My name (and how it is pronounced)

My name is a fairly common one in French, at least for people of my generation. I know I was not the only Guillaume in the word since I was about four. But here in the English speaking world, it is just as foreign (or at best exotic) as something from the other side of the planet. I am from the other side of the Atlantic, but the name itself comes merely from the other side of the Channel, and originally from Germany. William, its English equivalent, is ridiculously common. But almost nobody pronounce it right.

I usually joke about it. One of the first thing I say when someone I meet for the first time struggle with my name is "Don't worry, it took my wife a month". Which might not be quite true, but not far from it. It is a funny line anyway, enough to place it among my great unknown lines. It does get slightly irritating sometimes: colleagues who have known for months still can't get it right. A man once thought my name was Jim, don't know how he could have heard that one.

 So for the non French speakers among my readership who might have difficulties pronouncing it, here is how to do it. It is pronounced "Gee-iom". Not Gooweelam, not Gweelom, or whatever weird pseudo Innu pronunciation you can come up with. Gee like geek, and iom like, well, something or other. Simple. You can find it on audio on Google. That said, I struggled a fair deal to find a good sound sample, but I found this one here, where you can hear the difference between French and Québec pronunciation.