Comments on: A Rose By Any Other Name

By: Anton Sherwood

Anton Sherwood — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:08:25 +0000

My name is fairly often turned into its French form (more often by people of color, it seems). At some point I decided to let it go.

What puzzles me is ANTONE. I’ve known only one bearer of that form; what tradition does it belong to? Recently I told a clerk “five letters” and watched as she confidently wrote ANTONE.

Still, better this than the eight or ten common names that were substituted for my monosyllabic first name (before I dropped it).

By: Michael Parker

Michael Parker — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:08:02 +0000

My name is Michael Parker and I usual go by Michael A. Parker professionally and use Mike on a more casual basis. You’d think with a name as white bread as that there would be no problem, but my name has often been misspelled as Micheal. I’ve also had companies add my middle initial to my first name, coming up with Michaela! Parker they usually get right, though rarely it becomes Barker.

My parents don’t fare so well. My father is Terry and my stepmother is Claude (and they have different last names) so as you can imagine they always get their names mixed up. Terry is usually a girl’s name, Claude never is. My mom is Frida… which is usually turned into Frieda. So you are definitely not alone.

By: Eunoia

Eunoia — Fri, 08 May 2009 18:51:36 +0000

Because people had a problem pronouncing my surname, when I went online I chose ‘Eunoia’ as a nickname,only to discover that most people couldn’t pronounce it either, let alone know what it means

Stu Savory

By: ChiaLynn

ChiaLynn — Wed, 06 May 2009 18:34:59 +0000

I’ve gotten used to introducing myself as “Chia, yes like the pet,” just to get it out of the way. It’s also, really, the easiest way to remember it.

I didn’t quite manage to retrieve my maiden name before I had a degree made out in it (two of them, in fact), but went back to it soon after, and kept it when I remarried. When I was using my first husband’s name, though, I also used my maiden name as a second middle name – not hyphenated. You can imagine the bizarre permutations. My favorite was “Mr. Evers C. Fischer.” Mr. Fischer used to get quite a few invitations to tropical resorts.

By: A.

A. — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:32:22 +0000

Yeah, K can be misspelled. LOL I should have seen that coming.

By: Marc Novak

Marc Novak — Tue, 05 May 2009 07:46:16 +0000

Fortunately my name doesn’t lend itself to permutations but from time to time people do spell “Marc” with a ‘k’, even when armed with the knowledge of how my name is actually spelt. I don’t mind at all if my name is misspelt in the context of receiving an invitation or a card from someone I’ve had little or no contact with over the years. It can however be a little irritating when I sign a written communication ‘Marc’ and the response comes back ‘Mark’.

My surname is an anglicised version of “Nowak” or “Novák” and only on the rarest occasions does someone spell it as the non-anglicised version. Typically that only occurs verbally, e.g. when I’m asked, how do you spell ‘Novak’ is it ‘Nowak’? Which when it happens, I actually quite like.

I’m happy I don’t have a given name that has common permutations. The odds against an individuals wish to retain a particular spelling ‘vs‘ societies need to find the lowest common denominator, declare familiarisation and endearment, must be quite high.