#TheThingIs : What's Up With My Username? - And How Do You Pronounce It?

Okay folks, this is the first in a new content creation project I'm launching today called #TheThingIs ... The idea is to get me back into more regular content creation by posting about ONE thing on days when I don't have any other content to post so that you know I'm still #alive and #aliveandthriving !

There will be no community page, and no daily prompt word. Just a short post on one thought, experience, or idea that crops up in the course of my daily life.

The Thing Is... You Pronounce My Username Like This! LOL!

I've used the username "hirohurl" for many years now. When I created it, it never occurred to me that it would pose a pronunciation problem for anybody... But it seems to do so!

High-Roh-Hurl??

On the few occasions when they mention my username, two content creators that I follow on Hive - @jongolson and @achim03 - always trip over it and generally opt for the pronunciation "High-roh-hurl"!

I don't mind. It's all part of the comedy of content creation, and I appreciate getting a mention from time to time!

Then, the other day, one of my colleagues here in Hiroshima happened to see my username and he got it wrong too!

He pronounced it "hero - hurl" and thought I was trying to pretend to be a hero, the cheeky young tyke!

It's always the "hiro" part of the username that causes the problem...

It is NOT pronounced "hero" as my friend thought...

It is NOT pronounced "high-row" ...

It IS pronounced "hirro" - the "hi" part is pronounced like the beginning of the word "hippo" and the "ro" is pronunced like "ro" in "rocket".

Why?

Because hiro-hurl is a combination of the first part of the name of the city where I live, HIROshima, and the first part of my surname, HURLey.

Here's a YouTube Short I just made to show you how I say my username. Somehow the sound got out of synch and a bit messed up, but it's good enough to give you an idea of how to pronounce "hirohurl" and ... right now I have to dash off to teach an intensive course for the local police so I have no time to re-do the video!

https://youtube.com/shorts/RB86cjiJowE

By the way, "Hurl" was the nickname I was given by my pals at secondary school, so I'm quite attached to it and the image it conveys...

So there you go, my username really means Hiroshima-Hurley

Even though there is a difference between UK and USA pronunciations of the city, they both begin with the sound "hi" as in hippo! Check out these two recordings to hear the difference:

https://www.google.com/search?q=hiroshima+pronunciation

(You can toggle between the American and British pronunciations.)

So now you know!

I really don't mind if people mangle my username in their video content - it's always good for a laugh and when I created the username it simply never occurred to me that the first part could be read in various ways. I guess I never imagined the word would ever be spoken on video content as I created the username years before YouTube hit the scene.

Cheers!

David Hurley aka "hirohurl"

#InspiredFocus

#TheThingIs