The Americans (in fact the non-Rumanians in general) have a remarkable consistency at mangling my name beyond recognition when they must refer to me on the various occasions. So here I am giving directions as to how to improve on this (for those interested):
My last name's pronunciation should be "Boo-REE-cha", the stress falling on the middle syllable (ree).
My first name should be pronounced as if it were written
"Yawn-OOTZ", stressing the last syllable (ootz).
If you find it difficult, you can just consider that my name is
John, or Johnny, and act accordingly. Its perfectly fine with me.
Much better than being called in all kind of funny manners.
Truth is Ionut is roughly the Romanian counterpart of the English Johnny. 'Ion' is John in Rumanian. And the 'ut' termination plays the same role as the 'y' in the English term. Actually even in Rumania I sometimes used to (jokingly) be called 'John' by friends, so I am used to it.