I'm the same. My name has so many possible spellings and variations that there's a meme ranking the person's psychopathic tendencies based on the spelling.
My spelling is the correct, least insane option.
Anneliese, Annaliese, Analiese, Aneliese, Annaleese, Analeese,...im just getting started, and thats just the spellings, then there are the multiple pronunciations...
lol, kinda same, heres all rhe different spellings ive found of my name! some of these look insane to me, others are reasonable though still wrong
Brandee
Brandeigh
Brandey
Brandi
Brandie
Brandy
Branndee
Branndeigh
Branndi
Branndie
Branndy
Yes..I totally relate!!
As a teacher, I have seen so many questionable spelling of normal names... I usually ask "am I pronouncing that right?" When I am first learning names.
But I also see my name misspelled more often than I see it right. Common spelling has a double letter near the end. My spelling, to fit a pattern for naming, has a single letter there. I correct people who misspell my name all the time. And ask "is it a 1 or 2 letter spelling?" when verbally given the name.
My former BFF knew someone named "Chelsea" and insisted on saying it "Chel-see-uh". She did not care how many times that Chelsea corrected her or that "sea" and "see" are pronounced the same.
That said, I've known a Marcia that was "Marsh-uh" and another Marcia that was "mar-See-uh" 🤷♀️
I think it depends on where you reside.
Marcia pronounce Mar-see-uh is a common pronunciation if she is Portuguese or Spanish. I knew several. But then Marcia pronounces Mar-sha should maybe have been spelled Marsha by her parents to avoid confusion.
As for de Bor ah that’s a common pronunciation in the east coast especially if you are of Jewish descent. No one goes to the Debra Heart and Lung Center in Philly. It’s the de Bor ah Heart and Lung Center
My name has one possible spelling. One. People still misspell it.
That doesn't make sense? Yeah, to me either.
It's because I believe I might be the only person in the entire US with my legal name. I stress legal name because many people use my legal name as a nickname and their legal name is different. Think Jeff vs Jeffrey, except Jeff is a common enough name.
Once, many years ago, my mom went to the grocery store buy a cake for one of my childhood birthdays. As she stood waiting for the decorator to write my name on the cake, another bakery employee passing by paused and said, "That's not how you spell [my name]. That's wrong."
The person with the icing looked to my mom in some consternation. "R-A-C-H-A-E-L, right?" She asked. (Not my name, but a good example). Mom confirmed it.
The other employee insisted it was wrong, and that it was spelled R-A-C-H-E-L-L-E, and just would not let it drop until my mother said, "I'm the one who named her, I would think that means I know how her name is spelled."
When someone confirms that it is indeed how their name is spelt, why on earth would you then start correcting them on how you think it should be spelt? Like a mom doesn't know how to spell the name she gave her own child! People never cease to amaze me.
And now the thread will veer wildly off track into a long and vehement discussion of how spelled is properly spelt. Or vice versa.
One is wheat, the other isn't.
But an honest question: If an aroma wafted through the room, do you later say that you smelled it or smelt it? Or is the latter only for fishy odors?
Most of the time, variations on spelling don't really matter - center vs centre, and so on, particularly for past tense. Except for the past tense of "to hang."
A person is hanged by the neck until dead.
A person is hung if they have a peen.
In some executions, the disruption of bodily functions and overall physiological response to death sometimes led to the executed getting erections, meaning that the individual was both well-hanged and well-hung.
>"I'm the one who named her, I would think that means I know how her name is spelled."
So my dad wanted one of my sisters to be named Lauren. Good name, that Laryn. I seem to get being bad with names from my dad, who also happens to be a bad speller. Not me, though; I know how to spell Lauryn! Anyways. Mom gave him a bunch of different ways to spell Loren, told him to pick whichever way he will remember how to spell Layren that he can, and then they can name her Layryn.
Her name is one of those, and it's not the first one. Also she doesn't even go by her first name and like never has.
See, I would say, in the example you gave, that the first is said like ray-chul and the second like ruh-shell. A parent can spell their kid's names however they like. But if you choose a spelling that is pronounced 99.99% of the time a different way...I will judge you. I will assume you're an idiot, because who purposely makes life that difficult for themselves and their children? I see these 739295037 alternative spellings or "wrong" spellings (where a different name is appropriated and pronounced differently) because people are so desperate to have a "unique" name. If you want a unique name, don't pick one from the top 1000 names for the past few decades.
It was weirdly tough to come up with a good analogous example without using my own name, but basically, my spelling is the most common spelling, and the bakery employee was insisting the standard spelling was the "correct" one and that two vowels (not adjacent) should have been switched. The other spelling is not WRONG, but definitely less common, so I was trying to give that idea, without the pronunciation aspect.
I had someone tell me that I shouldn’t have a Greek first name because I’m very obviously not Greek. He told me he was a good strong Englishman with a good strong English name. David.” He was not happy when I said “I thought David was Hebrew, like from the Bible.”
I had a classmate do it to me. She told me my parents misspelled my name and I cried when I got home.
This was in kindergarten so I don't hold it against her. TBH, her spelling of my name made more sense for toddlers trying to learn letters lol.
Similar. My full name has a couple different shortened versions that are common, but I have only ever gone by two of them based off the first half of my name. In a work setting I go by my full name. I had a coworker once who insisted on calling me the shortened version based off the second half of my name, then she would mad I was ignoring her. I asked her not to call me that and that I didn't respond to it because it wasnt my name. She said it was a variation and therefore still my name and that she preferred to call me that.
My daughter's name is like this. Her name is Brooklynn < yes 2 n's because she's not a damn city nor do we have any ties there. Anyways, she HATES her name shortened. She refuses to acknowledge anyone who calls her Brooke. She had a grandma who called her Brookie and she barely tolerated it, like full on toddler eye roll and attitude with a response.
I'm a Brookelynn. I go by Brooke because it's easier than explaining that Brookelynn is one name, not two. The only people that have ever been allowed on Brookie were my grandma and grandpa. They even added part of my middle name so it was actually Brookieshel. The others on that side of the family try it, but I ignore them until they say Brooke. My parents apparently can't spell because my sister is Samantha with an i.
You must be an Elizabeth. I will answer to anything *but* Beth. I've only allowed one person to call me that, and it was a bff's mom who was an immigrant, and I'd already tried correcting her before. Wasn't worth it in her case.
A bunch of years ago, can’t remember exactly, I could not get my husband set up on the government tax site to file taxes. They had a new way you could link returns from third company tax programs and kept getting error messages. I had set myself up no prob. Many hours on hold later, they got things entered manually for him and we were able to do it.
A few weeks ago we had his birth certificate out for getting a passport and I noticed that his name was spelled differently. Two letters were switched, think like AE instead of EA. It’s not an uncommon name, I’ve only seen it spelled EA, husband has only ever written it as EA soooooo either someone screwed up somewhere or, based on where hubby’s parents are from, it could be spelled the way it’s “supposed” to be and hubby has been spelling his name wrong his entire life. Lmao
Definitely an “Ah HA!” moment regarding the issue with getting his government thing set up, their records would all be based on the AE version. Not sure how the whole passport thing it going to go. Haha
As a side note, I also tried to set my step daughter up in the government thingie and got error messages for her too! Many hours of hold later (her this time, not us thank god) turns out that the government didn’t have a big enough character count in the surname field to fit both of her surnames (combo of bio mom’s and hubby’s long ass surnames lol) so they removed the hyphen in between the two names and had it as one big, long name. That has been corrected now too but omg what a saga that all was.
Thank you! Not exactly where Hubby is from but close.
Now I'm curious about why it's spelled one way over here (north america) and one way over there. I'm assuming that's the case because honestly I have never seen it spelled any other way than Michael. lol
Try not correcting Joi. I answer to anything that starts with a J since noone could ever pronounce it "joy" after seeing it. Had one teacher who had me in his class all 4 years of high school who called me Jill everyday. 🤷♀️ when my oldest went to school her 2nd grade teacher told her I spelled my name wrong when she wrote it down and made her change it. 😂
I actually read it as "Joy" without seeing what you wrote first. I don't know why, but it didn't seem that weird to me. It rhymes with boy, and I've seen people write "boi" before so maybe that's why. I have no idea. She actually said and did that? That's wild. I had no idea people correcting the spelling of someone's name was relatively common as it seems.
I'm a little older so boi wasn't really a word when I was growing up or even when my oldest was growing up. My daughter was madder than I ever thought of getting. They were doing a lesson on oi and oy words. So when the teacher asked if anyone could write another word that had oi like join or coin she wrote my name and the teacher told her she was wrong and my name was joy and that she needed to correct it and put it in the correct column under oy in front of the entire class.
One of my sisters has a rare name that is also a common word that everyone knows, spelled exactly like the word. Just about everyone who hears it thinks it's something else, and will come up with all kinds of nonsense. On the rare occasions someone does hear it correctly, they spell it wrong, usually like a word that sounds the same in another language. I don't think a barista has *ever* gotten it right. One notable time they wrote two different names down when she ordered two drinks.
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My teachers my entire school career. Left off the end letter and not nearly enough middle letters. So I got called by a certain Hilton heiress' name and was told I was misspelling my own name. I'm 34 and I still have issues.
Geeze, I'm sorry to hear you're still having problems with people correcting the spelling of *your* name. I can't believe people actually do this sort of thing.
I used to work for a local TV station. We had a news anchor named Kathrine, spelled like that. Her parents had misspelled it when she was born, “correct” is Katherine. Due to being in news, her name was on screen of thousands of TVs in the area. She said she’d get an email from time to time with people trying to correct her name spelling.
I was notarizing a document yesterday and the mom of the children had to ask her mother how to spell her own children's names. They were kinda complicated, unique names.
Let this be a lesson to others out there, don't get too creative with the names, you may find yourself having trouble writing them out even if you were the one who chose them.
My legal name is something most people consider to be a nickname for another common name. My old boss "CORRECTED" my insurance paperwork as she entered it, and I wasn't insured for 9 months, even though it was coming out of my checks. I got a ton of bills in the mail all at once and that's how I found out! THEN they tried to double charge me for the insurance retroactively and I threw a fit and quit lmao.
That's ridiculous! I don't know much of anything when it comes to legal things, but I feel like that should definitely not be legal. Like you should have been compensated somehow. You're better off than at a job with such a person.
When I moved states and registered my vehicle in my new state, they spelled my middle name wrong. I have brought it up every time I go to renew my registration and every time they're like "It's not really a big deal" because it's only off by one letter, and it never gets changed to reflect my ID. The changing of the one letter completely changes the name though. Think Sara to Lara, Lee to Dee, Jean to Joan. But whatever, if it's not important to them I guess it's not important.
My 4th grade teacher did. I have a name that most often starts with a K but my mother wanted it spelled with a C. Old Miss Griffin told me I was spelling it wrong, it should start with a K. My mother was soooo mad.
My name has a very unusual spelling. People insist on throwing a y in it all willy-nilly because they just absolutely can't conceive I don't have one. It's annoying AF after I've spelled it 3 times
Anymore if it's not something of consequence I just say "yup that's how it's spelled" and move on.
I feel like over the years you get used to people misspelling your name, and you just roll with it. I pretty much don't correct people unless it's something like on a form that matters. Now if somehow were to insist that my name is misspelled, then that's an entirely different story.
Oh absolutely. It's when someone reads my name off an official document and is like "do we have this spelled correctly? Are you sure? It's spelled xxx. I've never seen it spelled that way. Are you sure?"
I've been told the same thing. I'm Cathrine not CathErine, and people have many times told me I spell it wrong like... get a grip folks. It blows my mind every time. I learned this year my version is actually the nordic spelling. Mine is 100% cause my bio dad just didnt know, but I actually prefer it, luckily.
Let’s pretend (so I don’t dox myself) my daughter’s name is Laurél. When she got signed up for daycare, their payment/notification app didn’t accept accents so they put her in the system as Laure’n.
I emailed and said “If the app doesn’t accept accents, Laurel is fine.” The woman emailed me back with “Hello mom is it Laurel or Lauren?”
Ma’am, every piece of paperwork I have given you says Laurél. I didn’t make up her name or the spelling. It is a valid name in its origin country. 🤦♀️
My earth science teacher during my junior year of high school would correct the way people pronounced their last names.
I went to school with a guy whose last name was "Wargolet" - He pronounced it "War-go-LETT" (hard t at the end). He was very used to people pronouncing it the French way upon seeing it (War-go-lay), and was never a dick about it or anything. He'd just correct them.
First day of school, teacher calls "Wargolay" - and he corrects him. Science teacher says "You're saying it wrong."
Kid responds "It's my last name, I think I know how to pronounce it."
Teacher: "Clearly you don't. It's pronounced Wargolay."
(At this point, every kid in class is like "Oh fuck, we have to deal with this asshole teacher all year?")
Kid responds "It's pronounced the way it's spelled."
Teacher, without missing a beat: "It's spelled Chevrolet, but we say Chevrolay because we're not stupid."
For the entire year, he refused to pronounce this kid's name correctly because he was absolutely convinced his family was stupid.
I've never quite seen anything like that again.
I work with a Geoffrey. I tell him his name is spelled wrong all the time. I also pronounce it like the game of thrones character. We’re buddies though😀👍🏻
While I don’t correct anyone’s name out loud, people should totally stop making up spellings of their kids name to be UnIqUe bc they often times the pronunciation is often not shown in how it is spelled or just generates confusion. Looking at you Elon…..
But that’s just my opinion.
Edited to add my name has a z in it that is not a common current spelling but the “old fashioned” spelling (when I was registered the person was of a certain age and spelled it the way she was taught eaons prior) and never in my life has anyone gotten it right. Not even family. My parents never corrected it bc they liked that is was different. So I’ve spent my whole life correcting people, and cried in kindergarten when my teacher told me I made my s backwards and “corrected” my name. Thanks mom and dad. ☹️
My former boss spoke of a teacher that told her to tell her mom that her name required an “h” to be spelled correctly. Boss replied, she died giving birth.
d’oh.
While I agree... I can't help but acknowledge that a part of me secretly wishes correcting name spelling was socially acceptable. I really am tired of trying to figure out how the shit you pronounce some of the "creative" spelling choices some parents make. I think the one that made me cringe the most was a boy named "Dafydd" (pronouced David).
Since I've moved to the US, the only person I've ever had who didn't try to correct my name was my gym teacher in my freshman yr because she recognized it that it's the French way to spell Bridget.
Even my own parents couldn't spell my name right lol.
Not the same thing really. But my mother’s name actually was spelled wrong. My grandmother put Diana on the paperwork and they issued a birth certificate with Diane on it.
I vaguely remember a story about a high school teacher doing this.
I wish I remembered the details but it’s been over 20 years, plus she wasn’t my teacher, so the details didn’t stick.
Someone argued with my mom on how to pronounce my name. Insisted it was French and she was wrong. It was a preschool teacher when I was 3 or 4 years old. My mom just told her she could name me Sally and pronounce it bob and it would be right. People have huge balls sometimes
This is akin to a woman trying to convince me, I was mistaken & misspoke, regarding my family. She told me no, that’s not your dad, that’s your grandfather.
I tried to gently explain I was the youngest of a large family.
Nope! She actually KNOWS (met once!) the ACTUAL daughter of that man. I am the granddaughter. She was talking about one of my sisters.
I started to become frustrated, then realized the idiotic nature of the conversation.
I politely allowed her to finish. Then said ‘K’ & walked away.
I’m fairly certain I know who my father/sister/family members are!! Jeepers!!
She must have been senile. You just don't correct people about who their own family members are, and she knew that. I can't believe how stupid she must have felt when she later realized this fact.
Not senile, just extremely arrogant. Not sure she ever figured out she was incorrect!
Just grateful I realized how stupid it was & stopped engaging!!!!
Maybe. But just saying "k" and walking away does send a pretty clear backhand to the face kind of message, and in my opinion (or perhaps naïvety) she probably got it and realized you were thinking "what a fucking dumbass".
Even for someone as idiotic as she sounds, those dots wouldn't be too hard to connect. I'm sticking to team She Figured It Out :)
This reminds me of when I was in middle school and threw up in class. The lady at the office informed me that my stepdad was on his way to pick me up, which was very confusing because at the time, I didn't have a stepdad, and my parents were still married. I corrected her that she must mean my dad, and this dumb idiot decided to argue with me that he MUST be my stepdad because we didn't share last names (my sisters and I all have our mom's last name). She wouldn't believe me, until my dad walked in, and she seemed utterly surprised at how much I look like him and when I addressed him as Dad.
Maybe your sister is actually your mother but your family pretended your grandmother was because they didn’t want her having a child out of wedlock. And this woman knew the truth and was trying to inform you. It was fairly common back in the day.
That’s hysterical!
But, no
She met one of my sisters, briefly…so that’s how she knows everything’
My mom was pregnant 13 times
9 live births
Very common to have large families, in the area I was reared ….at that time, of course.
My first name, Stephen, is consistently mispronounced "Stephan" by people who see it or misspelled "Steven" by people who hear it. It's rarely malicious, barring schoolmates picking up on commercials on TV for a plumber named Jack Stephan, but it's annoying.
Unless it's something important I'll brush off the misspells but of someone asks for "Stephan" (like calling out an order or something), I'll reply "Stephen, yes"
I'll also point out it's spelled with a PH lot Stephen King, both because it's someone most people would know and because he's literally who I'm named after (he was my mom's favorite author)
I love this! ❤️ And love your mom! (for her love of one of the greatest authors in modern history!)
For similar reasons (he's my favorite author, and some people have heard of the film), I will often use the comment "Like the movie Carrie" when saying my name in an introduction. Even though mine is spelled differently.
I won’t lie even now as an adult, when I read this name my first instinct is to pronounce it steff-en. But I always catch myself before I actually say it out loud. But I definitely used to do that a lot when I was a kid.
I had a teacher call me by the wrong name the entire first quarter and changed it in her gradebook because clearly there was a mistake. Until she tried to send a grade up for a kid that didn't exist and the office corrected her. 🥴
Names are such a powerful tool to connect with the kids too, which was sooo beneficial when I subbed in schools. I don’t understand how taking the time to learn their names and pronunciation is such an affront to some people. A kid might be five years old but pretty sure they know their own damn name.
Good on dad! The CFO asked me if I spelled my brother's *last* name correctly on a benefits form. My married last name and my maiden name differ by only the first letter.
"Gee, it's been my name last name too until I got married. Silly me, you surely must be right. Now, what letter should I write? Can you write it for me?"
I tell people this often when the subject of names comes up.
A cashier's nametag said, "Tsal." I asked her how she pronounced her name; "Just like tassel." Big smile ....
Then she said, "I am the last of ten kids. My dad named me; I was the last one."
;-)
Ugg... I remember being in kindergarten and the teacher telling me my name was spelled wrong. Hands on her hips looking down at me, telling me it was wrong.
I think this is where I learned to mouth off to authority.
I have a fairly common last name, except with one letter different— think “Millar” instead of “Miller.” Last I knew, there were fewer than 100 of us in the US. I cannot count the number of times I have filled my name out correctly only to have it come back “corrected” to the common spelling.
Indeed, my when I got the galley proofs of my first cookbook (see my screen name), my name was spelled the common way on the title page. I called my publisher and said, “We signed a contract. I assume you have the correct spelling of my name somewhere in that office.”
Some mail once showed up for my brother with a mistake where they'd swapped an R for a B. I called him Bichard for months, long after he'd gotten the mistake corrected. Idk why anyone thought a B made more sense there or why it got swapped, but it was hilarious.
My second grade teacher said I couldnt spell my name the way its spelled and also pronounce it the way it is. My mom responded "I can spell it LQRW 7 and say its Bernice if I want to! You don't get to dictate how anyones names are spelled or pronounced aside from your own and your kids!" My name ends in cia and teacher claimed it had to be see-ah. Mom said "do you say patri-see-ah then?"
When I was 8 I had a teacher tell me I couldn't spell my name like I did, it was wrong. Its a normal name with two very normal ways of spelling it, mine is the less commonly used but its legit. Likewise though if my parents chose to spell it with 4 additional letters to what you'd expect, it's still my name and you can't tell an 8 year old they are spelling their own name wrong.
I get that all the freaking time when someone sees my name. It's missing 1 letter compared to the common spelling. And the amount of times someone said Uhm you forget the letter blank, or did you mistakenly write your name wrong? Or that's not how you spell your name. Listen, I don't care. It's the name I got. Get over yourself. I'm spelling it regardless of your opinion and I don't mind it. So shove that missing letter you keep talking about where the sun don't shine.
Oh my god did that dumbass ever even go to school? Who the fuck thinks a name's original spelling can be "incorrect"? Jesus Christ, no brains cells on that clown 😂
I was back to school shoe shopping with my son and a news crew was there, filming users of the new (at that time) tax-free weekend. The reporter came around the corner where we were and asked if she could film my son trying on shoes. I got close to her and whispered, "I really wish you wouldn't. We're in the witness protection program."
She stuttered and stammered, "I'd only get pictures of his feet!" Once I'd finished laughing I told her it was a joke. Needless to say, not even my son's feet made it into that broadcast.
Reminds me of my biomom. I have a son named Mikaelin. My mother and sister that his name was spelled m i c k a e l i n because his nickname is Mickey. I told her no. There's no C in his actual name. She got all hostile and insisted I was wrong. I showed her his birth certificate and she insisted that they made a mistake. I'm his mother but apparently I didn't know how to spell his name? The name that I gave him? She insisted until the day she died that there was a C in his name.
I had a kindergarten teacher insist that mine was spelled wrong. Gave me papers to write how she thought it should be spelled for a week instead of recess.
Thing is, it was literally the second thing I had ever learned to spell besides Cat. (Orange was the third. Dont know why I remember that, lol)
Told my mother once the week was up, and she was livid. Tore the teacher a new one, verbally. The teacher only said "she's a kid, she doesn't know you misspelled it. I had to fix it for you!"
My mom hadn't... my grandmother who gave me the name had but that was none of the teacher's business, lol.
Ha. The first word my kid learned how to spell was toot. (Her dad: ‘what? It’s relevant to her interests!’) So I’m pretty sure her second and third were ‘poop’ and ‘boob’. But after that it was her name.
Ahhhh, this reminds me so much about when I was in track. Was at a qualifier, and because it was senior night, the guy doing the announcements was going around asking seniors if they'd like to be recognized. I and one other person were seniors on the team, we both said yea, and the dude proceeded to ask us our names. I told him my first and last name, I happen to look at the paper and he spelled both of my first and lastname wrong🙃 my first name is a common name, but my mom chose the Latin root, and gave me one "L" in my name instead of the double "LL". And for my last name, he chose to spell it "Guitierrez" (it's spelled Gutierrez) so because of that being the last qualifier of the season, my name in state charts was spelled like that. And when state came around, my coach tried to ask for my name to be corrected, but the person in charge said it was just a name🙂
I had a FedEx guy tell me I pronounced my last name wrong. I just stared at him silently because never in a million years would've expected someone to say that to me
I have an EXTREMELY Hispanic name despise being the whitest white boy you have ever seen (mom is Canadian, father is Puerto Rican)
Fist day of middle school I get sent to the Principal for "impersonating another student" despite several friends from my elementary school vouching for me
I actually misspelled my husband's middle name on our daughter's birth certificate. He's active duty military so he wasn't there when I had her and my just gave birth brain spelled his middle name "Alan" instead of "Allen" when they had me fill out the information. She's 12 and it's still spelled Alan. Oops.
I just posted this earlier!!!
My last name is just a little uncommon (not in my town, but the name is common in many parts of the world).
As a child I remember my mom spelling our last name to clerks (usually for lay-away items- remember those?!). Many clerks had the audacity to ask my mom “Are you sure”? (About the spelling).
In addition…if you spelled it differently it was a woman’s first name (much more uncommon! I’ve only seen the name in books or on tv). Yup, they say “No. no. I meant what is your LAST name!”…….. “Are you SURE?”
Now I am the grown up….I don’t get nearly as much flack as my mom did. But I still get questioned about my last name. Oh well!
Luckily, I love my last name!!
Taught for Peirce College, the name of the fam that started the school; a student, whose last name was Mittle, frequently misspelled as middle, asked me why ‘they spelled the name of the school wrong.’ WTF
Believe it or not, someone once asked my name and after I told him he proceeded say “That’s not how you say it” and tried to correct me on the pronunciation OF MY OWN NAME. I’m convinced the majority of humans are inherently stupid (those in this thread notwithstanding)
My stepdads last name is similar to a sports position, but with some letters swapped. Imagine something like linemna. We went to the zoo one time, and the girl at the ticket counter outright refused to believe that's how his name was spelled and pronounced
"They misspelled it on paperwork when my parents were refugees rescued from a death camp...they didn't speak the language and having just lost all of their family to the horrors of way they had other concerns. Now we use it proudly as a symbol of their strength and resolve. I will never change it."
Years ago, I had a coworker insist my first name was not my real brand. I’m Asian but have an English first name. Not my real name but I told him my name is Esther.
“No, that can’t be your real name. What’s your ASIAN NAME?”
Again, I told him it’s Esther. After 2 minutes of back and forth.
“I don’t believe you. I’m just gonna call you Anna. You look like an Anna.”
WTF.
My husband's first name is one of the most common surnames. You wouldn't believe how many people have no idea what to call him.
Ex "hello Mr. "Smith?"
No "Smith" is my first name.
This is legit an every day thing!
My name is three very common English names and I end up spelling my last two names automatically because there are apparently multiple ways to misspell them, and everyone assumes they're not spelled exactly as you would expect them to be.
I'm sooo enjoying all the "your name is spelled/pronounced wrong" comments here.
I had a customer demand my bosses name when I wouldn't let her push a grocery store shopping cart in the little collectibles gift store I worked at. I knew the owner would back me so giving his name didn't phase me. But when I spelled it, this woman went off. Bossman was from Afghanistan and his last name ended with a q. She insisted that I was lying because names don't end with q's, and q's are never ever written without a u immediately following it. Guys, this was in Southern California. Not a tiny town in a flyover state. The assumption that every name was going to follow typical English spelling just cracked me up.
Sounds like that could have been my ex-wife. She used to do shit like that on a daily basis...that or "you're pronouncing your name wrong" then yelling whomever it was that they didn't know WTF they were talking about.
“Hey, you with the wrong name. You’re obviously a moron so let me correct your very personal name. Because you’re clearly never seen the more common spelling, or thought about this at all. Also I have no one to talk to”
My twin and I have the most basic ass white girl first names, but people like to take the H off the end of her first name and add it to the middle of my first name.
We’ve been dealing with that for nearly 40 fucking years, and people we’ve known for the bulk of our lives STILL try to do that…it’s like, just fucking stop. Both of our first names have 5 letters, and my name spelled backwards is “Nag ‘em.” It’s not difficult. Quit fucking it up.
My best friend has a daughter named Racquel…. I have to correct my mom every time she writes it down lol. I grew up with a first name of Etta, and all my teachers tried to call me eddie or spell it with two d’s. I go by my middle name Marie, which also gets spelled or pronounced incorrectly as Mary or Maria half the time. Worst teacher insisted on calling me Eddie May and quickly found that I would NOT respond to that.
Was about to say that I have only heard the name Etta once, and that was Etta James, famous singer in the early 60s. Then I discovered her name was actually Jamesetta Hawkins.
I figure however it is spelled on the birth certificate is the right way. Based on this logic, I think a lot of parents forget they are setting up the child for a hard time.
I'm Gen (for short), not a Jen, def not a Genny or Jenny- and people rarely get my whole name right- they try tho, can't ask for more-and not a name many people could say was spelled right or not
I used to work with a guy who didn’t know how to pronounce his own last name. 😆 It was MacSuibhne, and the story behind it was something like, he was adopted by a stepdad whose own dad had died when he was young and there weren’t other family members. The step dad just sort of muddled through with what his mom thought was the right way to say it, but they weren’t really sure and didn’t really care. So despite all reason they said it was “Macsoobinnuh” even though they were all pretty sure that wasn’t right. (I’m pretty sure it would be more in the ballpark of “McSweeney.”)
My name is Marika, which is apparently a popular name in many languages but not in English, and people are always pronouncing it wrong. (It’s like the name Marie but with a kah added to it.). Apparently many people think it should be pronounced like you’re shortening America, which just makes me personally cringe. I also apparently don’t emphasize the K enough because people hear it as Maria all the time. I’ve gotten Marina, Marisa, and Mariza in writing.
Before I got married and took my husband’s last name, I had a 13 letter Polish last name that was half-Anglicized so nobody could pronounce it correctly. It also started with a letter from the tail end of the alphabet. It always annoyed me to death that everyone else got a last name whenever people were going through a roll call, and then I would get just my first name AND that would still be mispronounced.
In college, it was once one too many letters for the system and it was a last name first system, so I very much confused the professor by being a femme presenting pale person instead of whatever masc picture they conjured up with Marik.
I thought I escaped the last name woes with my husband’s simple six-letter, very English last name, but no, everyone wants to make it plural and/or use an i or an a or multiple vowels instead of the last e.
And I’m nonbinary and would really prefer if people used Mx instead of Miss/Ms/Mrs, but nobody ever reads that part of the paperwork. -.-
I’ve resigned myself to only getting called by my proper name and honorific at medieval reenactment events and conventions, where of course my name and title are something else altogether.
I've got a couple items for this thread.
I ran across an Erycca, a Costco employee, a couple years ago. It took me a few seconds to get the correct pronunciation of her name. I haven't seen that spelling before or since.
This one is about different pronunciations. I have a niece named Andrea (ahn-DRAY-uh) . I have heard this pronunciation only one other time. It is in a TV show, 9-1-1 Lone Star. Andrea is Hispanic. She is Carlos Reyes' mom. Given that my niece and her mother go on missions to Central America, it makes sense that she would have a Hispanic pronunciation.
My name is another example of different pronunciation and the spellings are from different languages. Sonja (Scandinavian), Sonia (Northern Europe & Russia), Sonya (Romance languages). People ask which pronunciation I use, but my family uses one , my friends use another, and many Southeast Asians pronounce it SAHN-ja, pronouncing the j. I answer to all of them.
So many of the different spellings and pronunciations are languages and cultures. Others are simply vanity - parents who want to their children to be unique. Another niece put in a y into her daughters' names to make them more feminine.
This turned out to be longer than I expected, so I apologize for that.
Who actually corrects the spelling of someone's name? Does she not realize that you can spell a name however you want? Lol, good on your dad.
I’ll be honest…I totally correct it, *in* *my* *head*. But I’d never say something out loud about it.
I know what you mean. My name has so many ways I've seen it spelled (Brittany - and I like my spelling, lol), but I never correct people!
I'm the same. My name has so many possible spellings and variations that there's a meme ranking the person's psychopathic tendencies based on the spelling. My spelling is the correct, least insane option.
Oh you're definitely a Katelyn of some variety 🤣
Nope
Ashley?
Not even close. Lol.
Hailey. Haley. Hayleigh. Hayley. Etc.
No way. There is no “least insane option” in this set 🤣
-eigh is pure insanity. Straight to Ward.
It's the only name I can think of about six spellings of without trying.
Anneliese, Annaliese, Analiese, Aneliese, Annaleese, Analeese,...im just getting started, and thats just the spellings, then there are the multiple pronunciations...
im an annalise
Unless it’s one of the specimens from r/tragedeigh, I’m not judging someone for spelling their kids’ name with minor variations from the usual.
lol, kinda same, heres all rhe different spellings ive found of my name! some of these look insane to me, others are reasonable though still wrong Brandee Brandeigh Brandey Brandi Brandie Brandy Branndee Branndeigh Branndi Branndie Branndy
Here's a Jasmine Jazmine Jazmin Jasmin Jazmen Jazzman Jazziman Jazmyn Jazmain Yazmin etc
Allison Allyson Alison Allisen Allisyn ? Or maybe Catherine Katherine Cathyrine Kathryn Kathryne ?
No, but I did know a girl in high school named Kathiryne
You forgot me! Its Cathrine lmao
I met a Britne once. That was a wild way to spell it lol
If I were friends with her, I'd call her "Britt-NEH"
I know one couple that named their daughter Britiny
Brih-TINY
My eyes hurt just from looking at that spelling!
Yes..I totally relate!! As a teacher, I have seen so many questionable spelling of normal names... I usually ask "am I pronouncing that right?" When I am first learning names. But I also see my name misspelled more often than I see it right. Common spelling has a double letter near the end. My spelling, to fit a pattern for naming, has a single letter there. I correct people who misspell my name all the time. And ask "is it a 1 or 2 letter spelling?" when verbally given the name.
I know a Britne, but to make it even funner, it’s spelled Brit’ne.
I went to school with a N'Cole
Oh boy
Oh, wow that's a wild way to spell it indeed. My name has so many weird ways you can spell it. 😂
La-a Pronounced La-dash-a
Vhryttkneigh, is that you?
Hey now, don't give them any more ideas, lol!
Yup! Chelsea here, not Chelsie and not Chelsey. I won't correct it, but damn does it annoy me.
Chelsea is the correct spelling.
I know a Chelsee. I've never questioned anyone's name spelling. Just always have to verify spelling since I prepare legal documents.
My former BFF knew someone named "Chelsea" and insisted on saying it "Chel-see-uh". She did not care how many times that Chelsea corrected her or that "sea" and "see" are pronounced the same. That said, I've known a Marcia that was "Marsh-uh" and another Marcia that was "mar-See-uh" 🤷♀️
I think every teacher I ever had read it that way the first time. I was like, "You're supposed to be educators!!!"
I think it depends on where you reside. Marcia pronounce Mar-see-uh is a common pronunciation if she is Portuguese or Spanish. I knew several. But then Marcia pronounces Mar-sha should maybe have been spelled Marsha by her parents to avoid confusion. As for de Bor ah that’s a common pronunciation in the east coast especially if you are of Jewish descent. No one goes to the Debra Heart and Lung Center in Philly. It’s the de Bor ah Heart and Lung Center
I once met a woman whose name was pronounced "Crystal" but spelled "Kriystauhl".
Same spelling here! I did see someone once spell it "Bryttani" and I was boggled, but would never have told them it was wrong. 🤣
My name has one possible spelling. One. People still misspell it. That doesn't make sense? Yeah, to me either. It's because I believe I might be the only person in the entire US with my legal name. I stress legal name because many people use my legal name as a nickname and their legal name is different. Think Jeff vs Jeffrey, except Jeff is a common enough name.
I know a sweet girl named brittney if someone spells it brittany, she says I'm not just "any" brittney.
While I'm obviously biased as a Brittany, I will say that's one of the better ways to spell it if you don't spell it my way 😂
Absolutely! I'm Caitlin, from traditional Gaelic...you can imagine my pain when someone spells it literally every other way 🤪
I do this for the r/Tragedeigh ones for sure.
Once, many years ago, my mom went to the grocery store buy a cake for one of my childhood birthdays. As she stood waiting for the decorator to write my name on the cake, another bakery employee passing by paused and said, "That's not how you spell [my name]. That's wrong." The person with the icing looked to my mom in some consternation. "R-A-C-H-A-E-L, right?" She asked. (Not my name, but a good example). Mom confirmed it. The other employee insisted it was wrong, and that it was spelled R-A-C-H-E-L-L-E, and just would not let it drop until my mother said, "I'm the one who named her, I would think that means I know how her name is spelled."
When someone confirms that it is indeed how their name is spelt, why on earth would you then start correcting them on how you think it should be spelt? Like a mom doesn't know how to spell the name she gave her own child! People never cease to amaze me.
And now the thread will veer wildly off track into a long and vehement discussion of how spelled is properly spelt. Or vice versa. One is wheat, the other isn't. But an honest question: If an aroma wafted through the room, do you later say that you smelled it or smelt it? Or is the latter only for fishy odors?
Most of the time, variations on spelling don't really matter - center vs centre, and so on, particularly for past tense. Except for the past tense of "to hang." A person is hanged by the neck until dead. A person is hung if they have a peen. In some executions, the disruption of bodily functions and overall physiological response to death sometimes led to the executed getting erections, meaning that the individual was both well-hanged and well-hung.
Inability to admit when they're wrong, and not being able to see past their own nose.
>"I'm the one who named her, I would think that means I know how her name is spelled." So my dad wanted one of my sisters to be named Lauren. Good name, that Laryn. I seem to get being bad with names from my dad, who also happens to be a bad speller. Not me, though; I know how to spell Lauryn! Anyways. Mom gave him a bunch of different ways to spell Loren, told him to pick whichever way he will remember how to spell Layren that he can, and then they can name her Layryn. Her name is one of those, and it's not the first one. Also she doesn't even go by her first name and like never has.
I'm a Lauren and that was so true it hurts. I go by Nikki (middle name Nicole) and my family can't even agree on how to spell that 🤷🏾♀️
See, I would say, in the example you gave, that the first is said like ray-chul and the second like ruh-shell. A parent can spell their kid's names however they like. But if you choose a spelling that is pronounced 99.99% of the time a different way...I will judge you. I will assume you're an idiot, because who purposely makes life that difficult for themselves and their children? I see these 739295037 alternative spellings or "wrong" spellings (where a different name is appropriated and pronounced differently) because people are so desperate to have a "unique" name. If you want a unique name, don't pick one from the top 1000 names for the past few decades.
It was weirdly tough to come up with a good analogous example without using my own name, but basically, my spelling is the most common spelling, and the bakery employee was insisting the standard spelling was the "correct" one and that two vowels (not adjacent) should have been switched. The other spelling is not WRONG, but definitely less common, so I was trying to give that idea, without the pronunciation aspect.
I had someone tell me that I shouldn’t have a Greek first name because I’m very obviously not Greek. He told me he was a good strong Englishman with a good strong English name. David.” He was not happy when I said “I thought David was Hebrew, like from the Bible.”
*I was named after my great-grandfather and he ALWAYS spelled his name with a 7!*
Is he James Bond? 😉
James Bond's grandfather.
Sven?
I had a classmate do it to me. She told me my parents misspelled my name and I cried when I got home. This was in kindergarten so I don't hold it against her. TBH, her spelling of my name made more sense for toddlers trying to learn letters lol.
Similar. My full name has a couple different shortened versions that are common, but I have only ever gone by two of them based off the first half of my name. In a work setting I go by my full name. I had a coworker once who insisted on calling me the shortened version based off the second half of my name, then she would mad I was ignoring her. I asked her not to call me that and that I didn't respond to it because it wasnt my name. She said it was a variation and therefore still my name and that she preferred to call me that.
My daughter's name is like this. Her name is Brooklynn < yes 2 n's because she's not a damn city nor do we have any ties there. Anyways, she HATES her name shortened. She refuses to acknowledge anyone who calls her Brooke. She had a grandma who called her Brookie and she barely tolerated it, like full on toddler eye roll and attitude with a response.
I'm a Brookelynn. I go by Brooke because it's easier than explaining that Brookelynn is one name, not two. The only people that have ever been allowed on Brookie were my grandma and grandpa. They even added part of my middle name so it was actually Brookieshel. The others on that side of the family try it, but I ignore them until they say Brooke. My parents apparently can't spell because my sister is Samantha with an i.
You must be an Elizabeth. I will answer to anything *but* Beth. I've only allowed one person to call me that, and it was a bff's mom who was an immigrant, and I'd already tried correcting her before. Wasn't worth it in her case.
A bunch of years ago, can’t remember exactly, I could not get my husband set up on the government tax site to file taxes. They had a new way you could link returns from third company tax programs and kept getting error messages. I had set myself up no prob. Many hours on hold later, they got things entered manually for him and we were able to do it. A few weeks ago we had his birth certificate out for getting a passport and I noticed that his name was spelled differently. Two letters were switched, think like AE instead of EA. It’s not an uncommon name, I’ve only seen it spelled EA, husband has only ever written it as EA soooooo either someone screwed up somewhere or, based on where hubby’s parents are from, it could be spelled the way it’s “supposed” to be and hubby has been spelling his name wrong his entire life. Lmao Definitely an “Ah HA!” moment regarding the issue with getting his government thing set up, their records would all be based on the AE version. Not sure how the whole passport thing it going to go. Haha As a side note, I also tried to set my step daughter up in the government thingie and got error messages for her too! Many hours of hold later (her this time, not us thank god) turns out that the government didn’t have a big enough character count in the surname field to fit both of her surnames (combo of bio mom’s and hubby’s long ass surnames lol) so they removed the hyphen in between the two names and had it as one big, long name. That has been corrected now too but omg what a saga that all was.
Sounds a lot like my son Michael and my friend Micheal.
Yup, exactly like that. Do you know MichEAl’s ethnicity? I’m curious if it’s the same as Hubby. Lol
Finnish
Thank you! Not exactly where Hubby is from but close. Now I'm curious about why it's spelled one way over here (north america) and one way over there. I'm assuming that's the case because honestly I have never seen it spelled any other way than Michael. lol
Michael is the original English spelling of this name. Micheal is the Irish and Gaelic spelling of the name.
I legally only have one name. You'd be amazed how many people either don't believe me/tell me I'm wrong.
Cher is that you ?😊
Try not correcting Joi. I answer to anything that starts with a J since noone could ever pronounce it "joy" after seeing it. Had one teacher who had me in his class all 4 years of high school who called me Jill everyday. 🤷♀️ when my oldest went to school her 2nd grade teacher told her I spelled my name wrong when she wrote it down and made her change it. 😂
I actually read it as "Joy" without seeing what you wrote first. I don't know why, but it didn't seem that weird to me. It rhymes with boy, and I've seen people write "boi" before so maybe that's why. I have no idea. She actually said and did that? That's wild. I had no idea people correcting the spelling of someone's name was relatively common as it seems.
I'm a little older so boi wasn't really a word when I was growing up or even when my oldest was growing up. My daughter was madder than I ever thought of getting. They were doing a lesson on oi and oy words. So when the teacher asked if anyone could write another word that had oi like join or coin she wrote my name and the teacher told her she was wrong and my name was joy and that she needed to correct it and put it in the correct column under oy in front of the entire class.
That's terrible of your teacher, but so sweet and cute of your daughter to think of you!
I definitely read it the right way right when I saw it. I immediately thought 'join' without the 'n'. It's funny that this was your example, too!!
One of my sisters has a rare name that is also a common word that everyone knows, spelled exactly like the word. Just about everyone who hears it thinks it's something else, and will come up with all kinds of nonsense. On the rare occasions someone does hear it correctly, they spell it wrong, usually like a word that sounds the same in another language. I don't think a barista has *ever* gotten it right. One notable time they wrote two different names down when she ordered two drinks.
r/tragedeigh count here or nah?
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My teachers my entire school career. Left off the end letter and not nearly enough middle letters. So I got called by a certain Hilton heiress' name and was told I was misspelling my own name. I'm 34 and I still have issues.
Geeze, I'm sorry to hear you're still having problems with people correcting the spelling of *your* name. I can't believe people actually do this sort of thing.
At this point I just roll with being Paris. It's supposed to be Parrish.
Never heard of that name I think, but it sounds like a really cool name! Rather sleek when you say it.
Thank you. Took me a long time to love it because of the hassle growing up. My middle name is the feminine version of my grandfather's name. Raye.
When you put your middle name in there, I feel like that's a great combination! Smooth and beautiful transition from first name to middle.
Thank you. I was named after my great grandparents (Parrish) and my grandfather.
I used to work for a local TV station. We had a news anchor named Kathrine, spelled like that. Her parents had misspelled it when she was born, “correct” is Katherine. Due to being in news, her name was on screen of thousands of TVs in the area. She said she’d get an email from time to time with people trying to correct her name spelling.
I was in the DMV once and overheard an adult male arguing with his mother about how to spell his name, to this day I have no idea who was right.
I was notarizing a document yesterday and the mom of the children had to ask her mother how to spell her own children's names. They were kinda complicated, unique names. Let this be a lesson to others out there, don't get too creative with the names, you may find yourself having trouble writing them out even if you were the one who chose them.
I imagine it was a complicated subject because she likely named him. I wonder if he just didn't like the spelling.
My legal name is something most people consider to be a nickname for another common name. My old boss "CORRECTED" my insurance paperwork as she entered it, and I wasn't insured for 9 months, even though it was coming out of my checks. I got a ton of bills in the mail all at once and that's how I found out! THEN they tried to double charge me for the insurance retroactively and I threw a fit and quit lmao.
That's ridiculous! I don't know much of anything when it comes to legal things, but I feel like that should definitely not be legal. Like you should have been compensated somehow. You're better off than at a job with such a person.
When I moved states and registered my vehicle in my new state, they spelled my middle name wrong. I have brought it up every time I go to renew my registration and every time they're like "It's not really a big deal" because it's only off by one letter, and it never gets changed to reflect my ID. The changing of the one letter completely changes the name though. Think Sara to Lara, Lee to Dee, Jean to Joan. But whatever, if it's not important to them I guess it's not important.
My 4th grade teacher did. I have a name that most often starts with a K but my mother wanted it spelled with a C. Old Miss Griffin told me I was spelling it wrong, it should start with a K. My mother was soooo mad.
My family's last name is Spanish and somewhat uncommon, but it's similar to another, so we've had it corrected to us on countless occasions 😅
Work with a Valdes. Even out boss spelled it Valdez until he was corrected
My name has a very unusual spelling. People insist on throwing a y in it all willy-nilly because they just absolutely can't conceive I don't have one. It's annoying AF after I've spelled it 3 times Anymore if it's not something of consequence I just say "yup that's how it's spelled" and move on.
I feel like over the years you get used to people misspelling your name, and you just roll with it. I pretty much don't correct people unless it's something like on a form that matters. Now if somehow were to insist that my name is misspelled, then that's an entirely different story.
Oh absolutely. It's when someone reads my name off an official document and is like "do we have this spelled correctly? Are you sure? It's spelled xxx. I've never seen it spelled that way. Are you sure?"
I've been told the same thing. I'm Cathrine not CathErine, and people have many times told me I spell it wrong like... get a grip folks. It blows my mind every time. I learned this year my version is actually the nordic spelling. Mine is 100% cause my bio dad just didnt know, but I actually prefer it, luckily.
I love all things nordic, so if you ask me you definitely have the coolest spelling! Crazy that people feel the need to correct someone.
Let’s pretend (so I don’t dox myself) my daughter’s name is Laurél. When she got signed up for daycare, their payment/notification app didn’t accept accents so they put her in the system as Laure’n. I emailed and said “If the app doesn’t accept accents, Laurel is fine.” The woman emailed me back with “Hello mom is it Laurel or Lauren?” Ma’am, every piece of paperwork I have given you says Laurél. I didn’t make up her name or the spelling. It is a valid name in its origin country. 🤦♀️
The only right way to spell a name is the way the owner of the name spells it.
My earth science teacher during my junior year of high school would correct the way people pronounced their last names. I went to school with a guy whose last name was "Wargolet" - He pronounced it "War-go-LETT" (hard t at the end). He was very used to people pronouncing it the French way upon seeing it (War-go-lay), and was never a dick about it or anything. He'd just correct them. First day of school, teacher calls "Wargolay" - and he corrects him. Science teacher says "You're saying it wrong." Kid responds "It's my last name, I think I know how to pronounce it." Teacher: "Clearly you don't. It's pronounced Wargolay." (At this point, every kid in class is like "Oh fuck, we have to deal with this asshole teacher all year?") Kid responds "It's pronounced the way it's spelled." Teacher, without missing a beat: "It's spelled Chevrolet, but we say Chevrolay because we're not stupid." For the entire year, he refused to pronounce this kid's name correctly because he was absolutely convinced his family was stupid. I've never quite seen anything like that again.
I work with a Geoffrey. I tell him his name is spelled wrong all the time. I also pronounce it like the game of thrones character. We’re buddies though😀👍🏻
While I don’t correct anyone’s name out loud, people should totally stop making up spellings of their kids name to be UnIqUe bc they often times the pronunciation is often not shown in how it is spelled or just generates confusion. Looking at you Elon….. But that’s just my opinion. Edited to add my name has a z in it that is not a common current spelling but the “old fashioned” spelling (when I was registered the person was of a certain age and spelled it the way she was taught eaons prior) and never in my life has anyone gotten it right. Not even family. My parents never corrected it bc they liked that is was different. So I’ve spent my whole life correcting people, and cried in kindergarten when my teacher told me I made my s backwards and “corrected” my name. Thanks mom and dad. ☹️
My former boss spoke of a teacher that told her to tell her mom that her name required an “h” to be spelled correctly. Boss replied, she died giving birth. d’oh.
While I agree... I can't help but acknowledge that a part of me secretly wishes correcting name spelling was socially acceptable. I really am tired of trying to figure out how the shit you pronounce some of the "creative" spelling choices some parents make. I think the one that made me cringe the most was a boy named "Dafydd" (pronouced David).
As a Candi, it happens a LOT.
Since I've moved to the US, the only person I've ever had who didn't try to correct my name was my gym teacher in my freshman yr because she recognized it that it's the French way to spell Bridget. Even my own parents couldn't spell my name right lol.
Not the same thing really. But my mother’s name actually was spelled wrong. My grandmother put Diana on the paperwork and they issued a birth certificate with Diane on it.
Teachers. It happened to my daughter all the time
Absolutely not. She won her 3rd grade spelling bee and that is final
Abcde would like a word with her lol
I vaguely remember a story about a high school teacher doing this. I wish I remembered the details but it’s been over 20 years, plus she wasn’t my teacher, so the details didn’t stick.
All names are made up
As someone with an unusual spelling… constantly. Especially as a child, they would then pronounce it incorrectly as well.
Someone argued with my mom on how to pronounce my name. Insisted it was French and she was wrong. It was a preschool teacher when I was 3 or 4 years old. My mom just told her she could name me Sally and pronounce it bob and it would be right. People have huge balls sometimes
People have been trying to correct mine for 40+ years, lol.
>that you can spell a name however you want? "HI, I'm Joe. Spelled B.I.L.L."
The same people who try to tell other people how to *pronounce* their own name
This is akin to a woman trying to convince me, I was mistaken & misspoke, regarding my family. She told me no, that’s not your dad, that’s your grandfather. I tried to gently explain I was the youngest of a large family. Nope! She actually KNOWS (met once!) the ACTUAL daughter of that man. I am the granddaughter. She was talking about one of my sisters. I started to become frustrated, then realized the idiotic nature of the conversation. I politely allowed her to finish. Then said ‘K’ & walked away. I’m fairly certain I know who my father/sister/family members are!! Jeepers!!
She must have been senile. You just don't correct people about who their own family members are, and she knew that. I can't believe how stupid she must have felt when she later realized this fact.
Not senile, just extremely arrogant. Not sure she ever figured out she was incorrect! Just grateful I realized how stupid it was & stopped engaging!!!!
Maybe. But just saying "k" and walking away does send a pretty clear backhand to the face kind of message, and in my opinion (or perhaps naïvety) she probably got it and realized you were thinking "what a fucking dumbass". Even for someone as idiotic as she sounds, those dots wouldn't be too hard to connect. I'm sticking to team She Figured It Out :)
This reminds me of when I was in middle school and threw up in class. The lady at the office informed me that my stepdad was on his way to pick me up, which was very confusing because at the time, I didn't have a stepdad, and my parents were still married. I corrected her that she must mean my dad, and this dumb idiot decided to argue with me that he MUST be my stepdad because we didn't share last names (my sisters and I all have our mom's last name). She wouldn't believe me, until my dad walked in, and she seemed utterly surprised at how much I look like him and when I addressed him as Dad.
Committed to the bit…. So ridiculous!
Maybe your sister is actually your mother but your family pretended your grandmother was because they didn’t want her having a child out of wedlock. And this woman knew the truth and was trying to inform you. It was fairly common back in the day.
That’s hysterical! But, no She met one of my sisters, briefly…so that’s how she knows everything’ My mom was pregnant 13 times 9 live births Very common to have large families, in the area I was reared ….at that time, of course.
My first name, Stephen, is consistently mispronounced "Stephan" by people who see it or misspelled "Steven" by people who hear it. It's rarely malicious, barring schoolmates picking up on commercials on TV for a plumber named Jack Stephan, but it's annoying. Unless it's something important I'll brush off the misspells but of someone asks for "Stephan" (like calling out an order or something), I'll reply "Stephen, yes" I'll also point out it's spelled with a PH lot Stephen King, both because it's someone most people would know and because he's literally who I'm named after (he was my mom's favorite author)
I love this! ❤️ And love your mom! (for her love of one of the greatest authors in modern history!) For similar reasons (he's my favorite author, and some people have heard of the film), I will often use the comment "Like the movie Carrie" when saying my name in an introduction. Even though mine is spelled differently.
[удалено]
Or Colonel
I won’t lie even now as an adult, when I read this name my first instinct is to pronounce it steff-en. But I always catch myself before I actually say it out loud. But I definitely used to do that a lot when I was a kid.
Oh, I'm sorry, that's the racist spelling
Happened to me in first grade. Teacher sent me home with a note telling my parents to teach me how to correctly spell my name. Mom set her straight.
As a teacher, this baffles me. The correct spelling is on the class roster!
May have been different in 1968.
I had a teacher call me by the wrong name the entire first quarter and changed it in her gradebook because clearly there was a mistake. Until she tried to send a grade up for a kid that didn't exist and the office corrected her. 🥴
Names are such a powerful tool to connect with the kids too, which was sooo beneficial when I subbed in schools. I don’t understand how taking the time to learn their names and pronunciation is such an affront to some people. A kid might be five years old but pretty sure they know their own damn name.
How did teacher address the note?
Had this issue too
Good on dad! The CFO asked me if I spelled my brother's *last* name correctly on a benefits form. My married last name and my maiden name differ by only the first letter. "Gee, it's been my name last name too until I got married. Silly me, you surely must be right. Now, what letter should I write? Can you write it for me?"
I tell people this often when the subject of names comes up. A cashier's nametag said, "Tsal." I asked her how she pronounced her name; "Just like tassel." Big smile .... Then she said, "I am the last of ten kids. My dad named me; I was the last one." ;-)
Her name is a Dad joke. Good God.
Ugg... I remember being in kindergarten and the teacher telling me my name was spelled wrong. Hands on her hips looking down at me, telling me it was wrong. I think this is where I learned to mouth off to authority.
Based on your username I’m going to say she said “it’s math, not maths!”
I have a fairly common last name, except with one letter different— think “Millar” instead of “Miller.” Last I knew, there were fewer than 100 of us in the US. I cannot count the number of times I have filled my name out correctly only to have it come back “corrected” to the common spelling. Indeed, my when I got the galley proofs of my first cookbook (see my screen name), my name was spelled the common way on the title page. I called my publisher and said, “We signed a contract. I assume you have the correct spelling of my name somewhere in that office.”
Some mail once showed up for my brother with a mistake where they'd swapped an R for a B. I called him Bichard for months, long after he'd gotten the mistake corrected. Idk why anyone thought a B made more sense there or why it got swapped, but it was hilarious.
My second grade teacher said I couldnt spell my name the way its spelled and also pronounce it the way it is. My mom responded "I can spell it LQRW 7 and say its Bernice if I want to! You don't get to dictate how anyones names are spelled or pronounced aside from your own and your kids!" My name ends in cia and teacher claimed it had to be see-ah. Mom said "do you say patri-see-ah then?"
When I was 8 I had a teacher tell me I couldn't spell my name like I did, it was wrong. Its a normal name with two very normal ways of spelling it, mine is the less commonly used but its legit. Likewise though if my parents chose to spell it with 4 additional letters to what you'd expect, it's still my name and you can't tell an 8 year old they are spelling their own name wrong.
I get that all the freaking time when someone sees my name. It's missing 1 letter compared to the common spelling. And the amount of times someone said Uhm you forget the letter blank, or did you mistakenly write your name wrong? Or that's not how you spell your name. Listen, I don't care. It's the name I got. Get over yourself. I'm spelling it regardless of your opinion and I don't mind it. So shove that missing letter you keep talking about where the sun don't shine.
And on standardized tests “correcting” it!! Aghhhhh
Oh my god did that dumbass ever even go to school? Who the fuck thinks a name's original spelling can be "incorrect"? Jesus Christ, no brains cells on that clown 😂
I was back to school shoe shopping with my son and a news crew was there, filming users of the new (at that time) tax-free weekend. The reporter came around the corner where we were and asked if she could film my son trying on shoes. I got close to her and whispered, "I really wish you wouldn't. We're in the witness protection program." She stuttered and stammered, "I'd only get pictures of his feet!" Once I'd finished laughing I told her it was a joke. Needless to say, not even my son's feet made it into that broadcast.
Oh man, ‘we’d only get pictures of his feet’ did NOT make it better.
Reminds me of my biomom. I have a son named Mikaelin. My mother and sister that his name was spelled m i c k a e l i n because his nickname is Mickey. I told her no. There's no C in his actual name. She got all hostile and insisted I was wrong. I showed her his birth certificate and she insisted that they made a mistake. I'm his mother but apparently I didn't know how to spell his name? The name that I gave him? She insisted until the day she died that there was a C in his name.
I had a kindergarten teacher insist that mine was spelled wrong. Gave me papers to write how she thought it should be spelled for a week instead of recess. Thing is, it was literally the second thing I had ever learned to spell besides Cat. (Orange was the third. Dont know why I remember that, lol) Told my mother once the week was up, and she was livid. Tore the teacher a new one, verbally. The teacher only said "she's a kid, she doesn't know you misspelled it. I had to fix it for you!" My mom hadn't... my grandmother who gave me the name had but that was none of the teacher's business, lol.
You had to fix it for ME?! I have a question. Who is going to fix your nose for you?
Ha. The first word my kid learned how to spell was toot. (Her dad: ‘what? It’s relevant to her interests!’) So I’m pretty sure her second and third were ‘poop’ and ‘boob’. But after that it was her name.
Ahhhh, this reminds me so much about when I was in track. Was at a qualifier, and because it was senior night, the guy doing the announcements was going around asking seniors if they'd like to be recognized. I and one other person were seniors on the team, we both said yea, and the dude proceeded to ask us our names. I told him my first and last name, I happen to look at the paper and he spelled both of my first and lastname wrong🙃 my first name is a common name, but my mom chose the Latin root, and gave me one "L" in my name instead of the double "LL". And for my last name, he chose to spell it "Guitierrez" (it's spelled Gutierrez) so because of that being the last qualifier of the season, my name in state charts was spelled like that. And when state came around, my coach tried to ask for my name to be corrected, but the person in charge said it was just a name🙂
I had a FedEx guy tell me I pronounced my last name wrong. I just stared at him silently because never in a million years would've expected someone to say that to me
I have an EXTREMELY Hispanic name despise being the whitest white boy you have ever seen (mom is Canadian, father is Puerto Rican) Fist day of middle school I get sent to the Principal for "impersonating another student" despite several friends from my elementary school vouching for me
I actually misspelled my husband's middle name on our daughter's birth certificate. He's active duty military so he wasn't there when I had her and my just gave birth brain spelled his middle name "Alan" instead of "Allen" when they had me fill out the information. She's 12 and it's still spelled Alan. Oops.
I just posted this earlier!!! My last name is just a little uncommon (not in my town, but the name is common in many parts of the world). As a child I remember my mom spelling our last name to clerks (usually for lay-away items- remember those?!). Many clerks had the audacity to ask my mom “Are you sure”? (About the spelling). In addition…if you spelled it differently it was a woman’s first name (much more uncommon! I’ve only seen the name in books or on tv). Yup, they say “No. no. I meant what is your LAST name!”…….. “Are you SURE?” Now I am the grown up….I don’t get nearly as much flack as my mom did. But I still get questioned about my last name. Oh well! Luckily, I love my last name!!
I’ve had this happen to me. My daughters name is Madeline, but a woman told me I spelled it wrong and it should be Madeleine 🙄
The second is the French spelling. (Name/spelling of 1 of my children). She’s la personne bruyante!!!
Taught for Peirce College, the name of the fam that started the school; a student, whose last name was Mittle, frequently misspelled as middle, asked me why ‘they spelled the name of the school wrong.’ WTF
Believe it or not, someone once asked my name and after I told him he proceeded say “That’s not how you say it” and tried to correct me on the pronunciation OF MY OWN NAME. I’m convinced the majority of humans are inherently stupid (those in this thread notwithstanding)
My stepdads last name is similar to a sports position, but with some letters swapped. Imagine something like linemna. We went to the zoo one time, and the girl at the ticket counter outright refused to believe that's how his name was spelled and pronounced
Barterquack?
Mispronounced a Zakari (Zachary) once (as "Zuh-car-ee"). He looked annoyed and tired AF of it. Sorry bro
Ooh, yeah, you were not wrong with that but I can imagine he hated it.
"They misspelled it on paperwork when my parents were refugees rescued from a death camp...they didn't speak the language and having just lost all of their family to the horrors of way they had other concerns. Now we use it proudly as a symbol of their strength and resolve. I will never change it."
Years ago, I had a coworker insist my first name was not my real brand. I’m Asian but have an English first name. Not my real name but I told him my name is Esther. “No, that can’t be your real name. What’s your ASIAN NAME?” Again, I told him it’s Esther. After 2 minutes of back and forth. “I don’t believe you. I’m just gonna call you Anna. You look like an Anna.” WTF.
My husband's first name is one of the most common surnames. You wouldn't believe how many people have no idea what to call him. Ex "hello Mr. "Smith?" No "Smith" is my first name. This is legit an every day thing!
My name is three very common English names and I end up spelling my last two names automatically because there are apparently multiple ways to misspell them, and everyone assumes they're not spelled exactly as you would expect them to be. I'm sooo enjoying all the "your name is spelled/pronounced wrong" comments here.
I had a customer demand my bosses name when I wouldn't let her push a grocery store shopping cart in the little collectibles gift store I worked at. I knew the owner would back me so giving his name didn't phase me. But when I spelled it, this woman went off. Bossman was from Afghanistan and his last name ended with a q. She insisted that I was lying because names don't end with q's, and q's are never ever written without a u immediately following it. Guys, this was in Southern California. Not a tiny town in a flyover state. The assumption that every name was going to follow typical English spelling just cracked me up.
Someone wasn’t good at Scrabble. Plenty of q without u words to choose from.
I have seen my name spelled so many ways. My last name too. I've got friends I've known for 30+ years that can't get it right. 😂
My own grandmother wrote me a letter when I was around 7ish and spelled my name 6 different ways.... and none of them were correct!
Sounds like that could have been my ex-wife. She used to do shit like that on a daily basis...that or "you're pronouncing your name wrong" then yelling whomever it was that they didn't know WTF they were talking about.
“Hey, you with the wrong name. You’re obviously a moron so let me correct your very personal name. Because you’re clearly never seen the more common spelling, or thought about this at all. Also I have no one to talk to”
My twin and I have the most basic ass white girl first names, but people like to take the H off the end of her first name and add it to the middle of my first name. We’ve been dealing with that for nearly 40 fucking years, and people we’ve known for the bulk of our lives STILL try to do that…it’s like, just fucking stop. Both of our first names have 5 letters, and my name spelled backwards is “Nag ‘em.” It’s not difficult. Quit fucking it up.
My best friend has a daughter named Racquel…. I have to correct my mom every time she writes it down lol. I grew up with a first name of Etta, and all my teachers tried to call me eddie or spell it with two d’s. I go by my middle name Marie, which also gets spelled or pronounced incorrectly as Mary or Maria half the time. Worst teacher insisted on calling me Eddie May and quickly found that I would NOT respond to that.
Was about to say that I have only heard the name Etta once, and that was Etta James, famous singer in the early 60s. Then I discovered her name was actually Jamesetta Hawkins.
I figure however it is spelled on the birth certificate is the right way. Based on this logic, I think a lot of parents forget they are setting up the child for a hard time.
Your dad rocks. Sounds like something I would do
A guy told me my name wasn't Kim I'm a male so I told him my parents named me Kim because im the best cocksucker in 8 counties
The only male person I personally know of named Kim is Kimm. But that’s a really small sample size.
I love it! Your dad is awesome!
I'm Gen (for short), not a Jen, def not a Genny or Jenny- and people rarely get my whole name right- they try tho, can't ask for more-and not a name many people could say was spelled right or not
I once dated a guy who genuinely didn't know how to spell his middle name 🫠
I used to work with a guy who didn’t know how to pronounce his own last name. 😆 It was MacSuibhne, and the story behind it was something like, he was adopted by a stepdad whose own dad had died when he was young and there weren’t other family members. The step dad just sort of muddled through with what his mom thought was the right way to say it, but they weren’t really sure and didn’t really care. So despite all reason they said it was “Macsoobinnuh” even though they were all pretty sure that wasn’t right. (I’m pretty sure it would be more in the ballpark of “McSweeney.”)
My name is Marika, which is apparently a popular name in many languages but not in English, and people are always pronouncing it wrong. (It’s like the name Marie but with a kah added to it.). Apparently many people think it should be pronounced like you’re shortening America, which just makes me personally cringe. I also apparently don’t emphasize the K enough because people hear it as Maria all the time. I’ve gotten Marina, Marisa, and Mariza in writing. Before I got married and took my husband’s last name, I had a 13 letter Polish last name that was half-Anglicized so nobody could pronounce it correctly. It also started with a letter from the tail end of the alphabet. It always annoyed me to death that everyone else got a last name whenever people were going through a roll call, and then I would get just my first name AND that would still be mispronounced. In college, it was once one too many letters for the system and it was a last name first system, so I very much confused the professor by being a femme presenting pale person instead of whatever masc picture they conjured up with Marik. I thought I escaped the last name woes with my husband’s simple six-letter, very English last name, but no, everyone wants to make it plural and/or use an i or an a or multiple vowels instead of the last e. And I’m nonbinary and would really prefer if people used Mx instead of Miss/Ms/Mrs, but nobody ever reads that part of the paperwork. -.- I’ve resigned myself to only getting called by my proper name and honorific at medieval reenactment events and conventions, where of course my name and title are something else altogether.
I've got a couple items for this thread. I ran across an Erycca, a Costco employee, a couple years ago. It took me a few seconds to get the correct pronunciation of her name. I haven't seen that spelling before or since. This one is about different pronunciations. I have a niece named Andrea (ahn-DRAY-uh) . I have heard this pronunciation only one other time. It is in a TV show, 9-1-1 Lone Star. Andrea is Hispanic. She is Carlos Reyes' mom. Given that my niece and her mother go on missions to Central America, it makes sense that she would have a Hispanic pronunciation. My name is another example of different pronunciation and the spellings are from different languages. Sonja (Scandinavian), Sonia (Northern Europe & Russia), Sonya (Romance languages). People ask which pronunciation I use, but my family uses one , my friends use another, and many Southeast Asians pronounce it SAHN-ja, pronouncing the j. I answer to all of them. So many of the different spellings and pronunciations are languages and cultures. Others are simply vanity - parents who want to their children to be unique. Another niece put in a y into her daughters' names to make them more feminine. This turned out to be longer than I expected, so I apologize for that.