Holy god. I completely forgot about that one.
Oh, flashbacks of intermediate school. You wouldn’t believe how many of my classmates signed my yearbook “Dear Andrey”. So not only were they misspelling my name for two years straight, they were probably mispronouncing it, too.
Say, you didn’t go to Kawananakoa Intermediate School in Honolulu by any chance, did you? 
My name is Daryl. People frequently spell it Darly. Some people get used to seeing certain letters combined in certain ways and it really throws them when they see something different, like Y in the middle of a word. I wonder if it’s related to the teaching of reading through word recognition instead of phonics.
My last name is Russell. Two S’s, two L’s. I have only ever seen it spelled with one L once. And yet…
The REALLY stupid part is that I got this misspelling from local idiots even when I was living near Russell Square, where half the neighborhood is called “Russell” something-or-other. “How’s that spelled?” “Like the square, the Tube station, the street, the pub…” Morons.
I have a friend named Catharine who recently went to a conference in Budapest and discovered that they had misspelled her name in the program. It was spelled “Barbara”. 
Nother Aaron checking in here. And yes, I’ve gotten the Arron, but even worse, I get the Erin spelling. Oh, I want to bitch slap those people so bad.
And yes, there is someone who actually spells it Arron. One of my girlfriends ex’s spelled it that way. My bet is his parents were morons who didn’t know how to spell it correctly. Or they knew it’d get misspelled so often, they gave him that one to save the hassle.
-Mod
And what’s up when people meet us and say “nice to meet you, Liz” or “Betsy” or “Beth” or “Betty.” Even though your favorite sister/teacher/great aunt was named Elizabeth and went by Liz or Betsy or Beth or Betty, kindly feel free to call me by the name I used when I introduced myself.
Or people who ask “What do you go by?” … well DUH, the name I just said when I told you my name. As a reasonably bright grown-up person, I feel rather confident that I can answer the question “What’s your name?” with a high rate of accuracy.
Back to the OP, if you say “like Hank Aaron” does that help? No one is goofy enough to go around writing “Hank Arron,” are they?
It doesn’t bother me that people have trouble spelling Francesca - it’s not a name you necessarily see every day. I can cope with Fransesca, Franchesca, Fransiska, Frankesca and sundry. But damn, pronounce it right wontcha? Fran - ch - esca. It’s a “ch” sound. I have never know anyone to pronounce it any other way and calling me “Fransesca” shows only that you failed to read my entire name, assumed it was Frances and then stuck the ca bit on the end it a pathetic attempt to cover up your mistake. Have you never heard of, say, Francesca Annis?
But some people persist with the Fransesca, even after I correct them. Why? Why do they do that?
An episode that makes me laugh to this day is a time a friend and I were on a skiing holiday. Her surname is Kneebone. Pronounced as written. She had to give her surname to the ski-hire man and he began to write it a Neebone, but my friend corrected him with “No, with a K, as in your knee” points to knee. So he wrote… NeeKnee. Yes that’s right - it’s said Kneebone, but it’s written NeeKnee. baffled
Fran
I’m sorry delphica, but there ain’t no way I’m ever calling an Elizabeth by their full name. Four syllables is simply too much for friendliness.
You’ll just have to cope with being, say, Lizbet or Betsy.
pan
My mother’s first name is Enikö (and actually, that umlaut isn’t quite right either – it’s a Hungarian name). It’s an instant indicator of how well the person on the other end of the phone knows her.
“Hello…may I speak to Enrico…”<click>
Hello,
I’m a new poster and this was the thread that forced me to finally register.
My name is Joan and I work on the Technical Support lines for a software company.
A few years back a customer asked me my name FIVE times and then says “Oh, Hi, Phyllis”
That really threw me!
I also get mail to the wrong name CONSTANTLY.
My last name is Jacobson and I’ve had mail come to me as:
John Johnson
John Jacobsen
Joan Jacobsen
Jon Johnston
Joan Johnston
Just about any possible combination you can think of, I’ve gotten.
It amazes me when people can’t spell my last name correctly AFTER I’VE SPELLED IT FOR THEM!!!
My first name is . . . Jodi. (Surprise!) I’ve seen Jody, Jodee, Jodey, Jodie, Jodye . . . and I don’t mind if someone doesn’t know how to spell it – there are lots of spellings – but if they should know how to spell it (like, say, on a message board) then misspellings irk me. There was one poster whose real first name was Bill who consistently spelled it “Jody” – Hello?? The correct spelling is right there. So I started responding to “Byll,” but he didn’t get it. So I was forced to conclude he had the brains of a trout.
Oh and I live in Helena, Montana, and while we of course realize the more common pronunciation of the name is He-LAY-na, the town name is pronounced HELL-uh-na. As in “Have a Helena Day!” :rolleyes:
My first name is Salvatore.
Pronounced: SAL-va-tore.
Please note the spelling of the last syllable. T-O-R-E. The first letter of the third syllable of my name is a “T.” As in “tea,” “tiger,” “top,” and “tick.” It is a “T.” It is not a “D.” “D” is an entirely different letter of the English alphabet and it is not in my name. Please do not use it when pronouncing my name.
If you insist on calling me SalvaDORE, SalvIDore, Saul, or Sol after I politely direct your attention to such mispronunciation, I will drive red-hot knitting needles into your eyes and slap you so hard your grandchildren will be born dizzy. You will not be corrected a second time.
Persons who call me “Sal-VITTER” (it’s happened more often than I wish to remember) will be shot where they stand.
FYI: My last name is Darigo. No “T” and only one “O.” THE FIRST FUCKING COMEDIAN WHO ASKS ME IF I’M RELATED TO THE GUY WHO INVENTED TORTILLA CHIPS WILL HAVE HIS THROAT SLIT, HIS HOUSE BURNED, AND HIS PETS TORTURED SLOWLY AND PAINFULLY.
Thank you for your kind attention.
Yer pal,
Zappo
I learned reading through word recognition and I can say your name. Wait, I’m not an idiot, I think once in a while.
And to lament my name, it’s Colleen. Not Colene, not Colin (WTF? That’s a guy’s name! My hair isn’t that short!), not Collene, not Coleen, not Collen, not Koleen, not Kaleen. I spelled it for you, sheesh! Have you no brain?! I have friends I’ve known since kindergarten spell it wrong, for lack of spelling it often.
And by the way, I have an “adopted sister” (older student who I hang out with a lot) whose name actually is Gillian, and her nickname is Gill, pronounced Jill. And my friend Jill’s full name is Jillene. Even worse, her sister’s name is Jeane, pronounced Jenny… WTF were their parents thinking???
Er…do you mind if we just call you “Zappo”? It seems less risky…
You may call me anything you want. This is my first post in the Pit and I wuz just tryin’ to fit in.
Yer pal,
Zappo
Who’s a nice guy, a kind soul, and a friend to animals and doesn’t do all that stuff when somebody mangles his name. Really!
originally posted by AudreyK:
sorry, I’ve never been west of San Francisco.
Okay. Just checking.
Oh yeah. Whenever my dad answers the phone and after a pause says “Um, he’s not here…Can I take a message?”, I start laughing.
That’s a lame attitude!
My name is Katherine… that’s 2 or 3 syllables depending on how much you enunciate… I absolutely HATE the name “Kathy” etc… if someone can’t be bothered or hasn’t the respect and courtesy to call me by my name and wants to impose their own nickname, that I hate… well… I gotta say that someone with that little respect for me isn’t someone I’m gonna miss much when I tell them to take a flying leap.
How 'bout I just call you “Opie”?? Only two syllables, and it kinda rolls of the tongue so deliciously… Succinct and memorable, too.
And if you’re acting remarkably prescient, I could call you Opie-Won Kenobi…
This is the bane of my existence. There is one partner in my firm who insists on introducing me to clients as “Liz”. I cannot think of any more difficult situation to correct your name in.
Client Accounting routinely sends me memos addressed to “Liz”. I send them back with Liz crossed out in red pen, and “Elizabeth” written in, with a note saying “Liz is not my name”. It doesn’t matter.
I hope you don’t aspire to be “friendly” with me, then. I tolerate “Lizbeth” from my two-year-old niece, but that’s about it.
My maiden name was a spelling problem, too - “Earhart”. Hello, have you ever heard of anyone by that name? Well, I spell it the same way. It does not contain a ‘d’. My adviser got this wrong on his approval of my thesis committee, after I’d been working in his group for six years!
Fewer people get “Nugent” wrong, although they always ask if I’m related to Ted. Occasionally a telemarketer will ask for Mrs. NUGG-ent.
That is a lame attitude.
(quick mental inventory…)
I know two Katherines, one Kathleen, one Elizabeth and one Jennifer who all prefer their full name, no nicknames. I would never presume to call one of them Kathy or Kate or Liz or Jenny.
From the other side of the nickname fence, I have a longtime friend named Elizabeth who does happen to go by Betsy. She had several teachers in school who refused to call her Betsy, saying nicknames like that were “unacceptable.” Huh? They had no problem with the numerous Pattys and Kathys and Jennys we went to school with!
And she usually has to explain “Betsy”, since most people can’t get beyond Liz and Beth as nicknames for Elizabeth.
“How do you get Betsy out of Elizabeth?”
And as for misspelling, she always gets “Besty.”
{Not even going into the childhood trauma 
I suffered as a result of a name like “Kinsey.”
“Kinsey? What kind of name is that??” )