What's in a Name?

[dawn_felagund]

Random note:

Okay, as of five minutes ago, we are going to Bermuda! In March! Bobby and I needed to go somewhere to finish our open water dives for our scuba certifications, and we had promised my sister-in-law Erin to pay for part of a trip someplace cool with us for her 21st birthday. We'd originally considered going back to Puerto Rico, but in

Comments

[rinnor]

ROFLMAO! How dare you have both a middle initial and a hyphenated last name!

Well, things could be worse. I work with a lot of guys from different countries and there are some names that give everyone pause. Ratwinder (Ra-twinder, not rat-winder) is my favorite at the moment. Or the Chinese name of Shian (very clipped vowels, 2 syllables) that most will pronounce as Sean due to not even trying.

Or the name that I skim over, Hottle, which in the font most in use I keep reading as Hottie.

But I sympathize with not really liking your given name but not wanting to toss aside such a strong connection to your family, either by birth or by marriage. It took me about 25 years to accept my name, not great, but it's who I am. Besides the fact that I toyed with the idea of taking my mother's famiily name, but then my name would be be a good stage name for a stripper. Nix that.

[dawn_felagund]

I also feel a connection to my mother's maiden name...though it would not make a good stripper name! "Dawn Stuart"...nah. :) Though, since my mom's family is a bit of the reverse of the House of Finwe in that we have too many girls, the name will be carried on only if my one male Stuart cousin has kids.

Given how simple my name really is, I do feel sorry for people with foreign names. I know that if my name can be misspelled regularly, I'd hate to see what they endure!

[tarion_anarore]

*thud* Bermuda?! Now that is just plain unfair...;P I wants a post card!

What is it with people and names? People ask me how to spell my first name. Come on, it's not that hard! No, I don't spell it weird, with a 'k' or a 'y' or maybe a 'g'. People also mispronounce my last name with amazing frequency. And any medical facility is the worst. The bastards.

[dawn_felagund]

Your first name? But your first name is one of the easiest I know!

I mean, I could see if you really went by "Tárion"...that accent is just designed to confuse.

And I mean, people call me "Don" or "Jon," but your name?? Sheesh!
/rant ;)

And of course you'll get a postcard! :^D (Did I ever thank you for the Christmas card? If I did not...thank you!)

[tarion_anarore]

Yeah, I didn't realize it was difficult either!! I'm nearly tempted to change the spelling so that I can say, "My name is [], that's spelled..." and be annoying. ;) (Not really, too much work!)

Yeah, the accent is a real loop! Maybe I should say "my name is [real name], spelled T-a-r-i-o-n, accent over the 'a'' >;)

I have a postcard "wall" at school (it's actually a door, but whatever). :) (I don't think you technically, but no worries! You let me in on your secret 'card whore' status. And you're welcome!)

[frenchpony]

No one ever gets names right. Ever. It's a universal law. No matter how simple the name is, someone will mess it up.

I mean, take my name. French Pony. "French" is actually a name that was relatively popular around the time I was born, though not obnoxiously so. The thing is, most girls named "French" in the mid 70s had it with a fancy little spelling quirk. Now, I'm named "French" after my late bubbe, so Mom and Dad Pony stuck with the simple, common, "Jewish" spelling*. This does not stop people from being clever and using the fancy spelling anyway. Hell, it doesn't stop Granny Pony (other side of the family) from misspelling it on occasion

[ssotknapsack]

Occasionally, I wish I had a nice simple name like Cohen. But then, I'm told that even that name gets mispronounced and misspelled.

I'd imagine the same people who called my sister "Don" growing up would call you "Cone" in that case. ;)

[frenchpony]

David Ives wrote a wonderful short play called "The Universal Language," from the collection All In The Timing, featuring two characters, Don and Dawn.

[dawn_felagund]

I can believe that any name is mispronounced. Both my first name and my last name are nouns in the English language that are very common, and when I was young, no one said my last name properly. There was another girl a year ahead of me in school whose last name was one letter different from mine, and everyone called me by her name. My elementary school had 400 kids across five grades and kindergarten, so it was one of those places where everyone knew everyone, and they still said my name wrong.

And--like Sharon said--I did get routinely called Don and--once--John. Now I wasn't a pretty kid, but I don't think I was easily mistaken for a boy!

I can only imagine what you went through with a Yiddish name. Luckily, there is only one spelling for "Dawn."

[dawn_felagund]

Lol, thank you! I will! :^D

Bobby's and my names actually sound surprisingly good together. I considered even a conglomerate name: nixing the hyphen and just pasting the two names together, but if I get odd looks for hyphenating, imagine the trouble that would cause!

There is no perfect solution to the name problem, imho. I don't like one partner giving up his/her name, but hyphenating can pose a problem for people who want to have kids (which Bobby and I don't, so that's not our problem!) What happens when Sally Smith-Jones marries Sam Wilson-Clark, and they want to hyphenate....

Making a new name seems a good solution, but then both partners lose their family history.

And each partner keeping his/her name is fine, but there is no symbolic union.

Can you see how much I've thought about this? *angsts* Now talking about weird posts.... :^D

[dawn_felagund]

Yay Becky! Can I borrow her? :^D

I think you're onto something with the lack of wage. When I get warrants on someone with a name where multiple spellings are possible, the list of aliases stretches the length of my arm, largely--I suspect--because various eejits at intake have all spelled it correctly. Intake eejits aren't paid well, I suspect. Like today, we had a guy whose first name was "Johnathon." I'd bet that his list of aliases has him as Jonathan, Jonathon, Johnathan, John, and probably Jon to boot. And like with doctors' offices, there are circumstances when some fool's lack of care with names can have serious repercussions. :^/