Hysterical......

[Kogarashi]

On the name issue, my maiden name is really easy to spell (Holyoak), but because we lived in such close proximity to Massachusetts (which has a Holyoke complete with accompanying popular college), our school district in Upstate New York had the hardest time spelling it right. I think it took them until my senior year (when we'd been living in the state at least 13 years) to spell it correctly. By that point, I'd gotten in the habit of introducing myself as "Soandso Holyoakthat'sHolyasinBibleoakasintree" to anyone who might possibly be writing my name down. Other variations we've gotten from all over the country included Halycak, Hollyoke, and my favorite: Hollindack.

Then I went to college in Utah where they can't pronounce anything (Tooele, anyone?), and while they spelled the name correctly (my dad's immediate and extended family is from Utah), no one could pronounce it worth beans. So the means of introducing myself kinda' stuck. How hard is it to realize that "Holy" only has one L and is therefore not pronounced "holly"?

Then I got married, and while my husband has a very common and very easy to spell surname (almost like Smith, I guess), I warned him that I would bring my family's curse with me. He didn't believe me. Within a year, two different people misspelled the name.

[Jester]

So when sales people call and mispronounce my name, I just have to tell them that there's nobody here by that name.

My mother has a similar, but different, defense against telemarketers. See, the telephone is in my stepfather's name. My mother always answers the phone. But Ma Jester never took Stepdad Clown's last name. So the conversations inevitably go like this:

MA JESTER: "Hello?"
TELEGEEK: "Yes, is this Mrs. Clown?"
MA JESTER: *click*

No muss, no fuss. Since anyone actually KNOWING my parents would know that there IS no Mrs. Clown, period.

Then I got married, and while my husband has a very common and very easy to spell surname (almost like Smith, I guess), I warned him that I would bring my family's curse with me. He didn't believe me. Within a year, two different people misspelled the name.

I have a very easy first name, but one with many spellings. Naturally, the only correct way to spell it in my opinion is Alan: the easiest, simplest (and my) way to spell it. While I am constantly correctly people on the spelling, I have accepted the fact that it is a name with multiple spellings, however erroneous the other ones may be.

But in addition to being Alan, many people call me Al. One of the easiest names in the English world. And yet...I kid you not...not one, but TWO Real People of Genius have asked me how to spell "Al." What, did they think I was a laundry detergent?

[counterjockey]

My last name is not hard to pronounce, it is quite clear. I am not named after an actor or famous guitar maker! I'm named after a type of primate damnit!

Ohhhhh...I got it...and I'm ashamed to say how long that took...or how much time I spent trying to think of which actor had a name rhyming with Stratocaster. (Burt Lancaster? Maybe?)

[Banrion]

I have a very easy first name, but one with many spellings.

My first name is common to several popular girls names, but I spell it unusually for good reasons, and people look at me like its greek. Krysta, sounds like Crystal, but without the L. It doesn't help that on official forms and credit cards my middle inital is L, but it's still not that hard.

Thank god that my parents didn't spell it funny for the sake of spelling it funny. My mom was an only child and her father had only sisters, so when she got married the family name was due to end, but now I am sort of the last since my first name is my moms first inital K and her maiden name Rysta, and when I get married that won't change.

[Tito]

LOL. In my position, I periodically get paperwork like that from customers. You can't help but to laugh at them. They probably think that by sending in their 'lovely' letters that they'll probably ruin the receipiants day. If the customers only knew that what they are doing is giving the worker something to laugh about for the rest of the day.