Definitely a new one on me. Is that pronounced “Raf” or “Rafe”? No, I’m not trying to be funny. I was just wondering.
I have a co-worker who is unmistakably of Indian (as in “from India”) extraction, from his skin tone to the slight lilt in his voice to the fact that he actually WENT HOME TO INDIA AND BROUGHT BACK AN ARRANGED-MARRIAGE BRIDE a couple of years ago, which was the topic of much interest and discussion throughout the office. Clearly, we all know that he is from India. He was born there.
Why, then, do my coworkers persist in calling him Raoul (or Raul) rather than RaHUL, which is his name? I’ve had a couple of people correct my pronunciation. HE ISN’T HISPANIC, KIDS! HE’S INDIAN!
Oh, yes–the song. I get sung to quite frequently and everybody does it even as they are apologizing for it. Yeah, you’re real sorry, the way you’ve broken into a second verse there, buddy.
I worked in an office where three of us had songs. I got off lucky; Jolene and Roxanne didn’t like their songs nearly as much.
My last name is fairly common and if you actually listen, you would know how to spell it, but it sounds similar to another, more common last name so everyone wants to spell it wrong.
My family has taught in this rather small school district for more than forty years. Yet, there is one secretary who was my mother’s student in grade school, then again in junior high, then my father’s student three times in high school. She went to work at this school right after she graduated and worked with my dad every day for over twenty years and with me for the last ten. She still spells my last name incorrectly and has taught every other office worker the same incorrect way to spell it. And yep, she insists she’s spelling it exactly the way Mrs. W taught her in fifth grade. I love her.
YES!! My mom and my daughter are both named Sheila and while my daughter is too young to care right now, my mom has always hated this! As she puts it, “My name is Shee-la, not Sheel-ya!”
My maiden name is Hubbell. This was ALWAYS misspelled when I was growing up, even though I spent most of my first 17 years in the same town. My grandmother has lived there since before I was born, so it’s not like no one ever saw it written down about a million times. But they WOULD spell it Hubble, no matter what! (And yes, calling me “Hubbell Bubble, Double Trouble” is like, soooo original! I hadn’t ever heard that one before–only about a kazillion times!) I thought when I got married this wouldn’t be a problem anymore, but I took on a name that ends in L-I-N-G, which has been translated as L-Y, and L-A-N-D, and even M-A-N.
My family name is Southern. It is not a common name but we do live in the Southern hemisphere. That is how my dad always answers the “how do you spell that” idiots.
Southern, like the hemisphere, the cross, the motorway.
I’ve worked here for 6+ years. I still get my name mis-spelled in e-mails or memos on a regular basis. In fact, when I started working here, there were only 2 other employees with the same name and they both spelled it the same way I do. But people still can’t seem to get it right. My name is Michele. With one L (hence my username, born out of frustration from the need for ever-increasingly pedantic corrections of people who just. Can’t. Get. It. Right). It’s a very common name with two common spellings, the other one being slightly more prevalent, for which I blame the Beatles. The sad thing is, my parents chose that name because they liked the Beatles song…but they used the spelling listed in a baby name book they had.
It could be worse, though. My sister’s name is Deirdre. Most folks can’t even pronounce it correctly, let alone spell it right. I recall one time she was mentioned 3 times in our church’s weekly newsletter. We’d been members at that church for 10 years (in fact, our family was one of the founding members)…they spelled her name 3 different times and each one was wrong.
Then there’s my father, whose given name is Billy. We throw out any junk mail addressed to “William”.
Don’t get me started on people who can’t spell our last name. It’s one of the top 20 most commons name in the US and no variant spelling comes even close in popularity. Stop putting in extra vowels.
The sad thing I’ve learned is that unless you really go overboard with drilling it into the head of every person you meet, the only folks who will ever pay attention and get it right the first time are other people who share your “name pain”. And if you do make a fuss, some people complain that you’re being “too sensitive”. Look, it’s my name. It’s a primary aspect of my identity. And it’s just plain rude of you to keep spelling it wrong.
My last name has been mispelled on every first pay check I got but 1. Whats sad is its not some long ass crazy spelled polish, czech or greek name. Its a rather short (five letters) and easy french/german name. Still every damn time I get a pay check its always made out to a common english name that is similar to mine only one of the letters is upside down and backwards. Its like people don’t trust the name they see written clearly in front of them a hundred times and instead think I’m dyslexic. Its caused so many problems at the bank and with the IRS. One company I worked for would never change the name every week I’d come in and ask them to spell it right because eventually the IRS would be on me. And the stupid bastards would never change it. Every once and awhile I still get my alter egos mail.
Hear, hear! (Or, speaking of spelling, is it here here?)
My husband has a first name that is unusual in the US, but it’s really not hard to pronounce. All you have to do is string together three common English words. Inevitably, when he is asked his name, some schmuck will say, “Hey, I’ll just call you “Bob” (or somesuch).” My husband says politely, “No, it’s <name>.” He’ll gladly repeat it all day and night for you, and he doesn’t really care if you pronounce it slightly off, but please make the effort. People just don’t seem to get that they’re being rude to someone they just met.
I love that people sometimes get so indignant when you try to make sure they spell it correctly. Like when I pronounce my surname “Surname-spelled-S-U-R…” etc, people are sometimes annoyed at my assumption that they’d get it wrong … similar to people who get upset with you when you ask them to correct their misspelling of your name.
Actually my American Express card is still in the name of Surname Firstname, I have asked them to change it many, many times but I guess they think it’s frivolous. It’s actually kind of funny, they address me as Ms Firstname which cracks me up every time.
I wonder if I could run up huge charges on it and tell them that I’m not Surname Firstname and have no idea who she might be.
My son’s name is Egan, E-G-A-N. Not E-A-G-E-N, or E-A-G-A-N. Neither it it Ethan, or Evan, or Ian.
when I have written it on school papers, or doctor’s office papers, or even on a stupid piece of paper in a letter, please do not misspell it when you respond.
It puzzles me, too. I admit, it usually happens in the form of written correspondence from folks that I’ve only spoken to on the phone or sent an e-mail once or twice. Well, heck, I’m just spell it out. My last name is Martin. It’s nice and generic. Yet somehow I see things addressed to “Martine”, “Martino”, “Marten”, and, my personal favorite “Martian” (!!!). I’ve just taken to spelling everything out, just in case.
I guessed that might have been your name, because a friend of mine has the last name Martin and got the same weird misspellings. My personal favourite has always been Martian.
I had also guessed it might have been Brown, as some people spell it “Browne”.
And what do you know? My “new” (married) surname is in the top twenty. I knew it was common, just not how common. And it also gets misspelled!
