My ex-wife’s name is Zapotec and spelled with ll representing a y-sound, something that has caused her continual distress in the roughly three decades she’s lived in the US. In comparison, Alena seems relatively tame (I would be inclined to pronounce it ah-LAY-na, but if I were wrong I would correct myself). The lack of care so many English speakers apply to any name beyond the “norm” is really kind of saddening. I had a Ukrainian co-worker whose name was Irena which should be prounced Ih-rey-nah, but most of our co-workers called her Eye-reen-uh which I imagine must have been grating to her.

When I was going to school for my teaching credential, I remember one of the professors saying that for our students, their name was the only thing that was truly theirs and it behooved us to get it right. I try to do that with anyone I meet.