To think DH needs to tell his barber his real name?

I wouldn’t bother.
My maiden name was similar to Hayworth and a colleague called me Rita for years because he fancied Rita Heyworth.

My DH called our next-door neighbour Brian for 18 years until we moved, despite my telling him repeatedly that NDN was called Stephen.

My parents' neighbour called my mum the wrong name forever, my mum even signed Christmas cards using the wrong name in the end!

live in a small village. I grew up here. Now in my 40s. Neighbour known me and my family all my life. She calls me Wendy. I am NOT Wendy. Calls my husband Gill. He is NOT Gill. We go along with it. We send Christmas and birthday cards with our actual names on ie x from number y. We do diy for them etc. makes no difference. If it’s a polite name then I usually just roll with it.

It’s harmless. YABU - no need to correct it.

Why does it bother you? Surely you have more important things to deal with in your life?

My DH once sat up in bed at 2 a.m. and said
” Oh no he’s not called Clifford, he’s called David!”
This man often employed my DH as a Trainer in a specialist area. He had known him for a few years.
He’d spent all that day calling him Clifford (his surname) and was never corrected.

Somehow in the middle of the night he remembered that Clifford was the man’s wife’s surname and that he couldn’t be called Clifford Clifford.
I found this absolutely hilarious especially when he announced “ I even called him Cliff once” 🤣

There was a woman I always knew as Kate, but it turned out that her name was actually Pat and her husband called her Pat-a-Kate, so Kate stuck.

Many years ago, it was common for a boy or girl to be registered with the same first name as the Dad or Mum, but would often be called by their middle name. My Aunt hated her first name and just used a name she liked (wasn't even her middle name). I was in my teens before I realised the name I (and everyone else used) wasn't actually her registered birth name (in fairness it was a bit unusual). I've had people call me by the wrong name, mainly because I use a shortened version, Mel and not my full name. My then boyfriend was given a wedding invitation from someone he knew, instead of asking him what my name is, or using Mel, they'd guessed!! 😂 And got it wrong!! I've been called Madeleine and Mandy too!! However, I always correct people, if they do get my name wrong.

My mums neighbour calls her maxine her name is Lorraine my dad gets called Dennis in the park he's called keith lol

My late husband's real name and the name that everyone called him were totally different.

We're not certain, but we think that his birth mum gave him the name that everyone called him but that he was registered under the preferred name of the family couple that adopted him.

It really is a uniquely British thing to feel embarrassment at correcting someone who calls us the wrong name, Only Fools and Horses were right on the money with the Rodney/Dave joke!

I'm in a similar situation with a lady on my training course. Somehow I gave her the impression that our dc were the same age. She's currently looking at primary schools for her dc and keeps asking me what schools I'm thinking of and if we've been to open days. My dd is 10 and will be off to secondary next year.

Aw this is so cute

In the early 90s we moved to a house near a fireman. All the kids called him Sam. It was only quite recently we found out my dad had been calling him Sam as well because he thought it was his name, not because small children were calling him Fireman Sam.

Eta: we didn't move away, he had been cheerfuly saying "Hi Sam!" for about 30 years.

I actually have this with a woman at work! She’s called Helen but she reminds me so much of a woman I used to know called Sally. It’s been two years and I still struggle not to call her Sally, in fact I did it just the other day. She was very nice about it 🙃

I lived overseas when my DD was 7. The teacher (not her main teacher I think it was the language teacher) read her middle name off the register rather than her first name. We only discovered this at parents evening in March.

When questioned my DD was quite happy with the situation, she knew who the teacher meant. All her friends called her that name in those lessons as well.

I have this with a hobby group who all think I’m a year younger than I am 😬 I didn’t bother to correct it early on as it’s always nice for people to think you’re younger than you are, but now I’ve been going for over four years and I really wish I’d said something! Feels too late now!

It's in the Lord Peter Wimsey books, 1930s and very posh, his sister is Polly, for Mary, so not regional though maybe a bit dated!
I was at school with a Polly, we were both born in the 60s and her mum got a few confused looks when she said her Polly wasn't really Mary.

Age 8, a girl misheard and thought I was called Ruth. She lived nearby and our schools would play each other at sports. I saw her fairly often, buy never knew her well enough to correct her. I’m not called Ruth. In fact, my name doesn’t have any of the same letters.

A lot of traditional names have lots of diminutives because years ago so many people would have the same names, meaning different diminutives were needed.

It was a (sort of) rhyming thing mostly, with diminutives stemming of another most obvious one like

Mary > Mally > Molly > Polly
Margaret > Maggie > Peggy
Richard > Rick > Dick

He's right not to correct him @ReligiousEel . He can only tell him after his last hair cut with him, whether that's because the barber is retiring or your DH no longer has hair.

My dad's mum was Mary, called Polly. I couldn't say Polly so she was "pompom" to me all her life. I lived in Newcastle I wonder if this was a north east thing to use Polly instead of Mary

Oh and forgot to add Molly was her dogs name 😆

Meg is the diminutive of Margaret.

My nan was Ethel but known to everyone as Sis.

I would just continue to be called Chris. Who cares