How do you pronounce <insert name here>?

[Stretch]

I'll start, because every time I introduce myself people always ask me this question about my last name.

It's spelled N-g-u-y-e-n.

I've heard it pronounced:

New-yen
Nih-gu-yen
New-gen
New-en
Win
New-in
Wing

I can't pronounce it myself, but this is how it is supposed to sound (http://inogolo.com/audio/wikimedia/Nguyen.mp3).

[Drew]

I say Win because I was once told that was the closest analogue in english to the correct pronunciation. Before that I probably would have said N-gu-yen.

[Celephais]

Mr ... Nag.... Nagin.... Not gonna work here anymore!
http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af213/GuinnessKMF2/The_Bobs_Office_Space_People_Skills.jpg

[Drew]

Mr ... Nag.... Nagin.... Not gonna work here anymore!
http://mikedoe.net/storage/movies/The_Bobs_Office_Space_People_Skills.jpg

Epic nguyen with the quote!

Epic fail with the picture not loading.

[4a6c1]

When!

[Monsoon]

Vietnamese is monosyllabic. Nguyen is pronounced new-win with the new sound very quick, almost silent.

[Jorddyn]

Comes out "wen".

Or "en-gooey-en", if you're my high school English teacher.

[SolitareConfinement]

It's spelled N-g-u-y-e-n.


as in Scotty? been checking out the WSOP lately?

[Latrinsorm]

Sometimes I think the people who came up with the Anglicization schemes for various Asian names were/are purposefully dicking with me. Nguyen is the obvious example, but who decided that the name pronounced "Ken" ought to be spelt "Keun"? Now Russian, there's a good Anglicization system. Shargorodskya, say each letter, no problem! Why couldn't we have sent those guys East?

[Donquix]

as in Scotty? been checking out the WSOP lately?

As in half the Vietnamese population of the planet.

new-win here

[SolitareConfinement]

As in half the Vietnamese population of the planet.

new-win here

i know i was kidding heh, besides i do believe the guy i was talking about spells his name slightly different could be wrong but thats what it reminded me of

[Mighty Nikkisaurus]

N'win..

Hard to really describe but the 'N' sound very quick followed by win.

[AnticorRifling]

I'd pronounce it when but I'd use the Stewie Griffin cool whip inflection.

[Monsoon]

But then you'd mess it up and bring it roo-een.

[Cephalopod]

I work with a large number of Vietnamese folks, and we have a LOT of Nguyens. I always pronounced it 'new-yin', and none of them look at me funny... but then most of them don't speak English, so we spend most of our time staring at each other with a lack of understanding and I gesture wildly with what are likely inappropriate hand signals.

Then there's the Hung Cao I work with...

[Sean]

I thought it was pronounced Tila Tequila.

[Trouble]

I say new-yen. I had lots of Asian kids in my classes growing up and none corrected me so it stuck. The transliteration that messed me up the most was a girl named Hyun Ju that ended up being pronounced Sun Ju.