We recently “upgraded” our personal lap top experiences to MacBook Pros. In order to make the transition from PC to Mac as smooth and painless as possible we chose to let the “pros” at Apple transfer all of our information from our old computers to the shiny new ones.
My husband just started cackling in bed beside me. In order to find out what amuses him he often makes me play the guessing game. Tonight is no different. I look onto his computer screen to see an email I sent to him. It was about the school board here asking me to fill out a form that’s more involved than legally required. I forwarded that to my hubby with a note telling of the action I am taking (sending it to HSLDA). ANYWAY. I start to freak out thinking that I accidentally sent that forward back to the school board. I have been known to do something like that…to Du’s colleagues at work. Did I make that mistake again?!
He just keeps telling me, “read the email”, “read it”. I’ve read it and am now in panic attack mode. What’s going on that’s so funny!? Seems that the “pros” at Apple who set up our email accounts on these machines completely butchered my last name. So, all the emails I’ve been sending out the past two weeks haven’t really been from me.
Our last name rarely, if ever, is pronounced correctly. And then to have it spelled, Lord have mercy on us. People insert letters that we don’t even pronounce. Do we really speak with marbles in our mouths? Over the phone is the worst. We end up having to use the military way of spelling things out: A = alpha, B = bravo, C = charlie, etc. It’s as if the service industry is attempting to misspell and butcher names; like they’re one upping each other all the time in some high stakes and highly clandestine game of who can alter the name the most. I’d say my pro just scored a lot of points.
I know we can’t be the only ones who go through this. Is your first or last name on the hit list?
P.S. Totally separate subject, but I’m pretty excited that Project Runway starts tomorrow!…or today…depending on when you’re reading this. I have missed you Heidi, but mostly I have missed Tim Gunn. Make it work!
Not So SAHM 
My maiden name was ALWAYS mispronounced…which took some real effort since it was only 5 letters and one syllable. I was always like, “STOP COMPLICATING IT. IT IS PRONOUNCED EXACTLY HOW IT IS SPELLED!!”
My married name is even worse. Still only 5 letters and one syllable, but mispronounced ALL the time in a very embarrassing way (and should be pronounced EXACTLY the way it is spelled – simple phonetics, people. you learned it in first grade) 😦 ugh. I HATE IT.
I once had a clerk at a hotel who insisted I wasn’t registered there. Finally she asked for my rewards number and said, “Oh that’s the problem…whoever made your reservation made it under Angel.”
Right. My maiden name was easy, everyone misspells my married name.
My poor name. From the time I was little, people couldn’t help themselves. They HAD to insert the H in my first name making it Nichole. It still happens occasionally but Nicole Kidman has gone a long way toward fixing that for me. 🙂
I have a very simple last name. Here are some of my favorite last names I’ve been given INSTEAD: Barnes, Long, Gown, Bawd and Baum. Only one of these is even in the neighborhood and none of the first initials are right!
As you know, my first name is butchered a lot if I have to tell to people (people rarely misprounounce it if they read it). I don’t know how many times a day I have to answer, “Is it short for Veronica?” (no, it’s not.) Well, as unusually as my first name is, I ALSO have an unusual last name that’s a variation of a more popular one (just like my first) that has only been pronounced correctly the first time 1 time in my whole life (and that’s because it’s a German name, and he was German). Fortunately, it’s not hard to spell, just hard to pronounce. I never use it though (how many Ronnicas do YOU know?), so when people find out they’ve been mispronouncing it wrong for years, we all get a laugh about it!
My first name is always that way…I have given up!