Woman Has No Idea How To Correctly Pronounce Her Own Last Name

Most people probably don't remember learning their own last name, it's just something you know and assume you are right about. That's the way one woman felt until this year's Olympics threw everything into question when it came to her last name . Now, she's posted to TikTok asking the few people who share that surname with her for help.

Her name is Katie Garapic , which she and her relatives have all been pronouncing "GAIR-uh-pick," but during the Olympic Games , she noticed that many of the Serbian athletes' last names ended in "ic" like hers, but their names had an accent over the c, which is a different letter in their alphabet that sounds more like "ch." Since Katie's family hails from Croatia, the country next door to Serbia, she started to think that when her great-grandfather first emigrated, their name was Americanized and the accent was dropped.

She told People , "We'll never know if he chose to change the spelling himself or if someone simply left the 'accent' off the 'c' on his arrival paperwork." Katie turned to TikTok, noting that the only people she knows with her name are her family members and inquiring if anyone across the globe with the name can help her with the pronunciation.

Among the responses she got was from someone who played cards with her aunt in the '80s, someone who knew a person in Ohio with the name and they pronounced it how Katie had, and someone who helped explain how it would be pronounced in Croatia. Katie told People , "The last syllable would be pronounced 'itch,' and the 'r' would be rolled to make a soft 't' sound, kind of like 'Gotta-pitch!'"

Katie still hasn't gotten a definitive answer on her name and even tried calling the Croatian Embassy but said, "I got phone-shy and hung up, so I may never know." She is considering adding the accent over her "c" though, just not officially, noting, "I'd never pursue a legal name change over one letter but the ć does look great in my email signature!"