Many times I have been mistakenly thought of as being Jewish. For some reason many people think my last name is Jewish. It is a very common German name that I have never known to be associated with ;j . My first name is a reasonably common name derived from Celtic so that shouldn’t add to the confusion. I had quite a few Jewish friends in high school so that may have confused people.
BTW my Italian grandmother thought my father was Jewish when my mother first brought him home. She tried to be polite(not usual for my grandmother) and tell my mother she didn’t think that “mixed” relationships worked. My mother had to explain about all the nuns, mother superiors and preists in my fathers family.
Long long ago, I was getting ready to move in with my SO. At the time, I have never met his parents, although we had been friends for 5 years.
His parents were going to be showing up at his apartment around noon, so he and I went on a quick shopping run. We get back to see his parent’s car parked in front of the building. So I’m all nervous about meeting them now.
As we walk to the building, his parents get out, his mother comes up to us and says “Oh, I’m so relieved that you aren’t her.” Boggle…
It turns out that another tenent in the building had pulled in a couple of minutes before we did, in a car that looked like my SOs. A woman had gotten out of the passenger’s side, that they assumed was me (remember, we had never met before.) It was a January morning in Chicago, and she had been wearing a very skanky, skimpy outfit. My SO’s parents were so relieve to see me in a sweatshirt and jeans.
I am 33 and teach middle school, but I’m small and short. I once took a shortcut through the library where there was a sub. In a scolding tone, she told me to go over to her and show her my pass. She thought I was a middle school student! Showed her my employee ID badge. I think she felt pretty stupid, but I was sort of flattered that I could still pass for 13 (not really).
Also, this obnoxious guy once asked me if I was a lesbian. When I said no, he asked me if I was sure. Um, wait, lemme check… YES, I’m sure. :wally It’s bad enough to ask someone you hardly know about her sexual orientation, but when she answers, you ask her again, just in case? Apparently he thought my close friend and I were lovers, even though he knew we were both dating guys.
Well, I’m usually mistaken as a serial killer. I promise I’m not.
On a different note…
I was working the front desk back in tech school, when one of the phones rang. I took the call, and it was some lady looking for one of the MTLs*. The MTL in question wasn’t around, so I took a message and said “May I ask who’s calling, ma’am?”
The voice on the other end said “Do I sound like a freakin’ ma’am to you?” :eek: I froze. Turns out it was one of the male MTL’s. But what was I supposed to say? “I’m sorry, sir, but you really DID sound like a woman.”?
*Military Training Leader. See also: turnkey, prison guard.
My husband has the same first and last name of a rather famous rock guitarist, and often has people doing double-takes when he says his name.
Some have come right out and told him how much they enjoy his music! He smiles politely and thanks them, then excuses himself. He used to explain that he wasn’t that guy, but people were disappointed and sometimes even angry about it, so now he just lets them tell their friends that they met a famous person!
Nope…it’s very clearly Irish. The second part (which I’ve more or less dropped now that I’m away at college, as hyphenated names are hugely cumbersome), is less obvious, but it’s generally recognized as Jewish. Again, decidedly not of any Asian descent.
I work in the Irish Parliament, for a particular political party. I am originally from America. One of my party colleagues is originally from Canada. We are both female. Before being hired by the party we were both party activists. We were hired as full-time, permanent employees.
So imagine our pleasure to hear a political commentator on the radio, in the midst of a truly disgustingly innuendo-laden report (this was just after the attempted John Kerry sex “scandal” broke), that our party had “Washington interns” working for them in the Parliament.
Worse still the radio station never issued the retraction our press office asked them to make :mad:
When I was in high school I kept having teachers stop me in the halls and ask me why I hadn’t been in their class earlier. I told them that I had been in class that day, but they insisted. “Aren’t you J------- A------- ?” “Um, yeah. And I was there!”
It went on for about a week until we discovered that there was a girl who had the same first and last names as me and who looked pretty darn similiar. We shared many of the same teachers, but at different times. It was really bizarre finally meeting her in person, but I thought it was cool that my doppleganger was usually as absent as I was.
I’ve also had 3 people in 2 different states think that I was their friend from Montana. Strange the first time it happened, but the second and third times were beyond surreal.
