I vividly remember the first day of 5th grade, when we were sitting next to a partner in English class and comparing pencil boxes. My partner had written her name - Mindy Reeder - on the top of her box, and I had just come off of my first stint of reading about psychics and ESP. (Conversation below reconstructed to best of recollection.)
looking over
Me: That’s pretty clever.
Mindy: What?
Me: That joke on your pencil box… since it’s got the dog sitting with the crystal ball.
Mindy: I don’t get it.
Me: See on that nametag? phonetically pronouncing Mind-y Read-er.
Mindy: That’s my name. Mindy. It rhymes with Windy.
Me: Oh.
And I wondered why she didn’t talk to me much after that.
I had to read a passage out loud in RE (Religious Education) class, when I was about 14 I Mis-read ‘Sikhs’:
ski’s
:rolleyes:
God did they rip me.
My Dad went to a lecture by Robert Zajonc, met a girl who asked (Phonetic spelling inserted) ‘Are you going to Robert Zionts’ lecture?’. He’d been getting blank looks from students when asking where Zarjonc (Hard ‘J’ & ‘C’ like a ‘K’) was.
Well, if we’re going along that route… By my mum: I get called Susan (I’m not Susan, my sister is) My partner get’s called by my formers’ name (after 5 years) & we all get mistaken for the dog* and then hastily corrected (sometimes with an entirely different name). *the dog’s called Honey. I get called Bill (my dad) sometimes. Apparently there’s nothing wrong with my mum, Bill calls it Nounlessness as it applies to anything and everything.
I remember when certain friends of mine managed to mix up my name with other names that started with the letter L. My name is Leslie, and they would call me Lisa (?) or Leanne (???). And by that point, they’d known me for at least two years, as well! Then again, there was the time when my friend Alex persisted in calling me “Wesley”. I guess it rhymes, so it must be right… :rolleyes: Recently, the new youth pastor at my church called me Lydia. Hey, at least it started with L…
My mom always mixes mine and my sibs’ names up… there’s only three of us, we tell her. (to which she responds, “Only three?”) Apparently, she does it even when I’m not around, which is most of the week. Oh well…
As for names that I’ve personally mixed up or gotten wrong, I remember the time that I’d just met a girl named Leni. (pronounced “Lay-nee”) I accidentally called her “Lenny”… hey, I’d never met anyone with that name before! I had no idea that it was German, either. (I would hear of the German director Leni Riefenstahl a couple of years later)
My name is Ian, and two years ago (frosh year in college) they guy who lived next door to me in the dorms was Ethan. We became quick friends, and met almost everyone in those first couple of weeks together (“We’re Ian and Ethan” etc. We had fun with it). As a result of meeting us together and the very similar names, many people confused our names for some time.
The most memorable, of course, was the time that Ethan called me “Ethan.” I couldn’t believe it. I was laughing so hard that someone came in to see what was going on. I calmed down, and then:“Ian,” I said, pointing at my friend, “just called me Ethan.”
Only time I’ve ever confused my own name with someone else’s, and had him do it in return.
Eek… One time while I was preparing envelopes for a community service project, I was checking out the addresses to see if any were going to where I was from. These envelopes were going to churches all around the country and I found an addy that I had to give a second look.
I mistook "Lititiz", Pennsylvania for " Littletits" ... I'm not sure about the correct spelling, but I read it out loud the first time I saw it and it cracked my friends up when they heard it!
Regarding Ethan and Ian… I totally get that, since I used to have neighbors who named their sons Dirk and Eric. Mom called them Eric and Derek, but I called them Dirk and Irk.
I once was returning a phone call from someone named Ms. Haney. When the secretary picked up, I asked for Ms. Hiney (as in one’s rear end).
The secretary became rather frosty as I realized what I said and started giggling.
One of my coworkers threw her pen at me when she called and asked for “Mr. Rogers”, which prompted me to begin humming the theme song, causing her to crack up.
Mr kiffa bought a beautiful horse from a man called Hadi. They became very good friends. He must of thought I was a real rude American when, the first time he came to our house, I yelled “Sit Hadi!” to our dog… I didn’t realize the faux pas until I saw the man Hadi rush into the living room and sit down. I felt terrible and disappeared for the rest of his visit. He continued to tease me about that for the longest time…