About our names!

[raphandarrin 0]

Hey guys, do you get tired of spelling your names all the time?hahaha

There's no soul in this country able to spell my name right before the second try!When they ask for my name, I already start spelling it, don't even try saying it anymore, plus I usually ask if my last name is OK just to make it easier, coz it usually takes time hehehe

I had already shortened my name to make it easier, but my mother and grandmother-in-law still have troubles with it, I always wonder about Asian, Russian and other kinds of names that by far sound much harder than mine, just a silly thread to see if anyone else goes through funny situations, the funniest thing is going to some place that my name is called, I have to hold my laugh coz it's always something even funnier than before.

Share your stories if you have a "not very American name"

[Kathryn41 3,205]

I have a German last name and all of my life I have had to spell it. Like you I almost always start spelling it instead of saying it because people will always misspell it when left on their own devices - yet it is absolutely straight forward if you 'listen' to how it is pronounced. I kept my maiden name when I married but it hasn't made a difference between Canada or the US - it is still mispronounced and misspelled! It is a very unique name, though, and virtually everyone with the same name in Canada, the US and Germany are related - although some of those relationships go back to the 1700s!

Edited September 16, 2008 by Kathryn41

[bora bora 1]

Hey guys, do you get tired of spelling your names all the time?hahaha

There's no soul in this country able to spell my name right before the second try!When they ask for my name, I already start spelling it, don't even try saying it anymore, plus I usually ask if my last name is OK just to make it easier, coz it usually takes time hehehe

I had already shortened my name to make it easier, but my mother and grandmother-in-law still have troubles with it, I always wonder about Asian, Russian and other kinds of names that by far sound much harder than mine, just a silly thread to see if anyone else goes through funny situations, the funniest thing is going to some place that my name is called, I have to hold my laugh coz it's always something even funnier than before.

Share your stories if you have a "not very American name"

That's one reason why some immigrants legally change their names. I went to college with a guy named Joe Smith - his father was an immigrant from Poland who had a long ### surname...so he shortened it to Smith. You'd never know that Joe was the son of a Pole.

[Melissa&Vadim 0]

Hi,

I had to laugh while reading your posts! I had a very simple "American" name before I married my husband. My husband tried to convince me not to change my name when I married him. He told me how much more difficult my life would be if I changed my name to match his. Well it turns out, he may have had something there. Every time someone called on the phone for business (for instance, car insurance, etc), I learned to just spell my new last name, like you! It's strange, because there are a lot of people in my area with names with Polish ancestry (j's, w's, and syllables that aren't even pronounced) that are much more difficult...but a two-syllable Russian surname seems very difficult for people to try to wrap their mouths around, lol. It is definitely amusing.

[antda 13]

Hi Raphandarrin and Everyone,

What an interesting question "About our names!". This reminds me of something similiar that I posted on VJ recently, which answers this message thread too:

"Throughout my entire life though, I've heard various incorrect pronounciations and spellings of both my first name (which I still currently have) and last name (former maiden last name and present married last names). "Can't anybody get it right?", I find myself thinking when this happened/happens a lot in the past, present, and future. I'm glad that it's gotten better now that I have my "American" married last name, and I'm more than happy now to have that instead of my former maiden last name. It's funny though, as my former maiden last name and my present married last names are homonyms, which if said and/or spelt incorrectly means some other common words in the English language.

Then there are those questions as to the origin/ethnicity/culture of both my first names and last names, and how it relates to me (especially more so the combination of first name and my former maiden last name linked together). They look at my name, they look at me, they can't see the connection, and then get this look on their face... . Lol...perhaps I should consider another name change? Or I can just wear a sign that says "Quit asking me about my name. Just call me anything you want, and I'll answer to that."

Lol..funny, this also reminds me of the time I had to get my biometrics done for the AOS. They called some other person for their turn, and I thought they were referring to me. So I went when that name was called, only to have them say, "Ummm...you don't like a man." To which I replied, "Sorry, I thought you made a mistake on my name by calling me the male version of my first name instead. I get used to that mistake often, and hence, I'm used to replying to that". Realizing the mistake, I then sat back down, and the male who they called went for their turn, while I the female, had to wait for my turn afterwards.... "

Oh well, that's my "about my (non-American) name!" story.

Ant (What's in a non-American/American name...a funny story!)

Hey guys, do you get tired of spelling your names all the time?hahaha

There's no soul in this country able to spell my name right before the second try!When they ask for my name, I already start spelling it, don't even try saying it anymore, plus I usually ask if my last name is OK just to make it easier, coz it usually takes time hehehe

I had already shortened my name to make it easier, but my mother and grandmother-in-law still have troubles with it, I always wonder about Asian, Russian and other kinds of names that by far sound much harder than mine, just a silly thread to see if anyone else goes through funny situations, the funniest thing is going to some place that my name is called, I have to hold my laugh coz it's always something even funnier than before.

Share your stories if you have a "not very American name"

Edited September 16, 2008 by AntandD

[Mononoke28 135]

I think it's all ignorance in all honesty. The US is composed of all kinds of people with different cultures and different names and we just need to get used to it. It's not fair to change your name only because Joe Smith in the midwest does not care for it or does not want to write it correctly.

Diana

[Emancipation 2]

meh.. i have a pretty common name (heck even a football star has the same last name) but no one can spell it.. always use a ck instead of an x.. i just get used to just spelling it after I pronounce it.

AND people always as me if I spell my first name with one l or two.. that's annoying.. but anywhoo it's just the way it is

[melusine 5]

i have as a maiden name an asian last name and i have nothing asian...it's funny to see the faces of people wondering about it.

For work/study purpose i will keep my maiden name

but for everything else.....i did maiden name [space] husband last name

[lucyrich 20]

I used to work at a newspaper. I'd ALWAYS ask people to spell their names, even if their names were very common-sounding.

What sounds like "John Smith" could actually be spelled "Jon Smyth". And don't get me started about Kathy vs. Cathy vs. Kathie. It seems like some parents want to get "clever" with their child's names to confuse everybody who has to spell them.

On the other hand, if someone told me her name was Leticia Maribel Altamirano de Gutierrez, I'd have no trouble figuring out how to spell it, since I could be pretty confident of the phonetics. But traditional sounding Anglo names? You just never know.

[Lili 3]

My first name!

I just use a nickname. Even at work, my business cards and everything, I use an alias name. I hate being labeled as a foreigner.

[KarenCee 3]

My husband's surname is a traditional French Acadian name. It is hard for most to pronounce, much less spell, since it's not pronounced the way it's spelled. It's funny, but at the doctors offices, rather than call me "Mrs. XXXXX" they call me by my first name...one nurse told me she didn't want to butcher my name. My kids at school learned fairly quickly how to pronounce it...however for them, spelling it is another thing. TBH, none of it bothers me.

[Mononoke28 135]

Well, I have a pretty common first name which is Diana but for some odd reason that I will never understand people either call me Diane or spell it Diane. They can't get the concept that Diana and Diane are different names. So almost every time I have to spell it or say "no, it's Diana... like the princess". I mean, would you call Princess Diana, Princess Diane? Or Diana Ross, Diane Ross? No, two totally different names.

Diana

[raphandarrin 0]

hehehe that's funny, thanks for the input, guys.

My name in Raphaela and the 2 names they confuse the most with it is Raphael(that would be a guy's name lol) or Rachela ( #######?!?!I guess they see the H in the middle and just figure it's CH), for non formal purposes I just tell everyone to call me Rapha but from where I came from the pronounce of the R is like an H, so, it'd be something like "Hoffa" like the gangster hahaha sux!!!

[Mononoke28 135]

My sister's name is Salome and they used to call her Salami... yeah, she never got used to that.

I dated a guy once who was born in Spain but raised in the US. His name was Doroteo but people used to call him Dorito. The people closed to him used to call him Teo but whenever he got on my nerves I used to call him Dorito just to get under his skin.

Diana

[tom&tata 2]

I did not change my name. I have Indonesian first name & last name with old spelling. It's a blast at DMV, over the phone with customer service, doctor's office or trying to place an order for delivery. Most times I used my husband's name

It does not help that we live in small city in Indiana.