How To Pronounce Sonia Sotomayor's Name

NEW YORK — In the week since she was named as President Barack Obama's nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Sonia Sotomayor's name has been on a lot of people's lips.

But people have been saying it differently, touching off culture wars commotion in the process.

She pronounces her own name like this: soh-toh-my-YOR' _ accent on the final syllable. But plenty of TV news anchors have put the accent on the first syllable (SOH'-tuh-my-er), or come up with some other mangled variation.

On the "Late Show," David Letterman had a segment called the "Sonia Sotomayor Pronunciation Round-up," and on "The Daily Show," host Jon Stewart showed a montage of TV news pundits and reporters saying it all kinds of ways.

Sotomayor describes herself as a Nuyorican, a term that generally refers to a New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent. She was born in the Bronx, but she pronounces her name with Spanish-language intonation, with a half-trill on the "r" at the end of her last name.

Mark Krikorian (kri-KOR'-ee-uhn), an advocate of tougher immigration standards and a contributor to the conservative National Review, said putting the emphasis on the last syllable in Sotomayor's name is an "unnatural pronunciation" in English.

In an online post, he said there "ought to be limits" to the inclination to defer to how people pronounce their own names.

"Insisting on an unnatural pronunciation is something we shouldn't be giving in to," he wrote. Krikorian declined to comment further on the issue to The Associated Press.

But in his posting, he said the pronunciation of names is a part of the assimilation process. In the end, he wrote, "There are basically two options _ the newcomer adapts to us, or we adapt to him. And multiculturalism means there's a lot more of the latter going on than there should be."

Krikorian's posting drew an angry response. Writing on Salon.com, Andrew Leonard said, "Personally, I feel that pronouncing someone's name the way they would like it pronounced is a sign of courtesy and respect. One might also imagine that if Republicans want to have any chance of winning future elections in the Southwest, griping about pronunciation is probably not a smart strategy."

At Latina.com, Mariela Rosario said, "Our names are a fundamental part of our identities. We have the right to have them correctly pronounced."

Immigrants changing their names, or having their names changed by others, has long been a part of American history. At Ellis Island, some immigrants who came there with one name left with another, sometimes a name that had been shortened or changed by officials unfamiliar with the original.

Over time, immigrants have also changed their names in hopes of fitting in better. And sometimes names have been changed because sounds and intonations in some languages don't exist in English.

Larisa Ortiz Pu-Folkes doesn't usually go by her given name, Larisalena, or even her childhood nickname, Lari (LAH-ree), precisely because of that. The New York City resident would love to use Lari more often, but after being called "Lottie" or "Larry" too many times, decided it was too much hassle.

"I wish I could take the time to explain to everybody but I simply can't," she said.

Americans have also shown a willingness to try to accomodate different pronunciations, more so than people in other countries have shown toward their immigrant populations, said Dennis Preston, professor of English at Oklahoma State University.

While they may not be able to say different names exactly right, they do try to get it close, Preston said. "Little by little over the generations we've sort of established a middle road," he said.

That middle road means most Yankee fans can't perfectly pronounce third baseman Alex Rodriguez's last name with a Spanish accent, but they can get close.

It's a matter of respect, said New York City Councilmember John Liu, who recently took to task a Texas state lawmaker who said that Asian-American voters should adopt names that are "easier for Americans."

"People should make the effort to know how others want their name pronounced," he said.

Besides, he said, Americans already make that effort with the most high-profile name in the country.

"Our president's name is Barack Obama, his name itself is game-changing," Liu said. "A name like Sotomayor, that's just not a big deal anymore."