Indicate vowel hiatus in non-German family name

Question

I have a non-German family name structurally similar to Meyer. People often mispronounce the ey as ay¹. Can I use a vowel hiatus to indicate the desired pronunciation with e and y? Is Mёyer correct? I first thought of Meӱer, but ӱseems to be used to indicate an y that replaces ij. But, I have seen little uses of ӱ in German language.

^{1 Sorry for not using IPA}

Answer 1

Comedian Bernhard Hoecker —pronounced Ho-ecker– doesn't want to be called Bernhard Höcker. As oe is also an alternative writing of ö. That's why he writes his name as Hoëcker. Though Höcker would be funny, given that he's a clown and also rather short.

Now people call him Hö-ecker instead because they are unsure were the dots should go.

It's somewhat common for the Umlaut reason above, but also after i as ie is a way to mark a long i. Ferdinand Piëch wrote his name with ë because of that.

But even that ë is uncommon. Many people in Germany don't get what it means and would assume that person is French. You don't have to start with ÿ. Germans would assume it's a weird way to write ü. As y sounds like ü in German anyways.

Here's some French people who took the reverse approach.

In conclusion: Give up.

---

EDIT: If your name is Dayan you don't have to worry too much as Germans speak that as Da-yan by default. We know who Moshe Dayan was. Also how that name is spoken.

You could write it as Da'yan as well. German speakers are somewhat used to that marking from place names in Israel.

If it's not written in Latin usually so you are free with the transliteration, you could write it as Dajan instead. As we use j instead of y in German if you mean the consonant.

Answer 2

Dominique Meyer is a French manager who was director of the famous Wiener Staatsoper in Vienna from 2010 to 2020. His last name is pronounced [mɛˈjɛːɐ̯] since it is a French name. I'm pretty sure that many people in Austria, who have never heard his name, but only read it in the newspaper, mispronounce it as [ˈmaɪ̯ɐ] because Meyer is one of the many variation of the German names Meier, Maier, Mayer, Meyer, Mair, Mayr which all are pronounced the same (as [ˈmaɪ̯ɐ]).

But those people who heard his name on the TV or on the radio, or who even had to deal with him directly, quickly learned how to pronounce his name correctly. People just needed to know that [ˈmaɪ̯ɐ] is wrong and [mɛˈjɛːɐ̯] was correct, that's all. Any additional diacritics would have caused even more confusion, because nobody who is a German native speaker knows how to pronounce ӱ and I'm sure many people would have guessed that Maӱer should be pronounced like Maüer, i.e. as [ˈmayɐ].

So, I think the best is just to tell people how to pronounce your name correctly, but do not change the spelling of your name.

Answer 3

You want German speakers to pronounce your name correctly, and you are willing to change the spelling of your name (with diacritics) to further that aim. But you can't just invent a new diacritic and expect people to understand you -- if correct pronunciation is your goal, spell your name Meher.

Answer 4

If your name is supposed to appear in legal documents such as a passport, your name will be spelled in German documents exactly as it is spelled in the documents of your home country. If a transliteration (from a non-Latin to the Latin alphabet) is necessary, the transliteration follows ISO norms. You cannot choose the spelling of your name.

You can legally change your name only if the name causes you serious disadvantage, for example if it has an obscene meaning and you are being harassed for it. Difficulties in pronunciation and spelling can be a reason for changing your name, if the handicap caused by it is "not insignificant". It is unlikely, though, that you will be allowed a spelling of your name that is equally or almost as difficult as the original one.

If you use your name in documents such as contracts or certificates, it must be written exactly as it appears in your passport, otherwise the document may not be legally valid.

Everywhere else (that is, outside of legal contexts), you can write your name however you want.

There are German names that are written with a diaeresis, such as Piëch or Meÿer, foreign names that are written with a diaeresis in German, such as Noëlle or Croÿ, and so on, so the use of the diaeresis will be familiar to some Germans. Unfortunately the diaeresis does not always signal a vowel hiatus in German above a y, so that spelling will not clearly indicate the pronunciation of your name for most Germans. (See the answer by Hubert Schölnast for more details on this.)

Given the many names of foreign origin in Germany today, many people have to explain the pronunciation of their names. My own name is not German in origin and everyone who sees it for the first time asks me how it is pronounced. It doesn't bother me at all.