Say my name

It’s important to say my name right

For years, I begrudgingly accepted the incorrect name people imposed on me to avoid embarrassment, but after reading former Love Islander Yewande Biala's viral twitter thread about why it's important to pronounce names properly, I'll now tell people they're saying mine wrong.

It began in primary school for me, when people couldn’t pronounce the three syllables of my name. Pun-teh-ah. Instead, they shortened my name without permission to Punta. I find it ugly and lacking in all the glory and history my Persian name has.

It stuck, despite my many attempts to correct people.

Now, I’m turning over a new leaf at 34 and finally correcting people who say my name wrong. It’s OK that people get it wrong, it’s an uncommon name, even in Iran, but once I’ve corrected people (as many times as they need to get the right phonics) then they should say my name properly.

To read the full article I wrote for Metro, click here.