Hopefully the name of the blog gives it away, but for those who do not know, my surname (Feit) is pronounced “Fight“.
Don’t feel bad if you weren’t sure. In my life, I’ve found those having to pronounce my last name – an unlucky bunch of teachers, telemarketers, customer service reps, hotel/airline employees, professional colleagues, and more – only have about a 10% success rate. Here are some of the common mispronunciations I’ve heard:
- feet
- fee-it
- fate
- felt
- fit
I have always been told the name is German, although I’m pretty sure the family tree originates to Luxembourg. Living in the Midwest, which contains a pretty large population of Germans and immigrants from other central European countries, I am always surprised how many people don’t stand a chance with four simple letters – it’s the “ei” that trips ’em up.
I’ve attempted to use some of the different translator sites to determine just what “Feit” means, but without a lot of success. Google Translate gave me Latvian (faith) as well as Dutch (fact) and Norwegian (fat). Personally, I like to believe that it means “faith” – not only because that provides an honorable trait to my family name, but because of this sweet George Michael cover by some group called the Rainbow Ponies (God bless YouTube).
Feit Can Write 