I also strive to pronounce people's names correctly, but I often don't know how. Andrea's opening paragraphs dealt with mangled pronunciation - the same mangled pronunciations I would probably produce if I tried to pronounce the names spelled the way she presented. That's the point I was responding to.

I'm pretty good with IPA, having used it extensively studying other languages. I never see names rendered in it, though, outside of formal language classes or in some good dictionaries.

And if you don't think many Americans don't pronounce the Js in Spanish names the way we pronounce Js in English, you need to come visit my part of the heartland. the situation is not pretty. lol