My name is Tim, but call me Tom
Discussion
iva cosworth said:
Monkeylegend said:
iva cosworth said:
When the "RS1600i on tour" was erm on tour,we had 3 Graham/Graemes.
They all got new names,one was Malcolm,I forget the others.
That must have been more confusing than calling them all Graeme/Graham.They all got new names,one was Malcolm,I forget the others.
Not telling you what I was called !
Monkeylegend said:
iva cosworth said:
Monkeylegend said:
iva cosworth said:
When the "RS1600i on tour" was erm on tour,we had 3 Graham/Graemes.
They all got new names,one was Malcolm,I forget the others.
That must have been more confusing than calling them all Graeme/Graham.They all got new names,one was Malcolm,I forget the others.
Not telling you what I was called !
DickyC said:
Monkeylegend said:
iva cosworth said:
Monkeylegend said:
iva cosworth said:
When the "RS1600i on tour" was erm on tour,we had 3 Graham/Graemes.
They all got new names,one was Malcolm,I forget the others.
That must have been more confusing than calling them all Graeme/Graham.They all got new names,one was Malcolm,I forget the others.
Not telling you what I was called !
IvanSTi said:
DickyC said:
RizzoTheRat said:
My surname's Gray, so many people manage to misspell it that had our work IT lot add Grey variants of my e-mail address as aliases as lots of people seem to get that wrong. Since 50 shades of Grey came out my first name has caused some amusement too...
Oh, no, you've started on surnames."Your surname?"
"Cutler."
"Butler?"
"Cutler."
"Gutter?"
"Cutler."
"Culter?"
"Cutler. C - U - T - L - E - R. As in knife and fork."
When I looked, I had become Richard Cutlery.
king letters in fact."Surname?"
"Tait"
"T-A-T-E?"
"No T-A-I-T"
"T-A-I-T-E?"
"No, no "E", just T-A-I-T"
"Oh OK, it's just so confusing"
No, no it f
king isn't confusing.My first name is Joel and Ive my entire life so far has been filled with people who either cant say it or cant spell it. Joe-El is the worst, drives me up the wall. Joe does my tits in and my boss uses it all the time to wind me up. Worst is Joey.
My surname is also very uncommon indeed so its a treat when I have a letter addressed to the right name. Ive just given up any hope now of people ever spelling or saying my names intuitively.
When I was a child I was the only Joel around, but within a few years a couple more familes with Joel's moved in, all within about a 30 sec walk of eachother. It just became a thing that we were Big Joel, Medium Joel and Little Joel. Some people still refer to us independantly by these, a good 15-16 years on.
My surname is also very uncommon indeed so its a treat when I have a letter addressed to the right name. Ive just given up any hope now of people ever spelling or saying my names intuitively.
When I was a child I was the only Joel around, but within a few years a couple more familes with Joel's moved in, all within about a 30 sec walk of eachother. It just became a thing that we were Big Joel, Medium Joel and Little Joel. Some people still refer to us independantly by these, a good 15-16 years on.
Edited by Falsey on Tuesday 4th August 11:46
motco said:
An old workmate of mine lives in a road called Pasteur Gardens in north London. I often overheard him giving his address to people on the phone: "It's Pasteur, as in Louis Pasteur....." <few seconds> "P.A.S.T.E.U.R....." 
I used to work with someone who has an uncommon (to non-Welsh ears) Welsh first name, the Anglicised version of a Norwegian surname that ends in "sen" rather than "son", and lived in Cholmondeley (pronounced Chumley) Road in a village with a Welsh name.He had to spell everything.
DickyC said:
I'm also Richard. My parents told my brother and me that they named us Peter and Richard as two names impossible to abbreviate.
I'm sorry, you did what?
Love, Pete and Dicky.
My mother had the same idea.I'm sorry, you did what?
Love, Pete and Dicky.
I'm Gar (seems to be the usual abbreviation in South Wales - never "Gary") and my sister (Hilary) is Hil. It was third time lucky with Carl, as far as I know that's never been shortened by anyone.
When my daughter was about 9 she was amazed the first time someone (in Cardiff) spelled her name correctly, first time, as Ceri. Having been brought up in Bristol, she was accustomed to always having to correct Kerry or Kerri or Kerrie, or even Carrie.
Edited by gareth_r on Tuesday 4th August 12:26
Matt UK said:
Confusing when people decide to change their own name!
I meet a new customer contact at a meeting, introduces himself as Mike.
Sends me an email later that day, signs off using his signature as Micheal.
When I reply to his email, what would be the most appropriate name to address him?
Tom?I meet a new customer contact at a meeting, introduces himself as Mike.
Sends me an email later that day, signs off using his signature as Micheal.
When I reply to his email, what would be the most appropriate name to address him?
My name is Simon but (I suspect due to my surname starting Stave) I get called Steve at least once a fortnight - used to be daily at school which was a real pain.
I have even had people call me Steve via email - there is no mention of a Steve anywhere in my signature or email address!!
I have even had people call me Steve via email - there is no mention of a Steve anywhere in my signature or email address!!
Spanglepants said:
My eldest son is Garrett. Half the people we know call him Gareth and my step mum always writes Garith (??!!) in his birthday/Christmas cards despite his name being written in our cards to her.
I used to know a Garrett but because he was Irish he would also pronounce the name "Gareth" as "Garrett". Confusion reigned.AlasdairMc said:
I reckon there is about a 50% success rate of people being able to spell my name correctly if responding to an email (i.e. where it's already written for them) yet about 1% of someone correctly spelling it if I say it to them. The 1% is fair enough as it's not the most common spelling, but the 50% is just rudeness.
Well serves you right for having the wrong spelling 
I can relate on the email front though. My last name is Douglas, as the amount of emails I get with "Hi Douglas" or god forbid "Hi Doug". ffs. It's marginally better than people who still manage to spell my name Alister.
I even tried to nip it in the bud and updated the email address book to just go by Al. Didn't work.
16v stretch said:
I can relate on the email front though. My last name is Douglas, as the amount of emails I get with "Hi Douglas" or god forbid "Hi Doug". ffs. It's marginally better than people who still manage to spell my name Alister.
The problem of having a first name for a surname 
At a previous job we had 2 new students start called Peter Norman and Lee Vincent. One of the girls in the office took ages to get their names right from initially thinking there were four of them Mind you I've also worked in an organisation that had a Martin Paul and a Paul Martin, they were always gettign each others e-mails as the addresses were forename.surname@ but the address book listed them as Surname, Forename
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