I absolutely loathed my name up until a couple years ago. Not so much the actual name, but the spelling. It’s such a pain, having to say, everytime someone is taking your name for something, “that’s with an “sh” not “ch” and no “e” on the end,” and usually, I guess because I’ve totally blown the name-taker’s mind with the “sh” thing, they put the e on the end anyway. Once I had this telemarketer call me (at like 8 in the morning on a Saturday, no less) and ask for someone whose name could conceivably be spelled like mine, but was prounounced “mishill” like it rhymed with “missile.” So I say, “that’s Mishell,” and this jerk argued with me! He said, “but shouldn’t that be spelled M-I-C-H-E-L-L-E?” so I said, “well, many people spell it that way, but my name is spelled M-I-S-H-E-L-L.” I had to hang up on the ass when he said, “riiight, let me talk to ‘mishill.’” I don’t know, the correct pronunciation seems totally logical to me, but then I’ve had the name all my life. Anyway, I’ve grown to really love my name, I feel that its oddness fits me, and I’ve never once stumbled upon someone who spells it the same way. It still continues to be a pain in the ass sometimes, though. Once, a few months ago when I was still in the training program for my job, I was sitting the classroom with some friends, when I was handed a folded piece of paper with my name misspelled on the front. I automatically assumed that it was some sort of correspondence from the company I work for, and I was in a really grumpy mood as it was, so I say, really loudly, “Jesus f***ing christ on a cracker, is it really such a difficult thing to spell my name correctly?” Everybody in the room stops what they’re doing and just stares at me. So, I unfold the paper, and it turns out to be an invitation to a get-together that a classmate was having, a classmate that happened to be sitting directly to my left, who says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t realize your name was spelled differently.” and I felt like such a moron. So, I apologize profusely and she accepted the apology, and it became sort of a running joke.
I really love my name, I always have. It’s Haley. I think it suits me, and I suit it. It means Heroine in…uh…now I can’t think…I think Scandanavian (SP?) (If this is wrong, SORRY!) I don’t have a middle name, but my BF is pretty much convinced that it should be Anne. So now as far as he is concerned my name is Haley Anne. I don’t mind, I think it sounds very pretty. =)
“Everybody’s got something to hide except for me and my monkey”-The Beatles