What’s in a name? If Slovenian and hard to pronounce, seemingly endless variations: Mark Ryavec Today 5:36 AM Postcards sent to the author's father in Cleveland in the late 1920s and early 1930s both misspelled his name, differently. Facebook Share By Guest Columnist, cleveland.com VENICE, California -- Having a difficult-to-pronounce last name myself, I found the recent consternation over the mispronunciation of actress Jully Lee’s first name at the local Los Angeles theater Ovation Awards overblown. I have lived with misspellings, mispronunciations and rude versions of my name for my whole life. And survived with a relatively intact ego. I find it inevitable in a multilingual nation that many will not be able to figure out how to say my name. In my case, it is ironic that my father contributed to the unfamiliarity of my last name to most Americans.