I’ve always had a challenge getting people to say my name correctly. This is especially entertaining at coffee shops, as I was reminded this past week when a barista really did try, but still ended up way off.

The correct pronunciation of my name, Karen (where the first syllable is pronounced like the vehicle and there’s a clear “eh” sound in the second syllable), is typically considered to have Scandinavian origins, particularly Swedish or Norwegian. I’m not really sure where my parents came up with it as it’s not a family name, but my mother’s ancestors were Norwegian, so that’s likely the where it came from. I was also born in Nicaragua, so the Nordic pronunciation makes it easier to say my name in Spanish.

In American English, it’s much more common to hear “Care-in” (where the first syllable rhymes with “hair”).

Going back through old blog posts, I realized this isn’t the first time I’ve documented my coffee shop problem:

Once someone actually spelled it correctly without my having to spell it for them. But then, of course, when my order was ready, they called out my name incorrectly.

Over the years, I’ve collected a gallery of creative interpretations: Carien, Lauren (sorry, don’t have photographic evidence of this one), Kare, Tarin, and Carmen multiple times.

I hope you enjoy this latest addition to my collection of coffee cup aliases. At least they got the vowel sound correctly. At this point, I’m considering starting a photo collection of all my coffee cup name variations to hang on the wall in my kitchen as a testament to the ongoing saga of my mispronounced name.