It’s the ultimate in awkward moments and it happens all too often.

A person has a name that might be difficult for others to pronounce. They are approached by someone who means well but proceeds to butcher their name. It usually leaves both parties feeling bad.

But there are ways to avoid the problem.

“The best way to handle it is simply to ask, ‘How would you like me to pronounce your name?’ ” said Belkys Torres, the University of Pittsburgh’s executive director of global engagement. “Do it in a matter-of-fact-way. It shows respect and is the first step toward a trusting relationship. Butchering somebody’s name is probably the worst way to make a first impression.”

Pitt is promoting another helpful tool available for the university community. It’s called NameCoach. Developed at Stanford, it’s a cloud-based product that makes it easier to learn and remember name pronunciations and pronouns, said Torres.

Individuals can create a “name badge” by recording the pronunciation of their name and including background on its origin and, if they like, their pronouns. That recording is then available on their email signature, LinkedIn page or their instructor’s class roster, if the course uses Canvas, a Pitt online system used by faculty.

“The decision to launch NameCoach at Pitt signals another concrete action on the part of the University to reaffirm our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and belonging,” said Ariel C. Armony, vice provost for global affairs who brought the idea to Pitt.

“How can you feel welcomed by an institution if your name is butchered by others, if you are assigned nicknames by others simply because they don’t take the time or effort to learn how to pronounce your name, or many other forms of offensive or harassing behavior? NameCoach also gives people the option to specify their personal gender pronouns.”

If anyone understands how it feels to have their name butchered, it’s Torres. Her first name Belkys, which has Turkish roots and goes back a number of generations, traveling the 1920s migration from Lebanon to Cuba, is pronounced “Bail-keys.” Over the years, however, she has learned to settle for “Bel-kiss” because most Americans can’t seem to get it right.

“When one is younger, you try to take the approach of ignoring it in most cases. In other cases, you just default to trying to create some kind of nickname to try to make it easier for people to know who you are. But you start to learn that those are methods of micro-aggression that are being imposed upon you and that your reaction to those micro-aggressions actually starts to erase your own personal and cultural identity,” said Torres.

“Every time I tried to shorten my name or forgave people for mispronouncing it, what it was doing was eating away at my sense of self.”

Torres said Pitt’s decision to launch NameCoach is an integral part of honoring and recognizing name diversity.

“It’s all about creating a robust climate of inclusivity. We’re saying let’s be respectful enough to ask people, ‘Would you mind sharing your pronunciation or how would you prefer that I pronounce your name?’ as a way of showing first and foremost that we recognize name diversity and we want to be respectful of that individual.”

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