Wednesday, June 17, 2009

MISSPELLED

This morning, my sister sent me the link to an article on Politco.com about a hilarious incident regarding nicknames. Someone on the Hill offended someone else on the Hill (not to be confused with someone on the Hills, mind you) by shortening her name from Elizabeth to Liz. Big mistake. Turns out Elizabeth HATES being called Liz. Read more about it here and don't miss the second page with the actual transcription of the e-mails.

I can't say that if someone was that rude to me after that many apologies, I wouldn't leak it either. Would you? I'm sure Elizabeth/Liz is the one doing the apologizing now. Hope she learned her lesson.

However, it did get me thinking about my own name and what a big, fat pet peeve it is for me when people get it wrong, misspell it or shorten it. Elizabeth is entitled to ask people to call her by her correct, full name. She just took it too far. While I would never go to the extremity that she did, I feel that I should take the opportunity, since the soapbox is there, to explain why I cringe when you...

1. Get my name wrong - I started my first job in May 2006. A week later, they hired another young brunette, named Leslie. She worked two doors down from me. We became buddies. We worked on a few projects together. People from that office STILL call me Leslie. It drove me crazy while I was there. She and I conferred and it was easy to tell who really knew our names and just slipped up occasionally and those who didn't know who was Lindsay, who was Leslie, and didn't really care to learn. Fast forward a year. C's sister-in-law's sister, whom I have seen often lately with the birth of little baby G in March, called me Leslie three times on three different occasions before I finally told her my name was Lindsay. To me, this is the worst offense. Am I saying I know the name of everyone I have ever met? No. But I try. And if I don't know their name, I ask someone who does or I don't use a name at all. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. My CWE kids would always be so impressed because by the end of Day 1, I knew all their names. It was a personal goal of mine (and a lot of other counselors) to get their names correct because it shows respect. Plain and simple.

2. Misspell it - now obviously, if you've never seen it in print then you have no excuse. But when we e-mail back and forth all day long, and the correct spelling is right there in your inbox in black and white, I'm going to think you are lazy when you (repeatedly) spell it wrong. This. Drives. Me. Crazy. Again, it's a respect thing. One time, two years back, a coworkers kept calling me Lindsey in an e-mail exchange. After the third time, I signed my e-mail LindsAy, hoping she'd get the hint. Again she came back with Lindsey. So, I decided if she was going to misspell my name, I would misspell hers. Even though it had three letters, I found an alternative spelling for it and used it in my reply to her. I'm pretty sure it didn't work, but I felt better. The worst when people drop a "z" in my name. I had a client that once spelled my name "Lynz" - WHAT? That sounds like a car. Linz, Lindz, Linzee - no, no, no. I can deal with Linds, Linny, Lulu or a myriad of other nicknames but please, no Z's.

Now. Like I said, I am not perfect and I know I have committed both of these fouls before but here's the key - I try REALLY, really hard not to. If I have to Google someone to get their name right, I will; even if it's just to find out if there's a space in a double name or not. It's that important to me. I think it's because I am obsessed with my own name (monograms, etc.), but there are a lot worse priorities I could have than to get a person's name right.

I would feel bad preaching about this if I knew I was the only one who can't stand it when her name is butchered. I know there are LOTS more of you out there. And if you think I am being ridiculous, be sure to tell me. Just make sure you spell my name right when you do!

26 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, I deal with the same stuff everywhere I go! My entire 5th grade year my math teacher called me Caroline. Caroline????

    Over my 22 years I have seen about every possible way to spell my name, Caylin (how my current boss consistently spells it) Kaylyn, Kaylynn, Cailin, Kaylin, Kalen, Kalin, Kailin.... endless.

    And I think I may have spelled your name with an E on the email the other day- so sorry!!

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  2. I taught 6th grade for THREE years in Auburn. My principal from day one called me Mrs. Vacockus. It is pronounced Vuh-ka-kiss. Maybe hard at first, but as soon as I tell someone, they get it. She was corrected ALL the time, even by the asst. principal and until the day I moved to Birmingham, it was Mrs. Vacockus. Imagine teaching 6th graders and them coming over the all call with the word cock in your name....there was a lot of muffled giggles EVERY time they called out my name!!

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  3. I am with you Lindsay. The thing I hate the most is when they do it in emails when obviously my signature is at the bottom. I consistently get emails addressed to West. I mean, seriously. Are there more people named West than Wes? Common sense would say go with the more common name cause there's a better chance of getting it right. I hate stupid people.

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  4. WOW. I can think of a few other nicknames to call Liz...but they are not nice. She sure did put alot of time and effort into those emails...jeez louise. Hope you have fun in Vegas!!

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  5. I'm with ya. One of the security ladies in our building calls me "Erwin." #1: I'm a girl; #2: She's looking at it spelled plain as day. Seriously? She's never heard of the name "Erin?" She's really sweet, and I think it's been too long for me to correct her at this point.

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  6. People have been calling me Jennifer all my life...

    Seriously, folks. The two names aren't THAT similar.

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  7. My parents gave me two very, very common names -- Jennifer and Jones. They didn't go out on a limb with spelling or anything, either, but it astonished me how many people would still manage to butcher it.

    Now my married name is apparently even more complicated -- Bonds. It is often mistaken for Barnes (our gas bill actually comes to Wes Barnes) so I'm now in the habit of spelling it out when I have to say it outloud. B-as-in-boy-O-N-D-S.

    And don't even get me started on those who take the liberty to shorten me to Jenny ... I never mind it when it's someone else's name, but it makes the hair stand on the back of my neck in reference to me. I blame Jenny Jones, and everyone who thought they were cute/clever when they called me that in high school.

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  8. and I'm with Jessica Eastman, I've been called Jessica probably almost as many times as I've been called Jennifer (okay maybe not that many).

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  9. Speaking of names that aren't similar, my counterpart's name rhymes with "Shortney." Additionally, she is shorter than I am so I have started telling people to remember this if necessary in order to tell us apart. Somehow people still confuse us, which is ridiculous because our names don't even sound alike and the only thing we have in common is our hair color, job title and sorority affiliation. Okay I guess that's a lot. But still. We've been here for a year.

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  10. Totally agree! I hate when people spell my name with an I; it's CandAce NOT CandIce. I also hate being called Candy....I'm not a sweet treat you buy at the check-out.

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  11. Although I don't use my first name {Caroline}, I am constantly surprised by the amount of people who pronounce it Carolyn. Seriously? The word LINE is in the name.

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  12. Actually, I know a girl here in Nashville named Caroline that pronounces it Carolyn. That's just asking for it, in my opinion.

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  13. I hate my full name and basically refuse to acknowledge it unless I'm dealing with the government or a hospital. However, in the first grade I wasn't able to avoid the use of the full name. I had a subsitute teacher that used to fill in quite often and would always add an l. I hate this new mangled version even more than the original wrechted form of my name. After several days of correcting her I finally just stopped answering. When she confronted me, I said "that is not my name, and I'm not going to answer you until you say it right" As you can see, I was quite feisty even at age 6.

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  14. Apparently, Shealy is a doozie. I get Shelly a lot... boo!

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  15. You opened a can of worms with this post, Baby Girl!

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  16. amen. as a fellow LindsAy, I run into this problem a lot. My favorite are the people who KNOW me and all of a sudden switch to E. As if they'd finally corrected the A misspelling for my parents. The "Z"s are by far the worst. Linzi. Ugh, hold on, let me walk into walmart with no shoes on and a bathrobe. Then, you may call me Linzi. Wow- didn't know this struck such a nerve with me...

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  17. cierra -

    Sierra?
    Ciara?
    Ciera?
    Sarah?
    Sara?
    Cirrus? (cir-riously?)
    Sylvia?

    To all of which I respond, "yep, you got it."

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  18. I stand on my soapbox quite frequently about the same thing.

    Not only do people misspell my name, which is probably one of the easiest names out there, by adding 2 "g"s to it ( i am continually telling people, one "g" on the first, 2 on the last)but sometimes they'll mispronounce it at well. How hard can it really be....it rhymes with egg for crying out loud. But I still get the pronunciation of "Mag".

    The thing that irks me the most is people who call me Megan. My given name is in fact Margaret, not Megan. People make the assumption that it is and call me by that. My neighbor, whom I have lived beside my entire life still calls me Megan. I also think people who aren't really sure about my name call me Megan as well-they here my name and while Meg is somewhat common, they can't remember and do not want to offend me so they just call me Megan and pray. I believe that if my parents wanted me to go through life being called Megan, they would have chosen this name instead of Margaret.

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  19. I can be wearing a nametag, plain as day, saying Kate, and 75% of people will call me Katie. AHHHHH. Even when I introduce myself outloud as Kate, people immediately say "Great to meet you Katie!". Kate is one syllable, Katie is two. People are stupid. Clearly everyone has name issues, lots of rants on this post.

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  20. HAHAHA, just like everyone else posting here, I too am v. annoyed by stupid people. It is very tricky for people when your name sounds like a common word (Lily) but is spelled entirely differently (Lilley.) I don't even bother saying it to people who are writing it down, I just go ahead and spell it.

    Also, there is a girl that works on the same floor of my building who is about my age with blonde hair. Other than that, we look quite different. People are constantly coming to my desk and asking me questions about her department, to which I reply "I'm not Megan." It's amazing.

    And Kate - really, how can people get that wrong? Kate. That's about as easy as it gets.

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  21. I think Erwin is my favorite of all of these stories....

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  22. Well that's worth something! I'm so proud. I now grant you permission to call me Erwin... even though I see you already took that liberty on FB. :)

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  23. My name is Mary Martha. I am from the South. We use double names here. It has always been Mary Martha. Love the part about the emails. That has been a huge struggle through work and school trying to get people to correctly acknowledge my name.
    Love your posts!

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  24. I've read your blog several times...found it through friends of friends & love it even though I have no idea who you are talking about! (is that weird or what?)
    Anyway, with this name thing...is that people are stupid or just deaf?

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  25. LindsAy, just shut up about your name.
    Love,
    Mary Byrne Pigott

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  26. My name is Teresa, & it gets spelled Theresa a lot. Not a big deal if you are getting it verbally, I understand that. But it gets spelled Theresa A LOT by people who are seeing it in writing. Do they think I am misspelling my own name?! Annoys me way more than it should.
    Another pet peeve is people calling me Teri. I have never & will never go by that. People have the nerve to get mad at me for not responding to Teri. I am not purposefully ignoring them, I'm not responding to it because that's not me! They might as well be saying "Sarah" or "Mary".

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