There are two women here at work whose names I always have to stop and think about. Their names are Sylvia (usually just called “Syl”) and Sheila. Apparently the fact that they have six-letter names beginning and ending with the same letters is enough to totally short-circuit my brain, because I always have to stop and carefully think about what each woman’s name is.
I’ve been working here for 12 years (yikes!), and they’ve both been here longer, so it’s not that I don’t know who they are. They don’t look much alike – they’re both middle-aged and shorter than me, though one is short-short and the other more normal in height – one has short blonde hair, the other has shoulder-length auburn hair. Although they work on the same floor, they’re in different departments and have completely different functions. One drives a blue Miata, the other some boxy, ancient white sedan. There is absolutely no reason to confuse these two women – but for the last 12 years, every single time I have seen either of them, my greeting is exactly the same: “Hi, uh…”
I suppose it’s lucky that your workplace doesn’t have a Celia. OR a Shula. It
sounds as though even a Cynthia or Sara might add to the problem.
Oh yes, and we have an SDMB member here named Shana (well, i don’t think she comes here any more, despite my insistently send her links to really good threads, but you see the problem).
I have the same problem with two women at my job who work in the same department and came at around the same time. Even with a fifty percent chance of guessing the right name, I usually screw it up. They even resemble each other (well, they do to me)!
Lately, I’ve been doing a bit better since realizing that one’s a b*tch and one’s a whiner.
I do this constantly with the names “Jessica” and “Rebecca”. I used to row with women witht hese names and I got it wrong every single time. Even worse, my brother married the one named Jessica and I still wind up calling her Rebecca half the time.
I also coach two girls who hang out together all the time who are named “Emily” and “Matty”. What do I wind up calling them? “Mattily” every time…
Confusing the easily confusible – that’s a whole 'nother can of worms. For a while I had two underlings sharing an office, Lisa and Melissa (aka Meleesa, who, I’m guessing, is Mattily’s sister). Now I’ve got another matched pair of underlings, Karen and Kate – at least they’re in different offices, not that that helps. :rolleyes:
In my office, there are identical twin sisters: Larita and Lalita. They are referred to as “The Twins” - and from me, they get a cheery “Good Morning!”
They don’t dress alike, but it doesn’t matter. They’re the same height, similar builds, similar hair styles. Similar jobs, too. I wonder if their boss can tell them apart?
Ugh, last year was fun at my school. We had Kate, Katie, Kathleen, Katherine and Caitlin. And most, if not all, of those names were shared. In the end, I think all of them went by Kate or Katy. Spellings varied, not that it mattered much.
On the upside, if you met a girl you didn’t already know, odds were 50/50 that she would be a Kate from Ontario. Made remembering names easier.
Different situation, same problem. A good friend of mine just broke up with her long time girlfriend. She’s with a new girl now, that is much better for her. But, for the 18months I’ve known her it’s been Erin and Bobbie. Now I have to pause every. Single. Time. to make sure I say Erin and Katy. I’ve started saying Katy and Erin, which seems to be helping. But damn, have the screw ups been awkward.
Well, I’m sure that Sheila at least appreciates that you spell her name correctly, anyway! Sheila is my mom’s and my daughter’s name and people are constantly misspelling it as “Shelia.” Although my daughter is too young to be bothered by it now (she’s 2 1/2), it really gets on Mom’s nerves!
Ha ha… That reminds me of a friend of mine, who recently attended a wedding in Russia. His name is Alex, which unfortunately for him, was a problem because that appears to be a pretty common Russian name.
Four other guys there answered to the call “Alex!”
(Variants of Alexei, Aleksander, Alexey, etc)
