What's in a name (offtopic) WAS: Re: Chaz's Livejournal

[kayjayoh]

I tend to always call people by what they are introduced to me as, though if there are any discrepancies I will ask the person as to their preferred nomenclature.

[MadGastronomer]

I'll do my best to remember that; if I screw it up, blame the brainfog, 'k, 'cause it won't be intentional!

Don't worry about it. 

And kayjayoh, I always introduce myself as Rebecca, and ask my friends to do the same, but somehow, three syllables seems to be too many for some people.

[AndrewJ]

It's really hard to get my first name, Andrew, wrong; my biggest problem there has been getting people not to call me Andy. Although there was my art teacher in middle school who kept calling me 'Charlie' for some reason. For a while in high school, I was nick-named Slim, but that was twelve years and fifty pounds ago.
 
My last name, Janssen, gives some people fits, though. All through elementary school, the school secretary would spell it Johnson, and I've had people try to spell it as Jansen, Janson, Jansson, Jensen, Jenssen, Jenson, Jensson, Johnsson, Jonsson, and Jonson. People also think it's a Scandinavian name, but it's Dutch, actually.

[CJ]

I've had the opposite problem in terms of names - I hate my full first name, but I've had people who, even after I've worked with them for years, insist on using it no matter how many times I ask them not to.  The two worst offenders were both Brits and old enough to be my parents, so I'm not sure if it was a generational or cultural thing or both.

[Bunny M]

I really hate it when I do something like send a letter or an email, with my name in the address and the signature, and someone will reply with "Dear Kathy". It's so presumptuous, but we do that with diminutives in our society. If I were Robert, I'm sure I'd be getting "Dear Bob" (though probably not "Dear Bobby"). I think it is kind of rude. It is one thing if someone introduces themselves to you that way, but unless you are at a certain degree of familiarity and/or intimacy it is pretty ill-mannered to shorten someone's name. Yet it happens all the time.

Personally, given I have always hated my given name, I find it really gets my back up when people I'm dealing with in an official capacity feel that seeing my name on some ID or on a computer screen gives the=m the right to call me by it. Nowadays the only people that actually call me by it are my parents, but none of my friends get to use it. I've been Ghoti for nigh on 15 years now, and dammit, that's what people can call me if they want me to acknowledge it.

Sometimes these sorts of mistakes are extremely useful. When someone calls and asks for Mr. Bull or Mrs. Shetterly, we immediately say, "What are you selling?" Sometimes we go straight to: "There's no one by that name here. Please take us off your calling list."

Likewise. Given the phone is in the Housemate's name, if someone calls asking for Mr or Mrs X, then I just tell them "Sorry, no-one here by that name. You must have the wrong number."

I've had the opposite problem in terms of names - I hate my full first name, but I've had people who, even after I've worked with them for years, insist on using it no matter how many times I ask them not to.  The two worst offenders were both Brits and old enough to be my parents, so I'm not sure if it was a generational or cultural thing or both.

I've avoided that by just not giving people my first name unless I absolutely have to. At some point I'll have to get around to legally changing my name, so I can stop having to give it out ever. =P

People insisting on using a name or form of a name that you have repeatedly asked them not to seems the height of rudeness to my mind.

[nebula]

I, too, go ballistic if I'm called Kathy. (Or any other derivatives, but that is the most common.) I do find it interesting that there have been some people that I've had to correct over and over, but I'm pretty sure if I told them to call me Kate, they would get it right away.

I really hate it when I do something like send a letter or an email, with my name in the address and the signature, and someone will reply with "Dear Kathy". It's so presumptuous, but we do that with diminutives in our society. If I were Robert, I'm sure I'd be getting "Dear Bob" (though probably not "Dear Bobby"). I think it is kind of rude. It is one thing if someone introduces themselves to you that way, but unless you are at a certain degree of familiarity and/or intimacy it is pretty ill-mannered to shorten someone's name. Yet it happens all the time.

Oh I hear you! I hate, hate, hate being called Liz and I never, ever introduce myself as anything other than Elizabeth. I know there are four whole syllables there, but really, it's not that hard to say.

And shortening my name without asking me if you can call me Liz is just rude. Gah! I don't answer if people call me Liz because it isn't my name.

When I teach, as an icebreaker in the second session, I always ask my class to tell us their name and something about their name - why they were given it, what it means, or simply whether or not they like it. And most people have an opinion on whether or not they like their name to be shortened - which is why I don't understand people shortening without your permission.

[pnkrokhockeymom]

I'm Kimberly, and I REALLY hate it when people just assume I'm a Kim.  And it happens all of the time at work.  I mean, there are a dozen different things you could call me, but a "Kim," I am NOT.  Nearly every male partner over the age of 35 at my firm, I swear, no matter how many times I am introduced or introduce myself as Kimberly, no matter how many of my other co-workers they hear call me Kimberly, feels free to call me Kim.  The female lawyers are less likely to just up and shorten my name.  Recently I figured out that our phone system (which identifies me to internal callers and callees) said "Kim" instead of "Kimberly," and I could not believe how HARD I had to work to get them to change it. 

[ebony14]

I really hate it when I do something like send a letter or an email, with my name in the address and the signature, and someone will reply with "Dear Kathy". It's so presumptuous, but we do that with diminutives in our society. If I were Robert, I'm sure I'd be getting "Dear Bob" (though probably not "Dear Bobby"). I think it is kind of rude. It is one thing if someone introduces themselves to you that way, but unless you are at a certain degree of familiarity and/or intimacy it is pretty ill-mannered to shorten someone's name. Yet it happens all the time.

Sometimes these sorts of mistakes are extremely useful. When someone calls and asks for Mr. Bull or Mrs. Shetterly, we immediately say, "What are you selling?" Sometimes we go straight to: "There's no one by that name here. Please take us off your calling list."

I have a friend named Geoff who feels the same way when he gets calls asking for (phonetically) "Joff" or "Jee-off" instead of "Jeff." Me, I have to tell people that it's "Aaron" ("Two ayes, one arr, one oh, one enn."), not "Aron," "Arron," "Erron" and certainly not "Erin." It's in the first book of the Bible; how hard can it be?

And then there's my favorite pet peeve; when I tell people how to spell it, they say, "That's "A-aron" (drawing out the first sound). You said it wrong." Um, whose name is it? Mine! It's pronounced how I say it is!