On the importance of the “O”…

January 18, 2007 at 7:39 pm · Filed under Roba

I HATE PEOPLE WHO CAN’T SPELL MY NAME.

How hard is it to remember that I spell my name with an “o” rather than a “u”? It’s Roba, not Ruba. Thank you very much.






  • http://abedhamdan.com Abed Hamdan

    my collegue at the university calls herself “Ruba” with u :s

  • http://blog.sweetestmemories.com Qwaider قويدر

    You should change it to Riba :) Then people will be mixed i and e and you’ll have a totally different problem….
    Reba .. oops Riba .. Don’t be mad :) At least they know your name :)

  • http://american-in-jordan.blogspot.com/ Dave

    But isn’t your name pronounced “Ruba”? It’s an understandable mistake, since the Arabic language doesn’t officially contain an “o” vowel.

  • http://saroujah.blogspot.com Sasa

    From Damascus to Amman, heyyyyyyyyyyyy Robbbbbbbbba. Ok, that’s my madness out the way. I just discovered from Arima’s little notepad. I love your writing.

    Sasa, the Syria News Wire.

  • http://betqa.blogspot.com/ Beti

    Could be worse… they could call you rhubarb…
    Qwaider: Riba means fish in Slovenian…

  • Jenna

    I’m sure you’re completely aware of this, Roba, but the way you spell your name, with the one ‘O’, “should” be pronounced as “Roe-bah”.

    I have an Arab friend named Rola (Roo-lah) who does the exact same thing, and to me – as a native English speaker at least, it makes no sense!! ;)

    Personally, I’d spell it as Rouba, but hey, it’s your name :)

  • http://andfaraway.net Roba

    Nooo guys! My name is not pronounced “Ruba”! That’s a very big part of the reason as to why I hate that spelling… I’d much rather it be pronounced “Rhowba” than “Rouba”. it’s actually pronounced “Rba”… very fast.. no o’s and no u’s… (try it with Microsoft Sam sound or something).

  • Nick

    Aah, I was wondering how it was pronounced. It’s quite difficult for the non-Arabic speaker to imagine how that ‘o’ should be pronounced, hard Roh or soft Roe (Roo or Roe sounds had never occured to me). Transliteration of vowel sounds from Arabic into English can be a bit of a nightmare.

    P.S. Beti/Qwaider – I once ate a riba by a river in Slovenia. It was a tasty trout.

  • http://iman-a.com Iman

    Rohwba as in row.ba?
    Rba? what’s that? can you put up a podcast of that?

  • http://gr33ndata.blogspot.com Tarek

    Hi Ruba,
    I think it is clear now :)

  • AG

    my name is ayyob and i live in the states, can you imagine what i have to go through with some americans tryint to pronounce my name. I have gotten Abu before and ayyab and ayaoub. and they say my last name gamoutch

  • http://hareega.blogspot.com hareega

    you should meet my friend abdelrazzag who lives in oklahoma , rarely ever did anyone spell his name correctly

  • http://iheartamman.blogspot.com Firas

    Guys I hate to see you fighting…

    So is it Firas,Feras,Pheras, Ferris?!

    I prefer people referring to me: “You know, that really cool dude (cute dude if it was a girl talking)

    But I agree that Roba sounds more right than Ruba, You know Ro…ba, But Ruba sounds like Roooooo-ba

    Bawar to the Bebol!

  • http://iman-a.com Iman

    Ayyob, I would say spelling it Ayyoob or Ayoub or Ayoob would be easier phonetically speaking…

    Firas, cute dude, not hottie? the most unique spelling for Firas is Pheras …very cool..if my name was Firas, I would spell it Phiras

    –

    Really, there isn’t a right or wrong way of spelling a name;but.to me, it’s more about phonetics, and how easy it is to pronounce….take Sean for example…some spell it Shawn, some spell it Sean….

    Roba spelled with a U would be pronounced as the U in ‘Put’….

  • http://fairandhandsome.blogspot.com/ Fair and handsome

    You remind of Shakespeare’s famous quote of Romeo & Juliet – “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other word would smell as sweet.” So Roba, stop hating people and spread love. Although it is priceless, but it is precious.

  • Helmi

    Hi Roba,

    First of all, I want to thank you for your wonderful and interesting blog, actually this is my first time to post anything for you, but I’ve been following your blog for a long time, and almost on a daily basis while I was in Jordan, and now I’m in Dubai and still checking it almost everyday, to see what new interesting stuff you will have (as usual).

    And second, I’m sorry to say this and no offence intended, but if you are willing on one day to go to Japan or to give your name to a Japanese, then it would be better to spell it in anyway you want, except ‘Roba’, coz in Japanese it means ‘donkey’!, sorry but this is how it is in their language! you could double check it using Wiktionary.

    http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/roba

    Well, have a nice day, and be careful about how to spell your name ;-)

    Helmi

  • Anonymous

    Firas, I’d rather refer to you as the genius who found out that abdoun was mentioned in the bible.

  • Jenna

    “Nooo guys! My name is not pronounced “Ruba”! That’s a very big part of the reason as to why I hate that spelling… I’d much rather it be pronounced “Rhowba” than “Rouba”. it’s actually pronounced “Rba”… very fast.. no o’s and no u’s… (try it with Microsoft Sam sound or something). ”

    I can’t get my tongue around ‘Rba’, so I pretty much have to pronounce the U or O ;)

    RE: my friend Rola…people are like “why do you say ‘ruler’, it’s ‘Rlla’…”… Don’t even get me started on the name Amr. My friends say it like ‘Ahmmm’, whereas I have to say ‘Ammer’.

    Some Arabic sounds (i.e. khh) I have mastered, and some will forever remain impossible for me :)

  • http://iheartamman.blogspot.com Firas

    Yeah whatever….Eeemun!]

    Anon: You rock dude. Anyways what happend to ur Kozo Nick?

  • http://omernos.com/blog omar

    tell me about it,
    some people (especially those of Pakistani background) have a hard time spelling my name as OMAR not UMAR…hehehe, that’s the way they spell it! Turks go for Omer. Oh dear

    So I support you on this, cause O is important to me as well! haha