While we don’t get to select our own names at birth, there’s always the option to change them further down the line. That’s precisely what one woman chose to do, unofficially altering hers to spare herself awkward glances from colleagues.
She revealed how her mum named her Kyrie-E-Leison after the 1980s track by Mister Mister while medicated during a caesarean section. Taking to Reddit, she said: “My name is Kyrie-E-Leison. That’s my whole first name. Hyphenated and all. It has made it a pain in the a*** to do normal things like get my driver’s license, apply for jobs, etc.”
To sidestep the “embarrassment”, the woman has taken to using the name Kyrie – though people frequently mispronounce that as well.
“I’ve spent 99% of my life explaining my name. It’s not pronounced Kai-Ree btw, it’s pronounced Key-Ree.
“I didn’t know how to spell my full name until 3rd grade. My middle name is Dusk. My sister’s middle name is Day, and my mother’s middle name is Dawn.”
Responding to her story, one user said: “I know someone else named Kyrie (kee-ree-ay, like the prayer/Mr Mister song), I think it’s actually nice-sounding as name, but the hyphens seem like they’d be cumbersome!
“Have you ever considered just changing it to Kyrie Eleison?”
Another person commented: “My name is Valkyrie and I go by Kyrie, pronounced like yours.”
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While a third said: “One of my old bosses had a daughter named Kyrie, pronounced kee-ree-ay. She told me it was ‘like the song.’
“I have never heard this song and I am older than her daughter.
“I have no idea what y’all are referencing, but somehow, pronouncing Kyrie as kee-ree-ay seems like way less of a burden than whatever the heck your full name is!”