# Are you often frustrated by having to spell your first or last name for other people? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 1, 2011, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011 "2011-06-01T21:39:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/81 "2011-06-02T18:03:11Z")
> [@wevets](#): > > My last name is short, easy to spell, and a common word. > > I don’t mind having to spell it from time to time. What bothers me is when people misspell it, as has happened on a couple websites of places I do contract work for and in a TV interview I did recently. Is it really that hard, especially when they have my name written out on a lot of paperwork? There’s one woman who I correspond with by email regularly for the last five years or so who always mis-spells my name, in spite of having it spelled correctly about an inch away from where she’s typing. You just can’t make people pay attention. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/82 "2011-06-02T18:13:54Z")
My first name is Joel. How fucking hard is that? Yet more often than not, even with people where English seems to be their first language, they try to pronounce it “jo-ELL”. If I had a difficult name, a long name or whatever, I’d totally understand, but how fucking retarded do you have to be not to be able to pronounce Joel? Fuck you! ETA: I’m not really angry, just astonished at the lack of um, whatever that’s a lack of. ---
**Author:** ![TheBori](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@TheBori](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheBori)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/83 "2011-06-02T18:25:40Z")
“B” as in boy, “O”, “R”, “I”… If I don’t, they put in 2 "R"s. Doesn’t bother me unless they can’t find my file or similar. My teenage son Gabriel gets visibly pissed when the receptionist calls out “Gabrielle?..Gabrielle?”. Sheesh. My street address is another speller. It contains most of the easily mistaken sounds…D, V and B. “D” as in David, “V” as in Victor, “B” as in Boy… The military had it down: Bravo, Romeo, Oscar, India… ---
**Author:** ![nashiitashii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7c8e57/32.png) [@nashiitashii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nashiitashii)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/84 "2011-06-02T18:58:37Z")
I often have to spell out my first and both last names, and more often than not, the person transcribing them will get something blatantly wrong because they weren’t paying attention. This happens even when I give them a piece of identification to copy it from. It’s only frustrating because I have to correct things repeatedly on a regular basis. ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/85 "2011-06-02T18:58:46Z")
I don’t mind. I’ll always spell it out before I’ll tell you what it is - otherwise people get it wrong. Stupid french and their silent "s’ ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/86 "2011-06-02T20:15:00Z")
I do get a bit frustrated spelling my name to people over the phone. For one thing, there’s a “Van” in it it, in which both the “v” and “n” have the potential to sound like other letters (z and m), depending on the quality of the connection. And this sort of thing continues with the rest of the name. I prefer to write or sign the “van” in lower case, but don’t bother to ask anyone else to write it that way. Having just posted in the thread about pronouncing the name Van Gogh–I should never have spelled out the Van for people–all along, I could have just said “Van like in ‘Van Gogh’” --:smack: ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/87 "2011-06-02T20:51:54Z")
> [@overlyverbose](#): > > PINM: I don’t think I could ever do that. (In regards to pronouncing a name) This part makes me want to break their legs. _I_ pronounce it. Every single day, as a matter of fact. Why on _earth_ would they not be able to pronounce it? Are they functionally retarded or something? GRRR. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/88 "2011-06-02T21:15:09Z")
My last name is 6 letters and uncommon. It is pronounced phonetically if you follow common English rules…but - it kinda looks like it might be French (it’s not - Ukranian Jew, thankyouverymuch), and if people decide that it must be a French word, there’s no getting them off it. Me - “Boid - B.O.I.D” [Illustrative - not my last name] Them - "is that French? “Bwah’d”? Me - "Um, no not French - as I said “Boid” like, you know “Boyd” (I have a word that works like this for my actual name) Them - “Bwah-oyd”? Me: “Sure, go with that.” :mad::rolleyes::smack: ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/89 "2011-06-02T21:22:10Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > My first name is Michael, which is extremely common, though also not uncommon to misspell (I see “Micheal” fairly often). However, I usually go by “Mike”, which is even easier. > > However, my last name is not only very uncommon, but not English, so I always have to spell it for people. In addition, it’s very rare that someone pronounces it correctly if they see it before they hear me pronounce it, so I’m always having to correct the pronunciation. I’m used to doing that, and I know that it’s nearly always mispronounced, so I’m not bothered by it in the least. It’s also hard with last names, because one never knows how they’re pronounced in English. Families choose different ways of Anglicizing them. Mine, for example, is “Pawinski.” (This is not a secret, my profile links to my website which has my name.) Now, Polish folk know it’s pronounced something like “pah-VEEN(y)-skee” (The “y” indicating the palatalization of the “n.”) People who grew up with Polish names around them are likely to pronounce it in an Americanized Polish manner, something like “puh-VIN-skee.” People who have no idea will try to pronounce it as something like either “paw-WIN-skee” or “puh-WIN-skee.” Our family happened to settle on the latter, with a schwa in the first syllable. There’s no real reason for this pronunciation other than that’s what seemed to be the most common one for English speakers when my family emigrated to the US and that’s the one they happened upon through interactions with American speakers. It’s completely arbitrary (at least in our case.) I find the same thing with names of other origins, especially, say, German. I know how “Koehler,” for example, is pronounced in German, but in English, I don’t know whether one pronounces it “KAY-ler” or “KOE-ler” or “KEE-ler.” It’s none of those three in German. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/90 "2011-06-02T22:19:17Z")
No, because, if I don’t, it will get spelled wrong, both first and last. Both are the less popular spellings. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/91 "2011-06-02T22:51:45Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > It really surprises me that people have problems with the name Adrienne. I mean, it’s not super common, but hardly rare. I don’t know about not being rare…I can’t recall ever seeing it before now. How do you say it? ---
**Author:** ![stretch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@stretch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stretch)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/92 "2011-06-02T22:53:42Z")
First, nobody believes me when they hear my first name, so we always have to go through the ‘is it your real name or a nickname’ conversation. I usually don’t have to spell it; I just say “It’s just like the snowman, but with an I instead of a Y.” When I still had my first ex-husband’s last name, I had to spell that every single time; my daughters still get to. I went back to my easy to spell maiden name of Smith. Yesterday, a co-worker called me Dusty. No big deal, I get that all the time. The weird part is she left me a note with candy to apologize. The note says: Cathy: I will never call you Dusty again.Okay, then! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/93 "2011-06-02T23:12:07Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > This part makes me want to break their legs. _I_ pronounce it. Every single day, as a matter of fact. Why on _earth_ would they not be able to pronounce it? Are they functionally retarded or something? GRRR. Yes, in a sense. This post makes you sound very culturally intolerant. Studies of very young children at the stages where they are learning language show that there are actual physical effects that mean that if you grow up (say) Chinese you will find it not just a bit outside your comfort zone but actually mentally and physically difficult to get your head and tongue around some of the sounds and combinations involved in pronouncing English. And of course vice versa. I’m usually pretty good with Indian and Sri Lankan names because I had a few good friends from that community when I was a kid, but I can’t and never will get it to sound like it should. ---
**Author:** ![JessEnigma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cdc98d/32.png) [@JessEnigma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JessEnigma)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/94 "2011-06-02T23:17:26Z")
My last name is pretty short and fairly easy to spell. It’s not terribly common – though I know of a few other people with the name elsewhere in the country, nearly everyone else who has it are close relatives. There is, however, a much more common variant of the name that ends in -ey instead of just -y…and roughly every other person within a 100-mile radius of my father’s hometown has that version. As I grew up well within that 100 miles, I’ve been spelling out my last name since I was a kid. I don’t mind spelling it the first time, or even the second or third time. But after I’ve written it down about 100 times for people to look at, I get very, very tired of people just going ahead and writing it the other way. My way is shorter, even! You’re saving an extra keystroke! But no. Just because some great-grand-ancestor of mine got pissed off and changed the spelling, I have a massive collection of paperwork and awards and such from preschool up through high school with my name spelled wrong. I’d be less annoyed, I think, if it were obviously difficult to spell, but it’s not. When I lived away from my hometown, people managed just fine. They didn’t always pronounce it correctly (which is another story), but by god, they could copy my spelling and that’s all I ask for. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2011, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/95 "2011-06-02T23:21:15Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Yes, in a sense. This post makes you sound very culturally intolerant. Studies of very young children at the stages where they are learning language show that there are actual physical effects that mean that if you grow up (say) Chinese you will find it not just a bit outside your comfort zone but actually mentally and physically difficult to get your head and tongue around some of the sounds and combinations involved in pronouncing English. Yep. I grew up speaking Polish (it was the first language I learned), but nowadays, as I don’t have an opportunity to exercise it that much, it takes me awhile to get around some of the sounds. I trip over my tongue constantly and make sounds I know aren’t _quite_ right (but still understandable), unless I’m in an environment when I’m speaking it continuously. I would say it takes me at least a week of re-indoctrination to feel comfortable and confident with it. There is a certain amount of practice required to keep the phonology correct. I’m stlll unable to roll my "r"s even though I used to do it as a kid. _shrug_ I can only do a single flap “r”. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/96 "2011-06-03T00:07:22Z")
YES! For some reason, everyone assumes my name is spelled with an ie, rather than an ee. I always have to correct them and they often STILL spell it incorrectly. ---
**Author:** ![Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/angel_of_the_lord/32/2949_2.png) [@Angel\_of\_the\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angel_of_the_Lord)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/97 "2011-06-03T00:12:46Z")
When I worked on the phone, yes. My name has a couple of accepted spellings. But, really, it’s only one letter difference. No big deal. That being said, sometimes, after spelling it, people would read it back with a letter missing. Not an optional letter. That annoyed me. My last name, I spell by habit. Four letters long, but it’s Hungarian, and the first letter is sometimes misheard. So I say something like, A-as-in-apple, B, C, D. That doesn’t bother me at all. > [@OtakuLoki](#): > > If you’re doing call center work, and need things to be accurately spelled there is no simpler way to avoid confusion between similar sounding letters. That’s what I did, though I replaced “whiskey” with “water” and “zulu” with “zebra” after finding that the former elicited bad jokes, and the latter was often misheard. ---
**Author:** ![Lanzy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lanzy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lanzy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/98 "2011-06-03T00:14:55Z")
Other My name is short and difficult due to the fact that 99% of people I meet have never heard it and it sounds similar to something they have heard. So they mis-pronounce it and misspell it. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/99 "2011-06-03T03:42:59Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Yes, in a sense. This post makes you sound very culturally intolerant. Studies of very young children at the stages where they are learning language show that there are actual physical effects that mean that if you grow up (say) Chinese you will find it not just a bit outside your comfort zone but actually mentally and physically difficult to get your head and tongue around some of the sounds and combinations involved in pronouncing English. And of course vice versa. > > I’m usually pretty good with Indian and Sri Lankan names because I had a few good friends from that community when I was a kid, but I can’t and never will get it to sound like it should. I must be a freak then. The only languages I ever heard during my language-acquisition years were English and Italian. Almost entirely the former. I’ve learned to speak about two dozen languages with accurate pronunciation and find the entire range of the IPA chart within my ability to pronounce. I’ve had a fascination with language since before I learned to talk even. Whatever froze up in the developing linguistic brains of the people in your studies somehow stayed wide open for me. I don’t know why, exactly, that would be. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2011, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011/100 "2011-06-03T03:53:38Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > I must be a freak then. The only languages I ever heard during my language-acquisition years were English and Italian. Almost entirely the former. I’ve learned to speak about two dozen languages with accurate pronunciation and find the entire range of the IPA chart within my ability to pronounce. I’ve had a fascination with language since before I learned to talk even. Whatever froze up in the developing linguistic brains of the people in your studies somehow stayed wide open for me. I don’t know why, exactly, that would be. That really must be what happened – no, not being a freak, but linguistic development not freezing up. I’ve found most people encountering new language sounds in their adult years never can get them right. I can come pretty close with some Thai sounds, but I don’t fool myself that they’re perfect. And no matter how proficient some Thais are at Englsh, the _only_ ones I’ve ever heard speak certain sounds like a native speaker are the ones who were largely raised in the US or the UK. Your interest in languages may have contributed to your ability, or perhaps an innate ability led to your interest. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-often-frustrated-by-having-to-spell-your-first-or-last-name-for-other-people/584011.md?page=6)