Elizabeth Anne Hull
Dr. Elizabeth Anne Hull has issued a statement in which she says, “My dearly beloved parents, who sadly have passed away, did not name me ‘Elizabeth Ann Hull.’ Instead they named me ‘Elizabeth Anne Hull,’ with an e, and I would be grateful if anyone who has occasion to write my name down would conform to their wishes.”
Dr. Hull, who is a former president of the Science Fiction Research Association and long-time newsletter editor for World SF — and has married well — is not willing to pin the blame for this on the newsmagazine Locus, although it has been widely reported that they are responsible for the mislabeling.
“We all do the best we can,” she says. “I am not going to hurl accusations.”
Alan Robson says:
I sympathise. My name is Alan Robson. I’m not Allan Robertson, Allen Robinson, or any other strange spellings that people so frequently devise for me. I’m Alan Robson, but I’m very rarely addressed as such. Why is it so hard?
February 16, 2010, 4:58 pmRobert Nowall says:
I’ve taken the protective response of not paying attention when my name is misspelled. When I was in high school, I once missed, and had to repeat, a whole semester of gym class because my name was misspelled—and if your name began with “N,” would *you* look under “K” to find yourself?
February 17, 2010, 3:55 amJohn Smith says:
I hear what you’re saying, Bill, and I sympathize. I don’t think anyone’s ever, and I mean *ever*, got my name right. Maybe Ms. Hall should sue those Locus people, or something.
February 17, 2010, 5:45 amElizabeth Anne Hull says:
Two new pieces of mail came today (from people who ought to know better) without my “e.” Plus one from one of your fans, who identifies himself as a mensa member, with a “c” before the final “k” in your name. Sigh.
February 17, 2010, 12:44 pmChookie says:
I have an Eastern European surname that\’s really difficult to spell, and I find that most people DO take care. When I am with them. The problem is the people who type it in elsewhere, such as the ones who make work name-tags…
February 17, 2010, 3:52 pmEdS says:
When I moved into my current house many years ago and was setting up the utilities in my name I was very careful when dealing with the phone company to spell my name out to the operator and have her repeat it back to me. I have one of those awkward European names which is frequently misspelled. I was very pleased with myself for making sure that this would be correct. All for naught. When the new phone book came out it was horribly misspelled. Not that the electric company, water utility or cable company did any better on their printed bills. Everybody always gets the address right though.
February 17, 2010, 6:33 pmIronmistress says:
My first language is Finnish, which is a completely phonetic language (each word is pronounced Iexactly as it is written). The Finnish names reflect this usage as well. But they indeed do produce difficulties with skeakers of languages whose written language differs radically from spoken. I have a name which is fairly common in Finland and which is one of the usual Judeo-Christian first names, and should not produce difficulties. Yet I have seen it written in at least six different ways.
February 20, 2010, 3:38 amRobert Silverberg says:
In the Montreal worldcon program book you were mentioned at least twice as “Bettie Anne Hull” in the section on authors’ offices. I think you have a serious migrating-vowel problem. (They can be stapled back into place with simple laparoscopic surgery, though.
February 22, 2010, 5:20 pmRichard Fletcher says:
My other half Amanda Park, always gets Amanda Parks.
February 23, 2010, 4:09 amChris LaHatte says:
In my experience people in the US are more careful with names. Mine is simple, but people insist on either putting in a gap, or making the H lower case. So I sympathise with Elizabeth Anne.
March 1, 2010, 9:25 pmJon says:
I have a bunch of extra h’s if you’d like one of those!
=)
-jon
March 16, 2010, 7:33 am