fraud freedom-of-speech name language
Can I choose how to pronounce my own name?
<p>This is more a thought experiment than anything else...</p>
<p>Let's say my name is 'Alan Temaficoni', and, as a joke, I decide to pronounce 'Alan' as 'Professor', making my name sound like 'Professor Temaficoni'. Are there any laws that prohibit me from doing so? I can imagine that if I were to do this in order to perpetrate some kind of fraud (I'm not thinking of doing this!), I could encounter legal challenges.</p>
<p>I've done some searching on this, both here and on the Internet at large, and have come up with a total blank.</p>
<p>Thank you for your thoughts!</p>
<p>Addenda in response to comments:</p>
<ol>
<li>I'm not specifically referring to any particular jurisdiction. If there are any rules relating to this, I would imagine that they would presumably follow the same lines.</li>
<li>I'm not talking about aliases. I'm referring specifically to the latitude allowed to anyone who might choose to insist that their legal name be pronounced in a manner that would be substantially different from the way in which others might do so.</li>
</ol>

<p>No jurisdiction imposes penalties for &quot;mispronunciation&quot;, however conceived. Some jurisdictions have official language academies which sanctioned by the government, but they are limited to a declaration of what is &quot;official&quot;. Some countries have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naming_law" rel="noreferrer">naming laws</a>, according to which in Norway you shall not name your child Zaphod Beeblebrox, but Knut Toresen is available. No law of Norway requires you to pronounce the name the way it is pronounced in &quot;Standard Norwegian&quot; (if there were such a thing), or even the way it is pronounced in any known dialect. While you have a right to mispronounce the name however you want, you cannot use this practice as a pretext for evading legal responsibilities, thus you must respond to legal service duly delivered to you under the name Knut Toresen, etc. To slightly change the scenario, if you decide to pronounce Knut Toresen as Tore Knutsen, you cannot disaffirm a contract where your name was given orally and you pronounced Tore Knutsen, intending that the person should write &quot;Knut Toresen&quot;.</p>
