# You idiots keep spelling my name wrong! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 18, 2004, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842 "2004-10-18T15:33:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9a140/32.png) [@Miss\_Purl\_McKnittington](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Purl_McKnittington)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/101 "2004-10-21T18:53:37Z")
> [@MisterThyristor](#): > > [Sahra Cynthia Sylvia Stout?](http://www.banned-width.com/shel/works/sarah.html) > > (She who would not take the garbage out, courtesy of Mr. Silverstein.) > > (And notice that the web site designer has the header spelled wrong.) Except that would be pronounced with a soft-a, not a hard a, wouldn’t it? Saaaahra, as opposed to Sare-ah. There’s also a [link](http://www.banned-width.com/shel/works/books/beastly/beastlyboys.html) showing an alternate version of the poem with Sarah spelled at it should be. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/102 "2004-10-21T19:04:41Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > This is really puzzling me - I can’t figure out where anybody could put extra vowels into the [top twenty](http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last)! > 😕 Cool. Never saw that list before. And my last name is apparently so rare, it’s not even on the list. (I know of only 12 people with my last name in America, all members of my immediate family.) Oh well, maybe next year. Since I got married last month, now there’s one more of us. And yeah, I have my share of mispronunciations, too. It’s inevitable, when your last name has a silent ‘J’. ---
**Author:** ![catsix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e19b73/32.png) [@catsix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/catsix)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2004, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/103 "2004-10-21T19:29:14Z")
My mom’s a teacher, and once had a student whose name was constantly misspelled on everything from school forms to notes that his mother had sent from home. Each time the kid would come in with a note from home, the spelling of his name would be different. Finally, they started calling his mother to verify that she wrote the notes, because it is possible for a developmentally disabled second grader to spell his name wrong. His mother indicated that she wrote the notes, and when confronted with the various spellings she had used, she had to _pull out his birth certificate_ to remember how his name was actually spelled. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/104 "2004-10-22T18:36:52Z")
I once had someone _insist_ that I pronounced my name incorrectly, and suggested a ridiculous alternative as the set-in-stone correct one. She was a teacher, she said, and knew these things. Weird enough. But my name is very common and spelled/pronounced normally; a current well-known major league baseball player, as well as a hockey player and a few players in other sports, have my name spelled and pronounced the same way, and it’s the last name of a very famous ex-ballplayer and is spelled and pronounced the same way for thousands of people across the world. But nobody can spell it right. Most people spell it the female/Irish way (not a slur against Irish people; it’s just that the Irish version is spelled the same as the American female version). When I do meet people who spell it right the first time, it’s because they have a relative or friend with the same name. It’s really not at all difficult, but apparently people are dumb. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/105 "2004-10-22T18:50:15Z")
> [@kittenblue](#): > > I am enough of a brat to continue to mispronounce it in the forseeable future and even ask this girl “How am I supposed to know that Kat is pronounced Kate”. You’re actually going to intentionally mispronounce her name and then ask her that? As if she doesn’t have enough name problems as it is! It’s not her fault her mom gave her a difficult name. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/106 "2004-10-22T19:01:07Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > My ex-girlfriends name is Erin. People often think it’s Aaron, despite the fact that she is very noticeably **not a man.** Evidently, people are idiots. I have the reverse problem, noted earlier. I’ve considered asking people if I’ve grown breasts when they spell my name Erin, but I haven’t put that into practice yet. Actually, “Erin” doesn’t bother me that much anymore because I’ve met male Erins and it’s at least a common spelling, if not a common male spelling in this country. Other common misspellings are Aron (Elvis’s middle name, apparently), Arin, Eron, Aran (wtf?) and Eric/Erik (this one is perfectly understandable; usually just means somebody heard it wrong). The pronunciation that the teacher insisted was right was “Ay-ron”. WTF? How could you possibly think that every single Aaron in the world pronounces his name wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/107 "2004-10-22T19:08:48Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > How do you pronounce the Hebrew version, Sarai, BTW? Does anybody know? Much as you might prounounce it if it were Spanish, IIRC (it’s been a long time since Sunday school): short As, long ‘i’ that sounds like an ‘e’. Sah-rah-ee. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/108 "2004-10-22T20:06:02Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > This is really puzzling me - I can’t figure out where anybody could put extra vowels into the [top twenty](http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last)! > 😕 I can see Smithe and Browne and maybe (if someone’s been to the bar recently) Joanes. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/109 "2004-10-22T20:38:15Z")
> [@fetus](#): > > Much as you might prounounce it if it were Spanish, IIRC (it’s been a long time since Sunday school): short As, long ‘i’ that sounds like an ‘e’. > > Sah-rah-ee. The one Sarai I’ve met pronounced it Sa-RYE. I think it’s a lovely name. ---
**Author:** ![LadySybil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c89c15/32.png) [@LadySybil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadySybil)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/110 "2004-10-22T22:13:30Z")
I got a couple. My name is Carly, like Carly Simon or Carly from \All My Children\. Besides the usual misspelling as Carley, I’ve gotten Cary, Carrey, Carla, and (on a prescription once), KARLEIGH. WTFF? That’s not even close. For awhile, catalogs messed up my last name, too. It’s a common English last name (as well as being a color), but they switched the two last letters, making it unpronounceable. The things I’d do to these asshats if I weren’t so chicken…_takes out her clue-by-four and strokes it lovingly_😉 ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/111 "2004-10-23T20:04:28Z")
SWMBO has a similar problem in real life. Seems like everyone wants to add an extra letter to her last name. ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/112 "2004-10-23T22:15:58Z")
> [@Marley23](#): > > Marley. Yes, there’s an e, no, it’s not spelled M-A-R-V-I-N (I’m not from Mars) or M-A-R-L-O-N (I’m not a Wayans brother). Since neither of those is pronounced like my name in the first place, I’m not sure why there’s such confusion sometimes. I have a frined who tells people she is “Brigid like frigid not Bridget like Gidget” ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2004, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/113 "2004-10-23T22:18:29Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > My ex-girlfriends name is Erin. People often think it’s Aaron, despite the fact that she is very noticeably **not a man.** Evidently, people are idiots. I woman who used to work for me was names Aaron. Very clearly a woman. Never understood what her parents were thinking. ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/114 "2004-10-24T04:34:09Z")
Wow. I now have something to add to my too-short list of “Problems I Don’t Have.” 🙂 People almost always spell and pronounce my name correctly. Unfortunately, as Ms. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s star has risen, so has the number of misspellings of my last name, but people still get it right for the most part. (It’s Geller. I share a last name with the spurious spoon-bender, not the vampire slayer. Pity.) ---
**Author:** ![sturmhauke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e47c2d/32.png) [@sturmhauke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sturmhauke)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/115 "2004-10-25T10:02:06Z")
> [@adhemar](#): > > I woman who used to work for me was names Aaron. Very clearly a woman. Never understood what her parents were thinking. Hell, I knew a woman whose first name was Clarence. Her dad really wanted a boy, so she got a boy’s name. She generally went by her middle name of Marie. ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/116 "2004-10-25T15:00:31Z")
Update on Husband’s Name: Went to visit my grandmother in her new retirement home. She introduced me and my husband to her ancient, hard-of-hearing friend. (Husband, remember, goes by two names: the Japanese-sounding full name, and the much more straightforward initials.) She said his proper name first, to which hard-of-hearing lady replied ‘Gymnastics?’ No, no, my grandmother said. We also call him TK. ‘Now I’ve heard everything,’ says HOH lady. ‘Cheesecake!’ ---
**Author:** ![LilyoftheValley](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/54ee81/32.png) [@LilyoftheValley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LilyoftheValley)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/117 "2004-10-25T18:26:33Z")
> [@Green Bean](#): > > Wow. I now have something to add to my too-short list of “Problems I Don’t Have.” 🙂 People almost always spell and pronounce my name correctly. Unfortunately, as Ms. Sarah Michelle Gellar’s star has risen, so has the number of misspellings of my last name, but people still get it right for the most part. (It’s Geller. I share a last name with the spurious spoon-bender, not the vampire slayer. Pity.) Now every time I see your username, I’m going to imagine stringbeans bending by the will of my mind. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/edb3f5/32.png) [@Freudian\_Push\_Up\_Bra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Push_Up_Bra)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/118 "2006-11-27T06:18:52Z")
[QUOTE=The Asbestos Mango] Something I have often considered, but not actually put into practice yet, is refusing to respond to “Loretta” or “Laredo”, then if I get bitched out for it, say, "Well, how was I supposed to know you were talking to me, my name isn’t “Loretta/Laredo”. Alternately, e-mail could be replied to with a note, “You seem to have sent this to the wrong person, please check the addy, Sincerely, Loretto.” One of these days, I’m going to actually try this. [/QUOTE] I just wanted to say that I think Loretto is a beautiful name! As for me, the hilarity began at age four. My middle name is Y. There’s no actual period, it is just the letter Y. Why? Because my dad doesn’t have a middle name and his forms bounce back because there is no middle initial. My parents are lazy and thus went through the alphabet to pick the most intimidating combination: Stefanie Y is the best they could come up with. As a result, kindergarten was hilarious - teacher says ‘Let’s share our middle names! Steffi - what’s your middle name?’ Kid: “Y.” Teacher: “We’re all sharing our middle name. What’s your second name?” Kid, bemused: “Y.” Teacher: “We’ll have no smart-alec in this class. Middle name. Sing it.” Kid, cranky: “Y!” Teacher, on the horn to parental unit: “She’s refusing to share her middle name!” Parental Unit: “It’s Y.” Teacher: “That’s what she said!” PU: “That’s because her middle is Y.” Oops. It’s a real kicker because people say “Why Y?” and I get to respond “Why not?” Ah, I kill me. I giggle when the RTA lady doing my license asked for my birth certificate ‘to check what the Y stands for…wait, it’s not written on your birth certificate. What does it stand for?’ Thanks Mum and Dad. As for people who consistently stuff up spellings of names - total disrespect, especially if you’ve corrected them. I’ve given up telling people how to pronounce my Serbian last name but my friends have made the effort to get it right and correct teachers during roll call. I’ve been called Sarah a lot - apparently I look like a Sarah. And I’m forgiving to my old boss who consistently mixed up myself and Roxaana. Everyone thought we were sisters. As for ‘unique’ spellings, go die. Honestly. I’m a Stefanie because of European descent. My grandmother is a Stefanie for the same reason (no surprises there). But if you’re an Aimee, Amee, Aameei or anything like that, shoot your folks. Amy is nice. It’s pretty, feminine and girly. Aimee or any other variant is pretentious and stupid. And if you’re going to name your child, choose one that isn’t a place, please. It has to be very, very beautiful and very uncommon to work. Dakota, Brittany and Carolina (not Carol or Caroline), I’m looking at your parents. ---
**Author:** ![sneezy5660](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@sneezy5660](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sneezy5660)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2006, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842/119 "2006-11-27T09:27:27Z")
Zombies got names?😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-idiots-keep-spelling-my-name-wrong/269842.md?page=5)