what’s in a name?
today, i was having a lovely time on the phone with someone from my credit card company, a company that shall remain nameless, but a company with which i have been doing business certainly for over a decade. the customer service agent had all my information in front of her, and in her pleasant, not-quite-robotic voice, she chatted me up to personally upsell me some service or another. and then, she did it.
she called me shirley.
i kept the name i was born with; but if you think calling me by my husband’s last name irks me, you should just imagine how irritated i am to have my first name mangled.
and it isn’t like i’m really particular about my nicknames, either. Middlebro still calls me boo, which my friend jen-jen is almost too happy to tell people is short for sherry-berry-boo (and yes, she did that once in the middle of the most crowded corridor in high school, much to my total embarrassment.) my family calls me sher; some friends call me by my last name; and of course, my husband has a variety of nicknames for me, all of which i will spare you. (you’re welcome.)
does your name ever get mangled? i’d love to hear variations on the theme in the comments section. i need a giggle.
I get all sorts of different names. Mary Lou, Mary Ann, Mary Ellen…but my least favourite is when people just shorten my name to Mary. I don’t necessarily have anything against the name Mary. In fact, I have an Aunt Mary who is a lovely person. It’s just that the name is so not me. The other combo-name variations at least feel a little bit closer to my actual name.
Nope, nope. Not me. Never had a problem with my name. My name is pronounced just like it’s spelled, so that makes things easier. (Assumng everybody speaks Esperanto, naturally.)
Have you seen this site, by the way?
Also, I would not have been able to resist quoting from Airplane. (“Surely you can’t be serious.” “I am serious…and don’t call me Shirley.”)