# My dad keeps refering to his fiancee by the wrong name **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 9, 2003, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065 "2003-08-09T18:55:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/41 "2003-08-11T18:23:04Z")
I would bring it to his attention gently. Hopefully he will start calling his new wife by her real name. I have 5 kids and always get the boys mixed up. It is frustrating to me cause my mom only has two girls and always gets us mixed up. Actaully she only gets ME mixed up and calls me by her favorite daughter’s name. Ooooh that makes me mad. Don’t get me started! ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/42 "2003-08-11T18:45:51Z")
**Zoe:** You are undeniably brilliant. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/43 "2003-08-11T19:25:40Z")
I’m so used to shouting “Sparky!!” when Sparky is doing something bad, that sometimes when I need to yell at Dominic quickly (Put down that mug of molten lava right now!) it comes out “Sparky!!!” ---
**Author:** ![Breezy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b3f665/32.png) [@Breezy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Breezy)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/44 "2003-08-11T19:34:52Z")
Funny timing for me to read this. My dog was flipping me with her tail while I was trying to read. I started to yell at her (Addie is her name) and it came out. “Kenny! Get off me!” Kenny being my little brother. haha My husband laughed at me for 10 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Beadalin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/45 "2003-08-11T19:44:58Z")
I think when you’re in the middle of verbal sentence construction, your brain operates on the principal of Your Name Here (or Fill In the Blank). “Hey, \, get out of there!” or “I’m going to dinner with \ tonight.” or “Come here, \!” Where \< \> indicates a person’s relationship to you, rather than the person (or animal) themselves. And your brain, when tired or in a hurry, just drops in any name that matches that description. Sometimes \< \> simply indicates anyone for whom you feel love, sometimes with gender associated, sometimes not. My dad would often yell at my brother to get out of the garbage, when of course he was yelling at the dog. Amused me no end, but if I was my brother, I’d be pretty insulted. I’m only 27, and I’ve started doing that to my nieces and nephews. “Hi, Aubrey-I-mean-Tenley!” “Great drawing, Emily-I-mean-Zach!” ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/46 "2003-08-11T20:10:20Z")
My mum is on holidays and rang me last week…even though I am app. 3000 km away, and her husband, Col, was standing right beside her as she called, she STILL managed to say, “Hi Colin” to ME. And I do the roll-call routine with the kids as well…when you are irate, the last thing you want to do is stop and think about _who_ you are chewing-out. Anyway, they all deserve it! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/47 "2003-08-11T20:36:17Z")
Once during an intimate moment I called my girlfriend “Leslie.” This was not her name. Strangely, though, I had never known a Leslie in my entire life (though I know a couple of them now). I have no idea why the name Leslie popped into my mind at that moment. Fortunately, she had a good sense of humor about it and didn’t take it to mean more than it did, which was Zero. ---
**Author:** ![Tommyturtle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@Tommyturtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommyturtle)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2003, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065/48 "2003-08-11T20:47:08Z")
My EX used to call me by her KIDS’ names all the time I don’t even want to guess what THAT Feudian slip means [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-dad-keeps-refering-to-his-fiancee-by-the-wrong-name/194065.md?page=2)