How do you feel about your odd or oddly spelled name?

In My Humble Opinion
1

We have had several threads recently on the phenomenon of non-standard names for children. These have included “vaguely African” sounding names for black Americans, the habit of misspelling common names to make them more unique (more common among white Americans in my experience), and the use of last names as first names (which I have seen as a mostly middle class thing).

People have expressed a lot of opinions on these which range from strong support (Nzinga Seated) to condemnation (almost everyone else), but I would like to hear from anyone who actually has one of these names and what your experiences are. Did having an odd name make you stand out? Get teased? Make getting a job more difficult? In the end, the name matters most to the one who has it, and since most of our discussion has been about children with these names, they can’t really say what the long term effects are. In any case, they are becoming common enough that I imagine the effects will lessen over time.

Myself, I have a less-common name due purely to misspelling. Brendan is common, Brandon is common, but most Brendons are due to parents with a spelling issue. I have personally had all the benefits of a rarer name; (only met one other in my life, never had multiple kids with the same name in a class or group of friends, easy to look myself up online); with none of the drawbacks as many do not even realize it is misspelled.

What about the rest of you? Do you have some interesting stories to tell?

2

My real name is Maverick and I love it. It fits me well and wouldn’t want a more normal name. I have gotten women (including my ex-wife) just because they liked my name and I have also gotten job interviews because of it. Most people remember my name easily. I may have also been passed over for things because I have an unusual name but I am not aware of any. The only real downside is the onslaught of Top Gun jokes when I am around a new group of people.

3

I was going to ask about the last. The, “Did your mother not like you” line has to get really tedious. Do you have a standard reply?

4

I have a common name with an uncommon (but not unheard of) spelling, very similar to the OP’s Brandon example. My parents reasoning is that they named me after my mother, who has the standard spelling, and they wanted some way to tell the difference.

I freakin’ hate it. It’s pretty much standard operating procedure to get the spelling wrong, and for some godawful reason 8 or 10 years ago I registered it at gmail back when not everyone used gmail, so my most common email address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com. Now, that would be GREAT had I remembered to also register the OTHER spelling of my name. As it is, I know I get a lot of emails sent to the person who has the common spelling registered, even when I tell people “please make sure to spell it correctly, it’s an uncommon spelling” and all that.

I’d say at least 75% of the time, the first time someone writes something to me, the spelling is incorrect.

Heck, I even just had a minor mishap at the bank, where in order to fix something they’d done wrong on their end, they had to close an account and re-open an identical account for me. They didn’t ask me any questions about the whole procedure, and I assume they just took the old account and copied all the info to the new account. And you guessed it, they spelled my name wrong.

And it didn’t even really do what my parents intended it to do - provide a way to differentiate me from my mother. When I was about 18 years old and applying for bank accounts and credit cards, I found out I had a mortgage from before I was born on my credit file, simply because my names was the same as my Mom’s and lived at the same address for a while. Never mind it was spelled differently.

Sometimes I wonder why I even care, but I do. It always rankles me to get something with my name spelled incorrectly, and it especially rankles me when I was VERY CAREFUL to tell the person on the phone how to spell my name, and explicitly told them “it’s not spelled like you think, it’s an uncommon spelling.”

5

My last name is a strange spelling of a regular name. I have to spell it all the time and people do not listen because they “know” how to write it :rolleyes:

Then they can’t find me in the system or wherever… So i spell it again and again usually I have to do it three times.

I even had one person who asked me if I was sure… I’m a grown woman really dude you think I don’t know how to spell my name? dumbass

6

I have a slightly unusual spelling of a pretty typical name. It fucking sucks.

I must always always always spell my name when giving it, and I would estimate that 30% of the time it’s spelled wrong anyway. People have spelled my name incorrectly even when copying it off my driver’s license. It’s consistently spelled wrong when someone else writes it down. I have cousins and near relative who don’t spell it correctly. I have to correct people constantly. It has been a burden my entire life. And yep, I’ve definitely had people say “Are you sure?” when I spell it for them.

(apollonia is actually my middle name, not my first name.)

7

My last name (by marriage) is unusual and not only do people not know how to spell it, they don’t know how to pronounce it when they see it written down. So I’m used to saying it for them/spelling it out and do it without thinking now.

8

Did your parents name you after the woman that Michael Corleone falls in love with when he’s in Sicily during Godfather one, but then she gets blown up?

9

Ha! Me too. Tell them, they’re fine. Spell it and the eyes bug out.

10

No.

11

My first and surnames are Germanic and my middle name (Lisiate) is Tongan. I’ve only met one person (a Sri Lankan) who could pronounce my full name without coaching. You can forget about expecting people to be able to spell it. Things improved a little when a driver with my surname dominated Formula One for a decade, but then I got sick of everyone asking whether we were related.

Although it was cool when they asked for my name at Ferrari World (I’d won a race on the simulators and the wanted my name for the best lap times of the day). The staff member wouldn’t believe me until I showed her my driver’s licence…

Having said all that though it’s only been a minor inconvenience, and it’s better than having to go through life saying “No, I’m not that John Smith…”

12

Me too.
My first name is unusual and there are quite a few “correct” ways to spell it.
My last name is not uncommon but it’s a Scottish “Mac…” name which invariably gets spelled “Mc…” in the US.
So I give my name, then spell it. Slowly. Stressing the A in Mac because otherwise I get misfiled with the Mc’s.

13

I have an ethnic first name that nobody can pronounce. Yeah, it’s a little tiresome having to spell and pronounce it over and over again. I don’t even bother correcting the pronounciation if I think the person I’m speaking to will be only a temporary aquaintance.

No, I never got teased for it. My name doesn’t sound like any other words, and it doesn’t rhyme with anything, so kids ignored it. I did go through hell for other things though.

After fifty years, I’ve gotten used to it, and I wouldn’t have any other name. Plus, it’s got a Z in it, which I’ve always thought was pretty cool.

The worst of it wasn’t when it was misspelled in various school listings or when even close friends screwed it up. The worst was when my mother gave me a check…and misspelled it!

What the hell, Mom??!! You gave me the stupid thing, and now you put an S where the Z should be?? The Z is the best part!

14

My name is as common as dirt. But Mr. S’s first and last names are both uncommon, with the result that he is only one of two living people in the United States that carry it, according to Google. (There’s a third in a cemetery in Texas.) His first name is the usual spelling for that name, and some moderately well-known actors and TV characters have it. His last name is also a simple spelling, although just about everyone wants to put an “e” on the end that’s not supported by common sense or pronunciation.

So when he has to give his name, he usually just hands over his driver’s license. On the phone it’s much more of an adventure.

15

My first name is Indian and gets mispronounced quite often; there is only one way to spell it. After 31 years I’ve given up correcting people. It doesn’t bother me as much anymore because it really isn’t a common name, I can’t blame people for trying.

16

My first name isn’t that tricky - it’s Biblical and fairly common - but man, does it get butchered. Typically I use my first initial, or give Brown when some business needs a name. Hilariously, a lot of restaurants in Chicago then call “table for Brian, Brian, your table’s ready!”

17

Yup. This is me, too. My last name is an unusual spelling of a semi-common last name (the more common spelling was among the top 400 names in the US on the 1990 census). My spelling also happens to be spelled in the same way as a reasonably common word with the same pronunciation as the name. As an example, it’s like if my last name was More (common as a word) as opposed to Moore (common as a name.)

Anyways, I’ve never met anyone with the same last name spelled the same way who wasn’t related to me. It used to be annoying having to spell my name any time I gave it to anyone, and to have to repeat it because they didn’t listen but I’ve gotten used to it. When giving someone my name, if they’re obviously need to spell it, it’s a matter of habit at this point to give the name and spell it, almost as though the spelling is just part of the name. (“Last name?” “More, that’s M-O-R-E.”) I used to describe the spelling (like saying “It’s Cambel, no P, one L”) but enough people were confused by it that now I just spell the whole thing. It’s easier in the long run.

A couple anecdotes:
At my great uncle’s funeral ast year, everyone was going around the room saying who they were and their relation to my uncle. My dad got the whole room to laugh by giving his full name and spelling the last name. They’ve all been there.

A couple days ago, a friend I’ve known for a couple years handed me his phone and asked me to add my phone number to the contact listing. As he did, he glanced at it and apologized that he had my name spelled wrong. It was right.

18

My first name is also ethnic - Indian - and regularly gets butchered by approximately 75% of the people that attempt it. The thing is, I really don’t believe it’s that hard, and I give as evidence the 25% of people that say it perfectly first go. I could get into the reasons why I think this is (insularity and willing ignorance for one) but rather than that, I’ll just say: it is tiresome to spell it all the time but also automatic, I go right into it: “Anaamika. A-N-A-A-M-I-K-A.”

I’ve gotten to the point where I generally don’t even let non-Indians use it. I have a nick, I prefer to go by the nick. Inevitably someone sees it written down somewhere and starts asking me about it, and may even attempt to start calling me by it. NO. I love my name and only Indians can really pronounce it sweetly enough.

And there’s two ways to spell it, too, but I don’t really have that problem. Funny enough, it is common to the point of being like “Jennifer” in India. So my parents were trying, I guess.

Would I want a more common name, however? Absolutely not. If I had kids, though, they would never get Indian names (they probably wouldn’t get ‘American’ names either).

19

As a child I went by a nickname that is perfectly valid for my real name, but usually a nickname for another more common name. Everyone always assumed the other one was my name and it got under my skin. In high school I changed my nickname. Problem solved.

My husband has a name that is almost always a woman’s name. He hates it.

20

My first name* is a very standard, classic name that is in Latin** but has been fully naturalized as such in English. It is not terribly common, but is still familiar enough to pose no difficulties for Americans, no matter how ignorant they may be. One would think. But people still mess it up. They change the spelling and pronunciation on me, even when the correct (and perfectly standard) spelling is in black and white in front of them. Face it, you just can’t win, no matter how “normal” you are.

My last name is very ethnic (Greek-Sicilian), and even though there’s nothing in its phonology that’s alien or difficult for English speakers, Americans just cannot handle it; people get thrown upon seeing it and goof up its spelling and pronunciation every chance they get. So why bother even trying to be normal? “They’ll stone you when you’re trying to be so good.”

*My real name is not Johanna.
**I think all feminine names in Latin are automatically beautiful. Other languages may be hit and miss, but you simply cannot go wrong with a Latin girlname.