"Tell your mother she spelled your name wrong."

[ralerin]

I have a very French first and last name, and come from French Canadian stock. My real name is a very uncommon spelling of an uncommon name, that's popular is French speaking parts of the world. It's still used in English parts of the world, but with a much more common spelling. Pretend for this story my name is Suzanne, and the common spelling in America is Susan.

Now, I was on the Express lane at Fresh Market, checking out customers with my usual speed and cheeriness. Old Man came up to my register, forgot his wallet, got out to get it, then came back in. He was polite and cheerful throughout the entire transaction, and he seemed like a nice guy. As he was sliding hus debit card, he let loose this gem.

"Tell your mother she spelled your name wrong."

" You mean my dad spelled my name wrong?"

"But..."

"This is also the French spelling of it..."

"....Oh."

"And I am French."

"...oh."

He slunk away.

Who the hell SAYS that?

[An Haddock]

You're DOING IT WRONG AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!


In this day and age, with everyone getting fancy with their name spelling, you'd think people wouldn't feel the need to comment. I could understand if it's an exotic-sounding name, they might be curious as to its origin. But to declare someone's parent spelled it wrong is just ignorance.

[Shyla]

How rude! Nasty man.

[notalwaysright]

You answered well... My reaction is to act like Dwight Schrute.

FALSE. Names can be spelled however a person wants.

And I'll be honest, some spellings make me roll my eyes a bit, but that doesn't mean that they're wrong. Arg.

[EricKei]

Who the hell SAYS that?

Assholes, that's who. Bored assholes with nothing better to do. At least he slunk away instead of pressing the matter, as it seems he at least realized that he had struck a nerve.

[MoonCat]

Same thing happened to my sister when she worked at Kohl's. Her name is one that has two possible spellings. Somebody looked at her name tag and said, "Oh, they spelled your name wrong!"

Both stupid AND ignorant.

[Mr Hero]

Makes me wonder if my sister gets this often. She has a common name with an uncommon spelling. Wonder how often she gets told our parents spelled her name wrong.

I felt this was relevant.

[Food Lady]

You answered well... My reaction is to act like Dwight Schrute.

FALSE. Names can be spelled however a person wants.

The more you post the more I wish I knew you IRL.

As for the O.P., all I can say about that overgrown child is "Who says that??" indeed. And how you answered is absolutely perfect! Well done.

[Valentinian]

"Tell your parents they forgot to teach you manners."

[RealUnimportant]

In this day and age, with everyone getting fancy with their name spelling, you'd think people wouldn't feel the need to comment.

Sadly, that's exactly why some people think they "have" to comment & "stand up for the old ways" (show how much of an over-entitled jerk they are.)

[MadMike]

FALSE. Names can be spelled however a person wants.

The person can also pronounce it anyway he wants. I remember when I was a kid, I was riding my bike with one of my friends, and we passed a house with the last name "Sloppy" on the mailbox. I thought it was pretty funny, but my friend knew the guy, and apparently he pronounced it "Slope-y."

And I remember the late great George Carlin making the same point.

"You can pronounce your name however you want. Your name could be S-M-I-T-H, and you could pronounce it 'Jonofsky' if you wanted."

"What's the name?"

"Jonofsky."

"How do you spell that?"

"S-M-I-T-H."

"Huh???"

"They're all silent, never mind!"

[TawnyMyst]

I've had that happen to me quite frequently. My first name is one that happens to have many different spellings, mine happens to be the most basic but still one of the least used. I have people that insist on spelling it different ways, even after I have spelt it out for them, even had bosses do so. I once had a lady at the license bureau insist that it was wrong when I was renewing my license, had to get her manager involved cause she insisted on correcting it to the way she wanted it spelled and was giving me all my paperwork with her spelling on it and wouldn't even look at any of my ID with the correct spelling, including my birth certificate. Her daughters name was spelt that way, therefore so must mine be.

[notalwaysright]

My last name (like most) was brought to the US and changed a bit. Most other families with that name chose to change it to a certain spelling. Mine didn't, they left out one letter that the other families included. One letter. It's not even that common of a last name, not like Smith or something, a name that people are used to seeing.

So we have a row of mailboxes in our hallway. When I moved in I filled out the card and the mailman wrote my last name correctly on the back of the box. Some time later I noticed that he changed it, to add that extra letter. Dude, it was right before. All my mail comes spelled different than what he wrote. I seem to get all my mail, so it's not a big deal, it just make me blink.

Food Lady, I'm so sarcastic and irritable in person. I think I translate better online.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

I used to work with a girl named Krystle (variation of Crystal)

[Javarod]

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