My name is Mark. I have a friend who works in the music industry. Years ago, she took me to a country music concert (not my choice of music, but it was free). We were back stage having a good time. I met Charlie Daniels. Nice guy with a reputation for being a hard core party dude.
My friend scrounged up an 8x10 publicity shot of Mr Daniels and asked him to sign it for me. He asked, “How does he spell it?”.
My friend answered, in a tone of voice one would use with a preschooler, “M…A…R…”.
He looked up with a scowl and said, "I mean with a “c” or a “k”. He then gave several examples of people who used “marc” and “mark”. He was much more intelligent than one might assume at first glance.
Ah, so I’m not the only one. This irritates me no end.
My name can be shortened to one of those “ie” names—you know, like “Deborah = Debbie” or “Katherine = Kathy.” (Or perhaps that should be “Kathie.”) Anyway, like that. You get the idea.
I was called by my “ie” name all through High School, and that was okay. I will always be called by my “ie” name by my family, because that’s the way it is. But I dislike being called by my “ie” name by anyone else. For this reason I go by my first and middle initials. I religiously go by these initials, being called them all through college and at all my jobs. Most people do not know my given name at all. Some get agitated because they don’t know my complete first name, and I always explain that I go by my initials because that’s the only way I’ll avoid being called by my “ie” name. There is no other way around it.
I do have a few friends who know to call me by my full name (not the “ie” name) and that’s great. They kind of laugh when they hear a family member use my “ie” name, because it sounds so foreign to them.
I have a new boyfriend. His name is Michael, but he goes by Mike. I haven’t called him Michael yet, though I would if he said I could, because I really like the name even if it’s really common.
Nonetheless, we have one mutual friend who insists on calling him Michael. When said boyfriend was out of the room last week, another friend asked me, “Why does he keep calling him Michael?”
Don’t ask me why. I mean, I met him as Mike. I haven’t heard anybody else call him Michael. What’s the problem with calling people by the name they give when they introduce themselves?
Maybe its that your parents all gave you those names thinking that you could somehow handle the annoyance. :rolleyes:
This quirk of human nature works both ways. I happened to have a nickname for a given name. My name is not Jerome, Gerald, or Jeremy. It’s just plain Jerry. I get called all kinds of proper names based on Jerry and, if I know that they are talking to me, I respond without getting all pissed off.
I have a last name which pronounces differently than phoneticized. I usually correct the person the first time and then let it slide if they continue to mispronounce my name. Whet the hell. I know who they’re talking to so I just deal with it.
Growing up with annoying cousin named Robert taught me to ignore name issues. His mother insisted that everyone call him Robert. That just guaranteed that all the other cousins would call him “Bobby”. Drove him and my aunt nuts. They were always “correcting” and never realized that they were the victims of the perpetual running joke.
I know the pain. I am a Cindy, NOT Cynthia. It says so right there on my birth certificate. Yet I get many people who ask me “Are you sure?” Uh, yeah, pretty sure I know what my name is. But thanks for asking!
The other day I had the delightful experience of having a woman I’d known for all of thirty seconds tell me that I really should consider using my middle name for professional purposes because it sounded much more “adult” than my first name.
The great thing is that she’s going to be working in my office on and off all summer. Way to get our relationship started off on the right foot, lady.
My name, which is common on its own in certain countries, is more commonly seen in the US as a shortening of a trendy name. However, I cannot imagine that anyone (other than insane sharing-my-office lady) would think it was immature to use my given first name!
I’m Niki. My given name is Nicole. I use Nicole in situations where I don’t care to let the person know what my name is (often with teachers I don’t like). I find it interesting to introduce myself as Nicole and see how long into our relationship it takes for a person to start calling me Niki and then Nick.
It took one teacher I didn’t like to begin with a week to call me Niki and two to call me Nick. We became friends soon after.
My first name is difficult to pronounce if heard, and harder to pronounce when being read, being French. I grew up in a small community, so when I was younger this wasn’t a big problem. When I got older, though, people started shortening it to ‘Marjie’, and then ‘Marj’ (Thankfully, since Marjie is as easy to make fun of as my full first name, apparently).
Now, I usually introduce myself as Marj, since it’s easier to get people to pronounce it properly (and much easier to remember). Of course, this leads to spellings of ‘Marge’, which annoys me but is understandable, and friends who may still not know what my name actually is, but it’s better than correcting them 15 times before they learn how to say it properly.
My name gripe is a bit different. My middle name is Madonna. Yes - like the singer. No - I was not named after her. I was born before she became famous. I was named after the Virgin Mary. Why must people always start singing Madonna songs around me?
My sister though, she has the same problem you’ve all described. Her name is Francesca. A beautiful name which unfortunatly is a bit of a mouthful. My immediate family calls her Francie. She doesn’t mind this. She would prefer that everyone else call her Francesca now though. She introduces herself as Francesca. Everyone still calls her Fran. She HATES Fran. Her ex and current husbands both call her that. With her current husband she said she’d make an issue of it but he’s a very good husband otherwise so she doesn’t push the issue.
It is of Spanish origin, and it does mean James or Jacob. But I’d rather, if he had to use an anglo name, that he use “Jake” rather than “Jim”. I seriously hate that name…
And in Southern California, where we live, people should really be accustomed to Spanish names. They are extremely common here.
Its a good thing they didn’t call you something worse. Who knows what you’d do.
And remember kids, a lot of the blame for this stuff falls squarely on the shoulders of your mommy and daddy. Without their help you wouldn’d be in this mess
[aside] My given name is James, too, and I’ve always wondered about the name Jaime. It looks like it should be Spanish for James, but then St. James is San Diego (or such variations as Santiago, Santiago de Compostela, etc.). If Diego is James, then does Jaime parallel a different name in English?
Perhaps they came into Spanish from two different roots. We note that the Italian version is Iago, but the Catalan version is Jaume.
At any rate, I prefer to be called Matt, but Matthew doesn’t bother me, and I use it in more formal situations. But in direct address, if we’re on a first-name basis, you can call me Matt.
I would never call anyone else anything but what they introduced themselves to me as.
Where I live people tend to pronounce names that could go either way as Spanish. So Anglo-American people (white or black) named Martin or Jordan may be addressed on the phone as “Mr. MartEEN” or “Mrs. Hor DAHN” by other Anglo people because the population is over 80% Hispanic, and those names could very well be Spanish.
But when I spent a year in Florida (in an town away from the heavily Hispanic areas), I would always get called “Jamie” (I am a Jaime too) during the roll call or whatever. In the first day of school or when introduced to people I would clarify that my name is actually pronounced Hai-meh
But for some people just have to put an “n” at the end. Yes. I got called “Hymen” by a teacher or two. That was really pleasant.
After that I happily settled for “Jamie”, even if it sounded feminine to a lot of kids. At least it doesn’t conjure up images of the maidenhead.
I think “Jamie” is actually the preferred male nickname for James in Scotland. I remember reading a tract calling one of the Stuart King James I “King Jamie”, perhaps to make a point that he was Scotland’s king first.
My name is Kerri, but I’ve gone by K. for years and years and years.
At work, half the people call me K. and half call me Kerri and it always confuses visitors.
And that’s one of the reasons that I am planning on changing my name.
To Hazel.
(Yes, I am serious.)
My name is Angela. My family and some friends call me Ang. My granny called me Angie, and she is the one of the few who could get away with it, because she was my granny. (The other two are a neighbor of my grandma and a griend who has never called me anything else. Then again she’s an “Ang” name who is shortened to an Angie too.) Tons of people try to shorten my name to Angie, though, and I really hate it.
When my mom enrolled me in kindergarten, she gave the lady my name and the lady replied “Oh, wow! 2 Angies in one class!” (There was another girl in my class whose name was actually Angie. I wonder how many people lengthen that to make it Angela.) My mom replied “Oh, what a coincidence! 2 Angies and an Angela!” The lady said “No, I was talking about your little Angie!” Mom told her no, that if she’d wanted me to be called Angie, she would have named me that. Some people like to call me Chuck,
it’s Charles and you are shit outta luck.
The Eels- Sound of Fear