Oh boo hoo! At least with ‘Martin’ you could play the Name Game from that old 50’s song. My name is Chuck. When we had a substitute music teacher in grade school, she taught us the song, and had us go around the class, doing our name. “Chuck Chuck Bo-Buck…” was as far as I got before she brought it to a screeching halt. Which was too bad, because I could have been King-for-a-day if I had managed to slip “Banana Fana Fo Fuck” into a third grade music class!
Pizzle, I am totally with you. My name is Martin as well, which sounds particularly clumsy with my last name.
Bottom line is [n]no one ever hears it right the first time**. It is a perfectly nice name when pronounced by a German, a Frenchman, or a Brit. But anywhere in America, the t just gets swallowed. Anyone who pronounces it properly sounds pretentious.
And ignore the assholes: they don’t know what it’s like.
I now have to sympathize with you Martin, since upon reflection, ‘Banana Fana Fo Fartin’ might not be exactly what the music teacher wants either. “Fartin” isn’t quite so scandalous as “Fuck,” but still, you do have that extra syllable and all…
But at least young kids don’t usually say fuck. Maybe the blush, giggle a bit, or even turn red. But when I was still fighting at the playground, kids didn’t run around yelling fuck. But fartin…no inhibitions there.
If I hear “Farty Marty had a party/He invited all his friends…” one more time, I think I will do something unpleasant to myself.
Cool! I got into a sig line! Better yet, I have discovered a true psychic in that somehow, Maeglin quoted me in the sig line of the post before I posted what he quoted. At least, that’s what it looks like on my screen right now. That ‘sharp glance’ of his looked through the barriers of time and knew what I would type before I did. Spooky.
A lawyer my dad knows is named Richard. He tells this story. Someone came in to his office and said, “Richard, huh? Mind if I call you Dick?” And he replied, “Only if I can call you Asshole.”
My first name is Patrick. Nobody called me Patrick during the last three years of high school unless they didn’t know any better. For a significant part of grade school, nobody did either unless they wanted to be made fun of (by the kids who called me other stuff).
It sucks to have a first name that is so easily femininizable.
That’s easy for you to say. You’ve already got a one sylable name. Try to give the rest of us beggars a break.
When I was named all the one sylable names were already taken. (Except Dick, of course.)
No problem on the siggy, Ptahlis. I have been getting a little bored of my last one, so I decided a change was in order. And nothing says how popular I am around here like a bit of sympathy.
Maybe I will be able to find other uses for my mysterious psychic powers…
I believe that names (first and last) should have a minimum of three syllables. It gives the name a rhythym, and makes it more discernable.
I, of course, have two syllables. I don’t hate my name or anything, but I find myself having to repeat it a lot over the phone, etc. Most annoying.
Sua
Yeah, well my name of Elizabeth has four syllables…I usually just narrow it down to Liz or Lizzie if I’m around people who are going to spell/say it wrong.
i hate my name. i have never liked the name shannon and i especially dislike being told constantly about all of the things in ireland named shannon, i have known about shannon, ireland for 12 years !!
i do not know why this bothers me so much…