So today I got a call from my vet telling me my dog “[name_f]Gina[/name_f]” as in [name_m]Gee[/name_m]-nuh was ready for her annual wellness exam.
Thing is, my dog’s name is [name_f]Jenna[/name_f].(She’s a white [name_m]German[/name_m] shepherd and [name_f]Jenna[/name_f] means “white; fair; smooth” thought I was pretty clever lol)
I know they have it spelled right in the system. [name_m]How[/name_m] on earth do you get [name_f]Gina[/name_f] out of [name_f]Jenna[/name_f]? I live in the southern US so accent has nothing to do with it!
What’s the weirdest way someone has pronounced your name?
Luckily for me, my name is three letters long and there’s only one way to pronounce it. My poor friend [name_f]Angharad[/name_f] gets all sorts of bizarre things though. Angryhad, ANG-ha-rad etc.
Most common mispronunciation of my name is SEE-sha, though people do often mistake it for [name_u]Sasha[/name_u]. The misspellings, however, can be insane: Sesha, Seesha, [name_u]Sasha[/name_u], Shesa, Shesha, [name_f]Tasha[/name_f], [name_f]Keisha[/name_f], and Seeshaw, in order of wackiness. Seriously, I get missing the double s in the middle, but how does one hear SEH-sha and get Seeshaw?? O.o
My name is [name_u]Madison[/name_u], but I go by [name_f]Maddie[/name_f], and I get called [name_f]Maggie[/name_f], [name_f]Madelyn[/name_f], and [name_f]Madeline[/name_f] all the time. I’ve been called [name_f]Betty[/name_f] and [name_f]Pattie[/name_f] before, too. I have no idea how [name_f]Maddie[/name_f] = [name_f]Betty[/name_f] or [name_f]Pattie[/name_f]. Me getting called all sorts of names other than my actual name is sort of an inside joke between my best friend and I. lol
I’m an [name_f]Ebony[/name_f] top 100 in Australia since I was born but I always get [name_f]Emily[/name_f] or [name_f]Emma[/name_f]. Seriously [name_f]Ebony[/name_f] to [name_f]Emma[/name_f] its highly annoying. My sister has a quite unusual name [name_f]Adele[/name_f] yet people get it right all the time.
My mom, [name_u]Kelly[/name_u], gets [name_f]Helen[/name_f] all the time at Starbucks. Not just once or twice, but nearly 80% of the time. And she doesn’t have an accent.
My first name, [name_f]Reine[/name_f], has some weird ones. I get [name_f]Ree[/name_f]-[name_f]Ann[/name_f] quite often (actually second to [name_f]Renee[/name_f] and [name_u]Rain[/name_u]). Um, my name doesn’t have an A in it…
I know a [name_f]Kylah[/name_f] who gets [name_f]Kayla[/name_f]; a [name_f]Kylie[/name_f] that gets [name_f]Kaylee[/name_f]; a [name_f]Cayenne[/name_f] who gets [name_f]Cheyanne[/name_f]; Markeisha who got [name_u]Mackenzie[/name_u] (No joke!); an [name_f]Aurelia[/name_f] who gets [name_f]Ariella[/name_f]; a Tanajah who gets Tawn-uh-shuh, and a heck of a lot more.
I’m [name_u]Angel[/name_u]. My whole life almost every time I introduce myself to someone they go “Oh [name_f]Angela[/name_f]” and I’m already shaking my head. “No, it’s just [name_u]Angel[/name_u].”
Then I get a weird look. “But isn’t it short for [name_f]Angela[/name_f]?” “No, it’s just [name_u]Angel[/name_u].” Then they usually immediately start trying to call me [name_u]Angie[/name_u].
I once had a sub in high school who, and I am not kidding, spent half a class arguing with me about my own name. She insisted I was [name_f]Angela[/name_f] and that it was a typo on the list. She went so far as to tell me I didn’t know my own name and that no one would be dumb enough to name someone just [name_u]Angel[/name_u] because it wasn’t a real name.
I had this same conversation in college with my first [name_m]German[/name_m] teacher who had moved from Germany not that long ago but it was more like “You know [name_u]Angel[/name_u] isn’t a real name in Germany. Your mother wouldn’t have been allowed to name you that. It would have had to be [name_f]Angela[/name_f] since that’s a proper name.”
I also had a “[name_u]Angel[/name_u]? Not [name_f]Angela[/name_f]? Is that your birth name?” conversation in college.
I’ve also been called [name_f]April[/name_f] [name_m]WAY[/name_m] more than you would think. I’ve also been called [name_u]Ashley[/name_u] a few times. As a matter of fact, [name_f]April[/name_f] is what people tend to say when they’ve only just met me and can’t be bothered to remember [name_u]Angel[/name_u] 5 minutes later. After 3 years at the daycare my boss was still calling me [name_f]April[/name_f] sometimes and my husbands grandparents called me [name_f]April[/name_f] the entire 5 years we dated.
As a [name_f]Jemima[/name_f], I get ‘[name_f]Jemma[/name_f]’ a LOT. There’s a whole syllable that people are missing! And the spellings can be truly atrocious. I’ve had [name_f]Jemma[/name_f] millions of times, but also [name_f]Jemimah[/name_f], [name_f]Gemima[/name_f], Jemymah… it’s horrible!
I’ve taken to introducing myself as ‘[name_f]Jemima[/name_f], like the puddle duck’; or ‘[name_f]Jemima[/name_f], like the doll on PlaySchool’ and then people get it right 95% of the time, which is nice!
My twin sister [name_f]Gretel[/name_f] gets a lot of '[name_f]Greta[/name_f]'s; and also some interesting spellings. Grettle (like kettle I suppose), [name_f]Gretal[/name_f], and Gretyl, to name a few. She now sometimes introduces herself, ‘[name_f]Gretel[/name_f], like [name_m]Hansel[/name_m] and [name_f]Gretel[/name_f]’. We have very story-book names! I love it though; I would never change my name.
When I went in to primary school, and still was called [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f], my teacher would call me [name_f]Cecilie[/name_f] after another girl in class! And he kept doing it for the an entire year!
Then I had a teacher that couldn’t be bothered with having two girl with almost the same name. So he named me [name_f]Maja[/name_f]. [name_f]Elizabeth[/name_f] = [name_f]Maja[/name_f]?
My name is [name_f]Anna[/name_f] … you would think its popular enough for everyone to know how to spell it … expect of course for the ppl in starbucks they somehow never heard of this name and call me [name_f]Enna[/name_f] all the time…
This is interesting. My [name_u]Angel[/name_u], who really is an [name_f]Angela[/name_f], will just introduce herself as [name_u]Angel[/name_u] and - as far as I know - no one questions her over it. She’s in Ohio.
I’m “[name_f]Christina[/name_f]” and all my life people have been calling me “[name_f]Christine[/name_f]”. When I was little I used to correct people and some would get really offended for some reason and continue to call me [name_f]Christine[/name_f]. Finally I just gave up. My employers who I’ve been working for for over a year still call me [name_f]Christine[/name_f] on occasion. I loathe my name already, and it irritates me to know end when people butcher it even more.
My name IS [name_f]Gina[/name_f] and I get [name_f]Jenna[/name_f] ALL THE TIME. I actually had a class with a [name_f]Jenna[/name_f] and we had a long term substitute that always called her [name_f]Gina[/name_f] and me [name_f]Jenna[/name_f]. Not as a confusion thing, because our names were really far apart on the list and we sat far away from each other too. I never understood it.
Also, I’ve been called [name_f]Regina[/name_f], [name_f]Christina[/name_f], and [name_f]Virginia[/name_f]. Also [name_f]Tina[/name_f], but that was typically over the phone, and I get it.
In sixth grade, there were two other girls in my class who looked like me, named [name_u]Courtney[/name_u] and [name_f]Erica[/name_f]. The teachers got us mixed up ALL YEAR and I found myself accidentally writing [name_f]Erica[/name_f] on my papers instead of my own name!
The worst mispronunciation I have ever got for my name (which is [name_f]Catalina[/name_f]) was from a school librarian, who said always [name_u]Kit[/name_u]-ee-vee-nuh. It wasn’t even an accent issue, either. And she wasn’t doing it on purpose to annoy me!
I actually have the strange experience of never having anyone pronounce my name wrong. [name_u]Ever[/name_u]! Seriously. I don’t know if it’s possible, lol.
I don’t remember it ever being mistaken for another name either. Makes things simple that’s for sure.
My name is [name_u]Kim[/name_u].
My maiden surname was also pretty simple, and it was quite weird to transition to a name that is regularly misspelled and questioned.