Kaija Langley: Hi, my name is Kaija Langley. Kaija, which is spelled with a hard J, is actually Finnish in nature. So when people of European descent see it, they automatically say, Kaija, the J being a Y. Because that is indeed the entomology of it. However, I'm not Finnish, my parents aren't Finnish. And then as much as I'm aware, no one in my family's actually Finnish.

My mother actually found the name in an encyclopedia. And it was a, I believe, a Finnish marathon runner and it was a male. She loved it so much that she decided to name me, Kaija, and she was likely unaware of the actual pronunciation from Finnish. But she chose the hard J and the long I.

So when I meet people and I pronounce my name, I always say it's silent A, long I, hard J, Kaija. It's really easy to remember once you have that phonetically broken down. However, I've had a lot of different ways my name has been pronounced. It's been Kay-ja, it's been Kaya, in some cases it's been Kujo. It's been Kadija.

Really, names are truly important. And getting someone's name right often doesn't take a lot. That means that you ask them, "How do you pronounce your name?" versus just assuming you know.