How to Pronounce My Name
Gaurav isn’t the name I was born with. I began to dislike my original name, so I decided to adopt my father’s first name. But that doesn’t make me Gaurav Yadav Jr.; it just means both my dad and I are Gaurav Yadav. What a treat!
The pronunciation is “G aww ruv” , but that’s not always what I hear. The spelling can be misleading. The “au” should sound like the soft ‘aw’ in “aww, that’s sweet,” but it often gets pronounced like the sharper ‘aw’ in “ouch, that hurt.” Then there’s the “RAV” part, which often trips people up because it doesn’t naturally read as “ruv.”
The name comes from India, where it’s written as गौरव in Hindi. Here’s how it breaks down in the Devanagari script:
- गौ: This is actually two parts combined. ग (ga) is the consonant, and ौ (au) is a vowel mark attached to it, creating the "gau" sound.
- र: This is just "r."
- व: And this is "v."
Put it all together, and you get “Gaurav.” But the English spelling doesn’t always capture these nuances.
What really puzzles me, though, is when people spell my name as “Guarav.” It’s particularly confusing because I’m clearly not pronouncing the “u” before the “a.” I think this happens because people are more familiar with words where “ua” follows a “g,” like in “guard” or “guarantee.” These patterns are common in English, so when they hear “Gaurav,” their minds might automatically default to the more familiar spelling.
Here’s how to get people to say my name correctly:
- Refer them to this webpage.
- Say my name really slowly. Stress the ‘Aww’ and ‘Ruv’ sounds—people always need a double take with my name anyway, so I kind of do this naturally.
- When people say my name back to me, be sure to correct them instead of just accepting whatever pronunciation they come up with.
- “My name is Gaurav. It is pronounced with an ‘Aww’ sound and a ‘Ruv’ sound, so it sounds like Gawwruv.” This might feel somewhat patronising, but I suspect many people will actually find it helpful—for both pronouncing my name and remembering it too.
FAQ
Q. Do I get offended if you mispronounce my name?
No, my life’s too short to be offended by that. It’s just nice when people make the effort to pronounce it correctly.
Q. Do you like being called ‘G’?
In my second year of university, I started using the nickname ‘G’ to make it easier for people to refer to me. Maybe I thought it was cool at the time. These days, I don’t really care for it. I don’t introduce myself as ‘Gaurav, but you can call me G.’ You’re welcome to use it if you like—I don’t have strong feelings either way. Interestingly, the closer I am to someone, the less likely they are to call me ‘G.’ It’s a small marker of deeper friendships.
Looking back, I sometimes wonder if I catered too much to others by adopting the nickname. Gaurav doesn’t have that many syllables—I think an earnest attempt to pronounce it is more than reasonable.
Q. Did you have any other contenders for names before Gaurav?
Yes! I considered Noah. I really like the name, but I didn’t go with it in the end. In some alternate universe, maybe I’m Noah Yadav.
