WHAT’S SO FUNNY:Name, shmame, Katie graduated

On a lovely Thursday evening last week, the members of the Laguna Beach High School Class of ’07 took their diplomas at the Irvine Bowl, crossing the stage while childhood photos appeared on a large screen behind them “” a nice touch for the family members, of whom, there were several in the crowd.

The students were ebullient, and the parents responded to the ceremony with that mixture of pride, relief, joy and wistfulness that accompanies graduation everywhere.

We got a last chance to applaud the teachers as they walked in, preceding the graduates, and we got to say hello to Mrs. Dunlap, the last (and top) of the line of great teachers Katie’s had in Laguna.

Most kids are lucky to have one superlative teacher as they grow up; Katie’s had several.

It was a near-perfect evening for our family, marred only slightly when Katie’s diploma was presented, as announced, not to Emily Katharine Kih-RAH-lee, but to Emily Katharine Kih-RYE.

Understand, I’m not complaining because they got Katie’s name wrong. I’m complaining because they got it right.

For years there has been a world-class volleyball player in these parts named Karch Kiraly, no relation, who pronounces his name correctly, Hungarian style, as Kih-RYE, and his fame is such that people often pronounce my last name that way too.

But I come from Chicago, and the Chicago Kiralys always pronounced all the letters, as in Kih-RAH-lee.

I assumed our pronunciation was right until I moved out here as an adult and had to start correcting people.

I suppose actually I was incorrecting them.

Katie was raised to say her name the Chicago way, and that’s the way her friends know her, but on graduation night, it came out “Kih-Rye” “” and as the cab driver said when the customer gave a 10 cent tip on a $1 fare, that’s correct but it ain’t right.

Oh well “” name shmame, however you say it, it’s spelled the same.

The evening was a long-awaited emotional treat.

And Katie looked so beautiful in her cap and gown as she crossed the stage, I thought I was going to Kiraly.

Hey, if they can say it, I can say it.

Congratulations to the class of ’07 from a member of the class of ‘67, and I’d like to say that if you do just half as well in your endeavors for the next 40 years as I have done in mine . . . well, good luck.