s not too late! Give your brain, your attention span, and your concentration a gift by indulging in reading. 

P.P.S. Speaking of books – and McWhorter’s callout about mine – Don’t Say Um will be coming out in paperback in January. It’s a good stocking stuffer if you have a person in your life trying to, as the subtitle says, Live a Better Life.