"Tell your mother she spelled your name wrong."

[Ghel]

I sometimes get people insisting that my name must be short for something. Say my name's Jen, and people insist it must be short for Jennifer. No, my name isn't short for anything. If they act surprised, I'll explain that my surname was long, so my parents wanted me to have a short first name. Usually that gets them to shut up about it.

[drunkenwildmage]

My name is a common name, but not the common spelling of it, (same with my last name) so, when I'm asked for my name, I've gotten into the habit of spelling the whole thing out. Because of people who I have worked with for years still using the common spelling of my first name in e-mails, I've added the phase "Who is this <common spelling name> person and why is everyone confusing them with me?" in my e-mail signature. After about a month of having that in my work e-mail, people started spelling it correctly.


About a year after I put that phrase in my e-mail sig, I ended up getting a new boss. That bosses name, the more common spelling of my name. So now, when I got into meetings with him, when we introduction ourselves, I always tell the new people he spells his name wrong.

[Jay 2K Winger]

While my name (Joseph) is common, the short form I use (Seph) isn't, and is often pronounced Seth

I had a classmate in high school who likewise had a common name (Matthew) but the short form he used wasn't. (Thew)

[Becks]

Common first name, common spelling, and my half my bosses can't spell it right. Any combination of missing or extra letters.

Last name...common enough, for being German. Two different spellings, two different pronunciations. I say it, I spell it, they try to pronounce and spell it the other way. *sigh*

[Lovecats]

I sometimes get people insisting that my name must be short for something. Say my name's Jen, and people insist it must be short for Jennifer. No, my name isn't short for anything. If they act surprised, I'll explain that my surname was long, so my parents wanted me to have a short first name. Usually that gets them to shut up about it.

My mil tells the story of when my late sil was in school the teachers kept insisting that her name (Kathy) HAD to be short for something. That she couldn't just be named Kathy. My mil just told them that was her name - not short for anything.

[Nunavut Pants]

Remember the episode of MASH when Hawkeye tried to find out what BJ Hunnicutt's initials stood for?

The punchline: They didn't stand for anything. His mother, Bea, and his father, Jay, had named him...

[AyreBiskits]

my parents did spell my name "wrong", on purpose. they had my name picked out already but one of my grandparents couldn't pronounce it so they added an extra letter. i have seen so many different spellings of my name that it really doesn't bother me when it's not spelled right to me. lol, i've even joked with my parents and told them it's their fault I can't buy a cup or a plaque with my name on it without having to get it custom-made.

just to add to people's confusion on how to spell my name, back when i was in the 4th grade i started at a new school and my dad signed me up with a different name. it was like he took my name and jumbled it up, took 4 letters out and said it was my first name. the next year, same school, i went back to my real name. i had to tell everybody that the other one was a nickname, although I don't remember anyone calling me that before and I hadn't used it since.

so my name started out Stephanie, then went to Stephannie, and for a short period it was Nina. and i did have people tell me it's spelled wrong and i would just say "yeah, i know"

[Crossbow]

Sounds all too familiar. I have a fairly common Germanic name, but the spelling is the Danish one instead of the Anglicized one. So there's the German spelling, the Danish spelling, and the English spelling, all of which are "correct."

I get the Engish spelling all the time, even from my Mother-in-law (I've been married for 20 years)...

[Javarod]

My personal favourite is when I email clients (Say my name is Kathryn) and they reply with

"Dear Cathryn"

or
"Dear Katherine"

Like guys. MY NAME IS RIGHT THERE. It's hard to miss!

Oh how I hate that, what is it, are they being passive aggressive about my spelling being unacceptable?

Remember the episode of MASH when Hawkeye tried to find out what BJ Hunnicutt's initials stood for?

The punchline: They didn't stand for anything. His mother, Bea, and his father, Jay, had named him...

NCIS: LA has something along the same lines, one of the lead characters is G Callen. He's an orphan, and some how his first name was lost, he just has a first initial. He told his boss Heddie that he has a name, G to which she replied, 'That's not a name, its a letter.'

[Pagan]

My mil tells the story of when my late sil was in school the teachers kept insisting that her name (Kathy) HAD to be short for something. That she couldn't just be named Kathy. My mil just told them that was her name - not short for anything.

My aunt had a similar problem. Her name is "Betty", is it not short for "Elizabeth". Teacher in grade school wouldn't believe her.

NCIS: LA has something along the same lines, one of the lead characters is G Callen. He's an orphan, and some how his first name was lost, he just has a first initial. He told his boss Heddie that he has a name, G to which she replied, 'That's not a name, its a letter.'

Except that we now know what "G" stands for...and I think Hetty has known all along. And he's not an orphan, we've met his father.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Remember the episode of MASH when Hawkeye tried to find out what BJ Hunnicutt's initials stood for?

The punchline: They didn't stand for anything. His mother, Bea, and his father, Jay, had named him...

I'm giggling like a schoolgirl. Yeah, my mind's in a not-good place, as usual.

[Chromatix]

My name is pretty damned common - or should be, statistically speaking.

Both of my given names feature prominently in the Old Testament, with the correct spelling. Yet there are enough variant spellings of my first name out there that most native English-speakers default to one of the wrong ones. I actually have less trouble with foreigners misspelling it, perhaps because Hebrew names in the Bible tend to survive translation quite well.

My family had endless trouble with our surname getting misspelled, though. It's a name that comes in two common spellings, originating from at least three very different parts of the UK. Ours is descended from Gaelic - but the "wrong" one originated in Cheshire, which was a lot closer to where we lived.

[Nunavut Pants]

Hi, Jehovah!

*is immediately buried under piles of rocks*

[laborcat]

Back when my parents named me, my first name wasn't very common. Then it exploded back in the 2000s. Go figure. My main problem is that people always want to add either an a to the middle or an s on the end of my last name.

My boyfriend's name is Billy Joe. Not William Joseph, contrary to what my mother wants to believe . He said his mom was stuck on the song "Ode to Billy Joe" at the time. He wishes she had picked a happier song

[Miss Maple Leaf]

Back when my parents named me, my first name wasn't very common. Then it exploded back in the 2000s. Go figure. My main problem is that people always want to add either an a to the middle or an s on the end of my last name.

My boyfriend's name is Billy Joe. Not William Joseph, contrary to what my mother wants to believe . He said his mom was stuck on the song "Ode to Billy Joe" at the time. He wishes she had picked a happier song

I went to school with a Billy Joe, and as far as I knew, nobody ever thought his name was William Joseph. I wonder if his mom was inspired by the song too.

My middle name is Nichole, which seems to be a rare spelling around here. I'm the only one I know with either the first or middle name of Nichole who has it spelled with an H. My mother was looking through baby books trying to decide on a middle name for me, and came across Nicole with that alternate spelling included. She liked how it looked and so she went with it.
Now, I personally love how it looks as well, and I'm glad she chose it. I much prefer it to Nicole. However, I get so much crap about the spelling that I've just started whipping out my ID to show them.
After all, Nicholas is spelled with an H; is it really so hard to comprehend that the feminine version of the name might also have an H in it?