Representatives Nicole LeFavour, James Ruchti, and John Vander Woude sit side-by-side-by-side in the Idaho Legislature, and all have had their surnames repeatedly mispronounced. But it was House Minority Leader Wendy Jaquet who finally took a stand.
Tired of having her name butchered by colleagues, she interrupted a House Revenue and Taxation Committee meeting Monday to offer a little phonetic direction on the northern Swiss surname she took when she married her husband, Jim."Rep. Jaquet, I'll try to remember that," Rep. Dennis Lake said, pronouncing it "jay-quet."
It's not jacket, juh-quet, jay-quet or jack-kay — though lawmakers have used all of those during her seven terms.
"A person came up to me and said, 'You've got to fix this.' He thought it was a distraction that didn't reflect well on the entire body," Jaquet said. "Think of it like this: There was a guy named 'Jay,' and he 'quit' his job." [Link]
