Ph.D. comics’ Jorge Cham’s latest webcomic summarizes the name pronunciation problem I got since I set foot in Canada:
The difference is people seem to actually care in his case 
November 28, 2006...6:54 pm
How do you pronounce it?
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20 Comments
December 3, 2006 at 9:25 pm
Hello Jorge,
At the end of CSC318, Winter 2005, when my team and myself discovered your name was actually pronounced “whore-hey”, the shock that we’d been mispronouncing your name for 1 whole semester was such that we felt like total idiots for a long time.
=)
Cheers Jorge
December 4, 2006 at 9:53 am
It’s been a long time since I lost track of who pronounces it how, so no worries. And actually I’m not thrilled about “whore-hey” either
March 20, 2007 at 11:38 am
Tocayo,
The same problem over here. The funny thing is finding that a manager actually pronounced perfectly my name over the phone. I was amazed…. until I found out she was actually raised in Spain!
March 20, 2007 at 1:22 pm
We are together in our pain
So I’ve settled for a way to explain in writing how to pronounce “Jorge” to English speakers. Thinking of the uppercase “H” as a strong, hard sound, then:
“Hor-Heh”
sort of does the trick.
March 20, 2007 at 4:21 pm
I think the problem is not in the consonants but in the vowels. But this problem has stronger roots. There is no easy fix for it Hor-Hehis.
March 20, 2007 at 5:11 pm
I’m glad you empathize. You got it easy
March 21, 2007 at 10:22 am
Actually, people call me “liou” (read these as you would in spanish) or “leiou” because they cannot say “leo.” Let alone “Leonardo” (”Liounahrdou”). But it doesn’t bother me.
April 5, 2007 at 9:31 am
Where I am from no self respecting Jorge would let anyone call him Hor-hey. They would make it clear it is hor-he with a short e like in egg at the end.
April 5, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Maricela, you must come from the mythical land of the ever patient Jorges
I lost my self-respect a while back: I don’t even wince anymore when I’m called, say, Yourghey.
Still, when people are interested, I’m pleased to clarify matters. The “short e as in egg” advice would work.
November 28, 2007 at 7:15 pm
Hi.
Good design, who make it?
December 17, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Hammm… Nice article… Interesting.
Links
December 19, 2007 at 6:08 am
Very good site. Thank you!!!
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March 25, 2008 at 4:24 pm
i have a boyfriend named jorge and it sounds like hor- hay because some people dont relize its actually jorge like in engilsh george.
July 5, 2008 at 10:51 pm
A famous (and fabulous) Madrid composer’s name is Jorge Grundman..
Anybody know how to pronounce it properly?
July 7, 2008 at 7:03 pm
I’m Colombian and I like the name Jorge lol. I don’t blame people for their pronunciation, and sometimes it can be funny. However I’m proud of the name so it doesn’t bother me either way-especially since some girls like it!
July 17, 2008 at 10:12 am
You can hear the mp3 pronunciation ‘HHAORHHey’ here: http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Jorge
August 20, 2008 at 6:12 pm
I like my name and even though the Aust don’t know how 2pronounce it… bn para mí
September 2, 2008 at 11:36 am
The name Jorge is very likely a Portuguese variant of the name George. Probably pronounced “Hor-hay’
September 2, 2008 at 11:40 am
By the way, you can see more information about the name here at http://www.quickbabynames.com
June 23, 2009 at 7:05 pm
I bet I have more problems with people not being able to pronounce my name.