"That which we call a rose by any other word would smell as sweet." Right? Hm.
Okay, this is just a continuation of the comments on my last blog...they seemed to be taking on a life of their own, so I put it to you. Have you ever had your name butchered? Why? Is it an unusual name, spelling or pronunciation? Was it accidental? Was it on purpose? What about nicknames?
I have to admit that I never had a big problem with this growing up (other than being called lots of clever names that had absolutely nothing to do with my name by my siblings). I have one of the most pedestrian names around, I think. I like it. I do. It's just pretty un-make-fun-of-able. Go ahead, give it your best shot. The worst a classmate could do when I was a kid was, "Yeah, Christina BIZZZHOP!" Yeah. I'm still reeling from that one. Please. Okay, I know I'm totally asking for it here, but Christina? Bishop? Without being blasphemous or anything...I don't really see it being easy to mock.
Okay, but I will give you my nickname from my childhood. Warning: I do this as an offer of good faith. I do know what it is to be called names, but this isn't an invitation here to do so...unless it's a really good one. So my nickname as a kid was Bina....as in Christina-bina. I was so proud of it, I would introduce myself to people, "My name's Christina, but you can call me Bina!" Yeah. Turning 30 in 7 days has re-emphasized the fact that I'm way over nicknames.
Okay...now I'm rambling. Get on with it. Let's here the name debate. Go.
18 comments:
Variations on a Theme of Keng:
King (obviously, and when I spell it out, people often ask, "are you sure? Are you sure it's not K-I-N-G?")
Kang
Kung
Kong (really, it's only one vowel, how many variations can you HAVE?)
Kent
Chang
Mah
Kaynge (don't ask)
Heth (ditto)
...and just yesterday, Reng. That's new.
I don't think I have to worry about it anymore, well at least I hope I don't with a generic name like Heather Smith. But when it was Collier, I'd get the "coul-yer" pronunciation with an an emphasis on the COUL part or "Cowl-yer" as in Simon Cowell. Or if I didn't spell it out for people, they'd spell it like Colliar which makes no sense to me. I'd think Collier wouldn't be so difficult to pronounce or spell. I actually even had people ask me the correct spelling of my first name... it's Heather. H-E-A-T-H-E-R. Not hard people. For some people of other nationalities where they don't do the "th" sound, I understand... but seriously. It's surprising to me. And I agree with the Heth thing... OH and my middle name which is Yvonne, I pronounce it as EEE-vonne, but when people pronounce it as uh-vonne, that drives me nuts. Okay, that's it. That's all... Bina...
sorry for the randomness comment with no actual comment before this one.
AK-
I love it when people ask you if you're sure you know what your own name is. Ha!
Well, I kind of covered the worst one in the last mispronunciation post, but what the hayride.
While trying to read "wynne":
Wayne, Ween, Weenie.
Trying to comprehend it after I've just told it to them:
Lynn, Jen, Wendy, Wind, When.
Last name, "urien," commonly gets read as "yer-ee-en." (And I can't blame them. That's probably how I would say it if I didn't know better.)
Worst instance of someone trying to read them together: "weenie urine." No, that is not anyone's name, heaven forbid!
And once at the pharmacy the pharmacist mistyped my name up as "urine" and while I was having her correct it, the elderly lady behind me chuckled and said, "You think that's bad? I used to have a friend named Vergina!"
Um, and one more that I'm pretty sure is an urban legend, but why not post? (At the very least, perhaps Christina can confirm my suspicions.)
First day of a new semester and the teacher tries to read a student's name off the roll. Teacher finds out later that the name is pronounced "Shi-thay-ud." Unfortunately, it's spelled "Sh*thead" and that's what he read off in class without realizing what he was saying.
Gotta be an urban legend, no?
AK - I have to admit not being sure whether your last name was King or Kang or what, when I first heard it. Vowel sounds are so close for Americans. We're lazy speakers to it all sounds the same. Sorry.
Oh and your Heth story? Classic. Truly bizarre, but classic!
And I agree w/ Wynne. Do people really think they know better than you do about your own name? It's like someone else telling me what Mormons believe. "No, actually, they DO still practice polygamy." Um...no. No we don't.
Heather - Hm, a name change is a clever way to get around having people mispronounce your name...or a way to invite MORE mispronunciations! I guess you don't have to worry about that with Smith, though. I may just start calling you Smitty though. Smitty Yeevohn. Yeah, I like the sound of that. (I'm kidding!)
Wynne - According to snopes.com, the name is a legend form, starting from something earlier and developing into what we have today. The implications of racial slurs, however, are atrocious! http://www.snopes.com/racial/language/names.htm
Read the whole thing. It's really interesting. So the fact may be that there are some sh*theads out there, although I truly hope not, but whether or not it is true is not the heart of the matter, rather the motivations behind it. We discuss this kind of thing every week in my Contemporary Legends class, as a matter of fact. Very interesting stuff. Wynne, notice the name Urine in the snopes entry. Oy, people!
One more thing. I'm sure you have already been to this site, but check it out anyway. It's all kinds of fun! http://wesclark.com/ubn/
Click on 'Cream of the Crop'.
Yeah, so about that "cream of the crop"- Delinda's name is in there. As well as my grandmother's name DeFonda. Yes, Capital D, little E, capital F- onda.
I already mentioned Gillians, Gillin, and Jillins. I've also gotten Collins several times; now that's just plain lazy.
I also get many spelling variants: Gillians (people really like that form), Gillens, Gillans, Gillin, etc. My favorite is when I spell it out letter by letter and they still get it wrong:
"G-I-L-L-I-N-S"
And the guy writes "G-I-L-L-I-A-N-S." And I'm always sure not to stutter, so I don't know where he heard that extra letter. Trust me! I know how to spell my name!
My mom doesn't have a middle name, and on Washington State driver's licenses part of the number is your middle initial. So my mom has an asterisk where that letter should be. When she has to give her license number to people, she'll say, "G-I-L-L-I-M-Asterisk..." and the clerk will say, "I'm sorry, but I can't enter that. What is your license number?" And she'll repeat. And they won't believe her until she shows it to them and pronounces each character as she points to it with her finger. Pretty ridiculous.
I have a theory. See if you agree with me on this one.
People are stupid.
Speaking of middle initials. (And again this goes along with my aforementioned theory.) I don't have a middle name either, but I keep getting stupid junk mail for Christina N. Bishop. What's the 'N' for? Christina Nanook Bishop? Dang, they're on to my hidden eskimo heritage. Do YOU know what the 'N' is for?
Oh, and Heather...I'm sorry that Delinda and your grandmother had to find out this way that they're secretly from Utah.
I just had to add that my first name (and the first time I am breaking my supposed Internet anonymity) is NOT hard to spell: J-E-N. I know people spell theirs with an extra N, and I have nothing against them personally, but that is grammatically incorrect (as syllables are hyphenated at double consonants: Jen-nifer as opposed to Jenn-ifer), plus, it's superfluous. I say my name is "Jen", NOT "Jennnnnnnnnnn"....
Whatever. Just please stop misspelling my first name as well as my last. There are only SEVEN letters!!
Obviously I have name-spelling issues. Please forgive my online rant.
Jen - All rants welcome! You have name-spelling issues and I have name-shortening issues. I don't know if I've voiced these here or not, but it seems as good a place as any.
My name is Christina. Not (heaven forbid!) Tina. Not Christy. Not (gag!) Chrissy. Not Chris. Not Stina. Not even Christine. No. My name is Christina. If you're too lazy to say the entire thing then you're an awfully sorry human being. Excuse me, but you are. And no, my name is also NOT Bina anymore, unless you happen to be one of my adorable 19 nieces or nephews. Actually, I think I'll reserve that for the ones age 10 or below, which only includes about 9 of you. Too many stipulations? Get over it. It's my name, so say it right!
Thanks! Have a lovely day! :)
Oh, I have all sorts of name issues. I am Sara-without-an-H. Sometimes I think I should just legally change my name to "Sara-without-an-H" because there is just no way I will ever be a Sarah.
I won't even start on my last name. I have only recently and very tenuously learned to laugh off comments about it. I will however enter the most recent in the humiliations it has brought me. I couldn't use my full name to register on Facebook because apparently "Balls" is too vulgar to use as a last name. Whatever. Okay, I guess I haven't learned how to laugh off every comment about it. Like I said, I have issues.
People really just can't resist the urge to add an "s" to the end of my last name and make it Majors. Honestly...?
A few years ago someone asked me what my name was and I said “Warren.” My somewhat juvenile roommate asked me if I said “porn.” The nickname stuck with a few select people. My name on the whiteboard in the house was “Porn” for a good long while after that.
UPC - May I pause here for a moment of gratuitous MASH quotation?
Margaret: Major, Major Houlihan.
Major: Major Houlihan. Major Burns.
Frank Burns: Major. Major.
Hawkeye: Major Pierce. Well, I think we've made a "major" breakthrough.
---------------------------------
Margaret: They're mocking my Majority.
Hawkeye: Well, what do you know? We're "major" mockers.
Sam, I would NEVER mock your majority.
Warren - Ouch. Not cool. Those are no friends of yours. If you're going to get stuck with a nickname, couldn't it at least have been mis-heard as something like Bourne(as in the Bourne Supremacy or something)....or Corn (like the vegetable)....or Mourn (uhhh...like they're mourning for you?) I don't know. It just seems that they could have been more creative in their hearing loss.
Yeah, with a 10-letter German last name, I've gotten just about everything out there. Usually when someone asks my name, I just say "Steinacker. S-T-E-I-N-A-C-K-E-R." It saves time. But then people think I said "p" instead of "t" or spell it with an "h" instead of a "k", and every other conceivable combination. I've stopped trying to tell people that my name is not "Ahndrea" or "Ahndraya." People used to ask me if it was like Shannon Dougherty's character on 90210. Yuck. At least you can't make anything nasty with my name (at least that I've thought of!).
So Wynne, how DO you pronounce your last name? I don't know better.
Since I am joining the party late and I just caught up on the blog and was reading chronologically I posted a comment on the last entry about mispronunciations/misspellings.
I will continue on...
Andrea I do the same thing! Although my first name is generally an issue it is my LAST name (Bird) which simply cannot be understood on the telephone (Berg, Burg) so I nearly always spell it because otherwise I end up with Andrien Byrd-- go figure.
Frankly I don't mind nicknames so much but I was never able to have a cute shortened name. (Jenny, Becky, Katie, Ali)
This was a trial as a child, no big deal now.
I still think Adri looks like a "wanna be."
One last thing.
As a college freshman I met a beautiful boy. He asked me my name probably 5 different times. (This is not the amazing thing.)
Each time he would say,
"Oh, like ADRIEN!"
And I would smile and say,
"What is that from?"
He would then explain about the movie Rocky and sometimes add details of the fight scene...
Ok the 5th time he really did say,
"Wait a minute, haven't I told you this before?"
:) That was the extent of our relationship.
Andrea - German last names are fun,aren't they? No, my last name isn't German, but I grew up in a highly German-Polish-Serbian-Croat-Eastern European-populated area and we had all KINDS of great names! Let's see, like...Schindhelm, Galaszewski, Kocovsky, Bystrzycki, Bzdusek, Grueneberg, Schmeling, Malischke, Reuchlen...ok, you get the idea. Thinking of those last names, I realize how grateful I am for my nice, boring last name. :)
Blue - Wynne...may I? It's like "You-ryan", emphasis in the 'ry'.
Speaking of names...remember when we made up our own middle names because we felt so left out? Ha! What was yours? I think mine was either Rose or Racquel...or maybe it was a hyphenate. They just sounded so romantic to me. Sigh. I'm so glad Mom didn't take us down to the courthouse to have those names added to our birth certificate. Yech!
I like the name Adri and you even get the cute 'i' at the end of the name! Like 'Bunni' or 'Traci' or 'Larri'....see? Cute!
I am picturing you playing the "dumb girl" card as a flirting tactic and I just can't see it! So funny! Sad that it didn't work out. (or not..since you found a guy who could actually remember your name ;) Ha!)
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