Apropos of Nothing

[penmage]

I really hate it when people misspell my name.

It's not a common name. It's unusual, I know, and even the people who share it with me spell it differently than I do. I can excuse it to a degree. If you've just met me, or if you've never seen it written down, or only write my name down infrequently, whatever, I don't care.

BUT. My professional email address is firstname.lastname@gmail.com. Is it SO HARD to realize that I spell my name like the first half of said email address when you're emailing me? Or, when you've known me for a really long time, and had opportunity to see me write my name and spell my name many times, is it so hard to spell it right?

It's totally unjustified, but it seriously pisses me off.

Comments

[peartreealley.livejournal.com]

When people mess up Ann and Anne, I shrug.

When they mess up Ann with Amy, I'm baffled. And it's happened, several times, repeatedly, in my life.

(And I had to give up on my last name. People cannot say it or spell it. But my first name? Come on.)

[etoilepb.livejournal.com]

At my old job, my e-mail address was firstname.lastname@company.com.

Here, it's firstname_lastname@company2.com.

And there are still LOADS of people, at both jobs, who will spell my name correctly in the e-mail address, K_____, but then address their message, "Hi C_____,"

Drives me NUTS.

[demon-mistress.livejournal.com]

i've written letters to people where i TYPE my name in beneath my signature and both say first name last name. and yet i often get responses made out to mr. last name first name.

not quite the same thing, but i understand how annoying it can get.

[g33kgrrl]

One of my work-friends gets that. She answers, "Actually, I prefer to go by my first name."

[spinflight.livejournal.com]

i get letters addressed to "ms." all the time. on the phone people mishear me as jim or ken. lately i've been shortening my last name to 4 letters because people can't deal with all 9. :-/

[shhbabe.livejournal.com]

People are stupid.

[gimmelgirl.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem. It's even in my SIGNATURE line. It's common courtesy to get someone's name right. Period.

[shhbabe.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[g33kgrrl]

Yep, same here. And as above, it's in my signature. And when an email pops up here, it shows a display full-name instead of just the email address. I've worked at my organization for over two years now, and I do find it unbearably rude and disrespectful when my coworkers spell my name wrong. It makes me really not want to answer the question they're emailing with, since, I mean, obviously they sent it to the wrong person. As that is not my name!

(Also, getting messages to our public folder addressed to Dear Sir. NO.)

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Yes. That. MY EMAIL ADDRESS IS MY FIRST NAME. Every damn time, a certain co-worker always wrote to merrie@ and addressed me as Mary.

So, to retaliate, I started addressing his emails to Andy, because he hated the nickname.

Petty is as petty does.

[coppervale.livejournal.com]

I keep getting people spelling my last name with an "S" attached to the end - even on flyers from booksellers who have a HUNDRED BOOKS in front of them with the right spelling.

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

This is why I switched to my wife's last name. Half as long, and more Jewish-sounding than the one I was born with, and easier for the common folk to spell, besides.

[shhbabe.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes it is hard, very hard. I know this because I frequently get emails addressed to Theresa and my email address is too firstname.lastname@company.com. The scary part? I get internal emails addressed that way. Internally for all TW companies appears as Last name, First name (company call letters, ex. CCL). They've got to spell it more or less right in order to send me email, even inhouse. But I'll still get emails to "Lastname, Teresa (CCL)" that begin Dear Theresa. Argh!

[fshk.livejournal.com]

I got a lot of "Dear Mr. Lastname," when I was doing more correspondence at my old job. I hate how male is the default when you can't tell the gender of the name. I only occasionally see people misspell my first name, as it's common enough and I spell it in the traditional way, but people screw up the spelling of my last name all the time. I realize that it's got an extra capital letter and punctuation (and, to be fair, the apostrophe is not in my email address) but it's common and is shared by several famous people. It should not be that hard.

[ladyluna.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm a Mc...and nothing pisses me off more than when people don't capitalize the second capital letter in my name.

[fshk.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know all about that. O' here.

[ladyluna.livejournal.com]

I guess at least I don't have the ' but still. My boss did my first set of business cards for me, and in my email address she didn't capitalize my next letter. Will the emails still get to me? Yes, but these were my first business cards ever! I did my own reorder and it's fixed :)

[rosaleendhu.livejournal.com]

I had some teachers in high school who spent the whole year getting my name wrong every time they read it, and I occasionally felt like I was at war with my French teacher.

People with unusual names should form a support group or something.

[jaenanda.livejournal.com]

When I was younger, my teachers wouldf actually try to correect the spelling of my last name.

Um, no. I know what my name is.

Yup. annoying.

[lnbw.livejournal.com]

I'm very careful about spelling people's names partly because so many people are careless with mine, and I hate it. (This is why after less than a week I could spell and pronounce Connie's last name even though people who have known her for years still get it wrong.)

I have a list posted at my desk with the title "NAMES THAT ARE NOT MINE," where I keep track of all the mistaken names people have called me...

[penmage.livejournal.com]

This is why we're friends.

But SERIOUSLY. How do people get YOUR name wrong? I desperately want to know. Pls to bring that list on Tuesday so I can be enlightened.

I am also compulsive about pronouncing people's names right. I MUST KNOW how you like to be called so I can do it right, even if the world gets it wrong.

[g33kgrrl]

Yeah. I work with new hires a lot, and I always ask how to pronounce their names - just to make sure. It seems respectful. I had someone ask me mine the other day and that made a better first impression than anything else I can think of off the top of my head.

[robina1984.livejournal.com]

Off topic, but I had to say, LOVE THE ICON!

Molly and Gert from Runaways, right? ^_^

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Yup! Good eye :).

Out of curiosity, do I know you? If no, how did you find your way here?

[robina1984.livejournal.com]

As far as I know, you don't know me. You clicked on some of my dragons on one of my comms and I really liked your username, so decided to check you out. Your post on the Twilight books was excellent, and I like your book reviews. Which means I decided to keep an eye on you. Hope you don't mind too much!

I love Runaways. I so need to find more of the comics. Poor Gert...

[penmage.livejournal.com]

Of course I don't mind! It's nice to meet you. I just am always curious how people find me. Welcome :).

[tamnonlinear.livejournal.com]

This is why I generally copy & paste names rather than trying to spell them.

Also, this is why I deliberately misspell the names of people who get mine wrong. It's passive-aggressive, but it seems to work at getting them to spell mine wrong after that.

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

I have people who spell my first name with an i in corporate email, even though Outlook automatically expands my email alias to the right spelling. Not only that, but my alias is also firstnamelastname at company. :p I'm with you on the irritation.

However, my last name is pretty much unspellable on first glance and is completely not phonetic. So I just shrug when people screw that up.

[opal1159.livejournal.com]

Some people at work don't spell my name correctly even though my internal email is "firstname x lastname" :(

One of my previous groups worked with a woman named Judith (and this was in her email address). On the phone, she referred to herself with the shortened version, and since she spelled it "Judy" in her email signoffs, I did also, but the other people on my team kept typing "Judi". I wondered if that ever bothered her.

[robina1984.livejournal.com]

I have a common first name with an uncommon spelling. By one letter. TWO people in my entire life have managed to spell my name correctly without having to look at something when they first met me. My own cousins/brothers/grandparents spell my name wrong. How's that for failure?

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

I get irrationally annoyed when people spell my name LindsEy. Especially people who've known me for a while. But the ones that really baffle me are the ones who LOOK at my name and call me "Lizzy" or -- yes, I got this once -- "Lauren."

What?