How do you respond when people get your name wrong?

Like this?

I hate it! People always call me Tara. Why?! My name is Sara and I don’t have a lisp! Argh!

They call me Mara because they can’t say my name and it’s not Maria either!

Foreigners get my name wrong all the time. I’m used to it.

Just smile and say my real name. OR FUCKING PUNCH THEM

@richardhenry – Nice answer dude

There was a girl at work that all the time called me Sally. I’d always tell her my name was Beth but almost every time she would talk to me she’d call me Sally. I finally asked her where she came up with Sally and she said I just looked like a Sally. It kind of offended me because I think of Sally as an old lady name. no offense to anyone named Sally at all

If it’s someone important or necessary to me then I’ll make polite corrections.

My name is Lucas, and since I grew up in a Puerto Rican family, it was always pronounced “LooCAH”.

Better than what those jerks in elementary school would call me: Mucus.

Kids are mean.

@richardhenry I lol’d. Seriously.

I assume they are speaking to someone else and ignore them.

@Grisaille You reminded me of a conversation between two Spanish teachers I once overheard. They were making fun of another teacher, who was from Cuba. He was telling his students: “Singulá: E’ niño. Plurá: Lo’ niño’”. Hehehehe.

@bob_ That’s hilarious.

@Grisaille It was so fucking hard to not laugh.

This drives me CRAZY as a teacher! I tell them I don’t know who they’re talking to because that’s not my name. Bastards. It’s very easy…there’s only one “o” in Hopper. It’s not HOOPER!!

That’s why I really like that Ting Tings song..

I can’t stand it. I remember I had a third grade teacher that wanted to call me Edy(like the ice cream) instead of Eddie. How freaking hard is it?

Exactly. How. Freaking.Hard.Is.It. If I had a dollar for everytime I’ve been called “Kathy” instead of “Katie” I’d have 4,552 dollars exactly. Probably.

I don’t care at all. As long as I know they’re talking to me or about me I don’t mind. What bugs me is people who insist on wasting time trying to get my name right. I’m like okay you can call me shithead if that’s easier for you but don’‘t make me spend the day on something so trivial.

@Jack_Haas: Your’e completely right! I had a miserable experience with a woman who did that for 4 months, she tried to memorize like 120 people’s name, and even though she always knew mine, it still drove me batty to listen to her muddle through meetings and waste my time because she couldn’t tell the difference between Sahil and Arjun or Shweta and Shrada, or etc etc etc

I look at them in a way that makes them realize they got my name wrong and causes them to apologize profusely.

I work in healthcare, and have encountered names from many languages/cultures and also many made-up or alternatively-spelled names. It is often difficult to pick up a chart, look at the written form and guess at the pronunciation. Over the years, I’ve taken on the challenge, and sometimes do surprisingly well—patients often remark, “That’s the first time anyone’s said it right!”

Most people with difficult names are understanding when I guess incorrectly, or if I am so stumped that I admit that I don’t want to even try guessing.

One memorable occasion was when I worked in an inner-city children’s hospital. The toddler’s name was spelled: Dachary… Looks like Zachary, so that was the pronunciation we guessed (which made it sound like Daquiri, but we had seen numerous other kids named after ‘potent potables’). So when we called out for him, the mother got an attitude, and snidely replied, “It’s /duh-CAR-ee/!” We apologized of course; but I just thought to myself that she’d better get used to correcting people, because she’s the one that chose to spell the name so much like another, more common name… had it been spelled ‘Dakari’, I’d have pronounced it the way she wanted.

My name is Katherine, and I also go by Kathy and Kat. I can’t tell you how many times people call me Kathleen. It used to offend me, now I don’t mind so much because I know they’re not doing it on purpose. I did have an 8th grade History teacher, who consistently mispronounced my last name, and that made me hate her even more. I already despised history class, and she was one of those teachers just killing time to build tenure. Gah! my blood pressure goes up almost 30 years later just thinking about her!

My son has an uncommon last name that ends in -steen (like Springsteen) and everyone wants to spell it -stein. When first meeting someone, we don’t mind, but when a full marking period is completed, and they’re still misspelling it, it irks me. Especially because schools, and teachers in particular, always preach about paying attention to detail.

My first name is simple but my surname always seems to create issues (don’t quite know why), especially with spelling. So when ever I’m in professional situation I’ll always say Cullen C-U-L-L-E-N spelling it out without even pausing. I have had alot of people thank me for this, but it just saves time of them stumbling in appempting to spell it, then sheepishly asking how it’s spelt. I’d rather that than have my name down wrong.

I kill their families.

People often mispronounce my name, even though its spelling is technically more correct than the traditional spelling (and the sounds are the same). When this happens, I immediately correct people on the pronunciation with a simple “Actually it’s pronounced X, just like the traditional spelling.” This has worked well for me.

It’s NOT pronounced like the president! Sheesh people, get it right!

I must have a speech problem, because people are always calling me “Patrina” and my name is “Katrina” It drives me crazy, to be honest.
I correct people. I’ve been dealing with people asking me my name, and getting it wrong all my life, so I’m used to it. I have practiced enough so I don’t sound bitchy when I correct someone.

I no longer care. Both my first and last names are difficult to some people. I even have a joke last name that I got from some woman over the phone who completly messed up the pronunciation.

I don’t have the energy to get upset about it. I really don’t care.

It does get annoying – but it never bothers me to the point of lashing out at people. I just spell it out loud for them.

My name is Ron – but people often think I’m saying “Rob”. Ugh.

My mother is called Marie (pronounced Marry like Harry) she gets Marie (Mareee) all the time strange thing is my middle name is Marie but I never get Marry!!??
No need to get stressed over it!!
However mum did get annoyed once when when at the doctors the receptionist asked for Marie and mum explained that it was Marry and the woman corrected her and said no your name is Marie, spelt MARIE!! And even though my mum insisted the womans spelling was correct but her pronunciation wasn’t, the woman continued to call her Marie through out the whole conversation!!
It got my blood boiling never mind my mums!!!

Both my first and last names are simple, four-letter words. Yet folks always try to add a twist to my name, or extra letters, or a long vowel where none is needed. I simply answer their call and mentally remind myself that it is okay for them to call whatever they want, as long as they don’t call me late for dinner.

Tons of people call me Kelsey, when obviously my name is Chelsea. I politely correct them the first and second time, but after the third it just starts to bug me. However people SPELL my first name wrong more than they say it.
My last name.. Don’t even get me started. I’ve met a handful of people that could actually pronounce it right.

@kikibirdjones I feel your pain, but in reverse. My name is Kathie, but I have been called Katy by so many people. My 6th grade math teacher called me Katy the entire year no matter how many times I corrected her.

In general, I correct someone I will have an ongoing relationship of some sort with. If it is in passing and I will never see them again, I let it go.

My daughter is Susanna and people call her Savannah all the time. I guess because Savannah is more popular and somewhat similar? They don’t sound a whole lot alike to me.

Now I don’t normally post our names online, so don’t any of you start stalking me. ;) (I’m joking; I am totally unstalkworthy. Yes, I did make up that word.)

@Knutty – Nice name ;)

Yah know it just depends if it is a boss, yes correct them “excuse me sir my name is _______.” if it is someone else, if I see them often I’ll correct them if not, I just let it go. If they don’t learn it, it is a form of disrespect.

If it happens over and over, by the same person – I find it extremely rude and have been known to ask why they are having such an issue getting it correct. I have a simple name, but it’s very close to another name and the difference of one letter changes the name, entirely.

If it’s the first or even second time, you know, just relax. People make mistakes.

Well, my name is Kate. It is short for Katharine. My mother is allowed to call me Katie. When she does it, it’s cute. When other people do it, it’s because they didn’t listen to me. I also get Katelyn a lot and it makes me want to SCREAM. However, sometimes when someone calls me by a different name, it’s okay because I know they mean well. There is a woman who cleans the student center of my school who calls me Sarah. I correct her every time and she feels bad every time, but I’m not offended because I like her so much and it’s become a regular little exchange between us.

A cute story about my family and our unusual name: My last name is Taussig, pronounced TOW-ssig. My grandfather had a cousin who was in the navy. One day, when he had first joined, an admiral came on board and pronounced the name TAW-ssig (which is how everyone mispronounces it) and since no one dared correct the admiral, that branch of the family pronounces it that way to this day.

@sakura , my middle name is Marie and it’s a family name, it’s pronounced Maree. I have never heard it pronounced Marry, hmm. But that’s a nice pronunciation. My dear Grandma use to call me Maria. I loved it.

it’s not that big of a deal. i just correct them if i think they’re going to use my name again. if it’s just a sub calling attendance or something and they slightly mispronounce my name, sometimes i just let it go.

i hate when people are obnoxious about correcting them. unless the person is trying to poke fun at your name or something, just correct them. don’t be an asshole. this girl sits behind me and her name is lauren, and the girl in front of me asked her a question, and addressed her as “laura”. instead of correcting her, she just gave the answer, and then bitched with her friends about how “omg my name is LAUREN. there’s not an A.” for like 5 minutes. so ridiculous.

People have been butchering my name for as long as I can remember. Very few people pronounce it correctly on the first try (or even the twelfth try), and even fewer can spell it right. I’m so used to it, that I rarely bother to correct people. I just tell them that everyone calls me Alli. Of course, even that is impossible to spell. I get Ali, Ally, Allie, Alley…sheesh. Or, people just hear me being called Alli and assume my name is Allison and call me that.

My maiden name was Joy, which believe it or not caused a lot of confusion too. It took me three years to convince the registrar’s office in college that my last name was Joy, not my first name. Of course, I ended up marrying into an Italian family so now both my first and last name are completely confusing to people. I have this wonderfully ethnic sounding name, but I’m the whitest person on the planet.

@MissAusten: My mother can relate. She is legally the second and has II after her name. As such, everyone assumes that either she is male or has a weird last name. She gets a lot of mail addressed to Julian (she’s a Julia) or people calling her Julia Ii (pronounced eeeeeeeeee).

@KatawaGrey Your mother should be grateful her first name isn’t Kim, and her last name isn’t Jong.

Heh.

@bob_: I’m sure that joke would be funny if the number after her name wasn’t actually the Roman numeral 2.

Whoa. Tough crowd.

@bob_ I thought it was funny. Il looks exactly like II. See, you guys can’t even tell if I actually wrote Il or II. Still can’t! Ah, I crack myself up.(Oh dear, and now bob’s joke is even funnier in comparison to mine~)

/me does a little dance

wtf? People rarely get wtf wrong. Usually I mistakingly believe someone is calling my name, wtf, when in reality they mean something very, very different. It doesn’t bother me in the least…I appreciate hearing my name (it means I am still alive) whether that was the intended purpose or not. See ya…wtf