I was listening to the radio the other day when the DJ asked the listening audience if they would ever change their names. One woman called in and said that she would in a heartbeat because her name was so difficult for people to understand and they always get it wrong.
Her name? Chelsea.
She was very upset that people called her Kelsey, Kelly, Cassie, etc. So she would change her name to a "simple" name. Simple. Name. Simple.
Um. Okay. I get that it must be annoying for her. But it's not like she has a difficult name. Especially considering my family's names. (I'm going to try and spell these phonetically.) Brawn-win. Gray-em (or, if you are my mother, you assure people it is said like "name") Ki-lee-ahn. Lin-mah-rah.
Unless she has the conversations I have every time I say my name, she cannot complain. Here is a typical conversation I go through every single time.
Them: What's your name?
Me: Bronwyn
Them: No, your first name.
Me: That is my first name.
Them: Are you sure?
Me: yes...
And then, they ask what it means.
Yeah... I totally understand your pain. My first name is Brooke, which is fairly simple, but my last name is this crazy Polish name with not enough vowels. Spelling it over the phone is possibly one of my least favorite things ever... I'm just glad that someday I'll get married and get a new last name. :)
ReplyDeletemay i just say, i love your name ... it makes me think of jane austen novels for some reason. :)
ReplyDeleteas for mine ... i get michele a lot, which i hate because i am so a michelle and so not a michele. that extra l is my source of fabulousness.
my last name is irish and not very common in this part of the country ... so people screw it up often.
i once fought with a high school teacher on the first day of school when she was adament that my name was michael mccain ... i never did like her after that.
Gee. I like your name. Very victorian aristocratic sounding!
ReplyDeleteMy last name is always pronounced WIZARD as in "we're off to see the" so I always know if it's a salesman on the phone. Only family pronounces it correctly.
Want to hear something kinda funny? My grandpa's name was Oliver and he didn't like it. So he changed it..........to OSCAR. ugh. Go figure.
Your family has got beautiful names. I was always jealous. My family saved the cool names for middle names! (Mine's Kari, pronounced "KAH-ree".)
ReplyDeleteI marvel at people's stupidity with names. My maiden name was Armstrong - I was on the phone ordering something and the woman asked for my last name. I gave it to her, then she asked "how do you spell that?". Nice.
ReplyDeleteAnd for what it's worth, I think your name is very classy and you'll be sad when it hits the top 20 baby names ;-)
At least once people get your name, they usually get it forever. One of my best friends still pronounces my name incorrectly. We've been friends for 6 years, and he has no idea what my name is. Seriously. Figure it out, dude.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't like your pronunciation guide for my name, because it makes it look like the "mah" and the "rah" should be pronounced the same. It should be more like lin-MARE-uh, cause then you know where the accent is supposed to be. Not to be a dickhead, but I'd hate for a world of readers to be pronouncing my awesome name wrong.
ReplyDelete