Do I accept I'm Val?

[coppercolouredtop]

One of my neighbours is a lovely old lady in her 80s.
She loves my OH and they dog walk together. He helps her with anything she needs and she knows she is welcome at our house for anything I think!
She's lovely and how is lime to be in my 80s!

But
She thinks I'm called val!
I'm not.
I'm not that old! 😂
I'm not that bothered and will
Happily answer to val but it's not my name....should I correct her or forget it and be val!?
It made me laugh today . (Unless the OH has another woman called val!)

This situation is so familiar to me.

I used to be known as Olivia, that would be why my name starts with an M

My mum was known as Jennifer however she was actually Bernadette

My OH is consistently called Aaron, that is so easily confused with John.

Our neighbours across the street used to shout their hellos to Jane & John. I'm not Jane. DH is not John. We are, however, British so did consider changing our names, until Halloween gave us the opportunity to march our DC up to their door to demand candy & correct the misunderstanding. They were quite upset & insisted that at least one of our DC must be a John? I almost caved but held firm and now a year later they are finally on speaking terms with us again after I threw a fucking neighborhood party to get them back on side.

Spookily people get my name wrong often... but everyone mistakes it for the same name. It's really weird

My name isn't Anna but pretend it is... and frequently by multiple people I am called Becky.

I'm never confused with any other name but whether it's a new person I meet or a person I know who forgets my name... it's always bloody Becky

My actual name has different amount of syllables and just completely different in all ways!

I've come to accept it. But spooked out even more by the fact my mum lost a baby and told me once she thought she'd have called the baby Becky if it was a girl

(It's not actually Becky either, just using it as a substitute)

An old boss years ago used to call me Susan. My name is nothing like Susan. I corrected her at first, but she'd clearly made her mind up so I just started answering to it and it became a standing joke with the others who worked there.

When it was my birthday, I got a card signed by the rest of my colleagues. Yes, that's right: every single one of the piss-taking bastards had written "Happy birthday Susan" on the damn card.

Ooh, holidayhope, that's a bit spooky but also a bit lovely.

Now have Paul Simon's ”You can call me Al” in my head.

I was ”Caroline” for years for a work colleague. Just used to think of it as my evil alter ego.

Nearly 20 years down the line I still cringe slightly at having sent DH’s sister cards addressed to the O’Mally family. Their surname is actually Mally but when I first asked DH what it was he said ‘Oh, Mally’ as he took a second to remember. His BIL is Irish so I feel it was an easy mistake to make in the circumstances.

I love the fact that you are being the best Val you can.

vinegarqueen surely it should be "You can call me Val"??

@snugglysnerd

YES

@mnhq I love this thread. Classics?

According to my neighbors I'm im samantha (I'm another name beginning with an S, let's say Sarah). She will send us cards for samantha and OH at number 16. Even if I send them from Sarah and OH at number 16. This has gone on for 3 years!!! She even comes to the door and asks for Samantha. My husband will shout Sarah, I come to the door and she acts like nothing has happened! It's so odd but has become a bit of a joke in our house 😂 so no I'd just stick as it is with Val 😂

My DM who allegedly named me has consistently got my name wrong for the best part of 60 years.
I even shortened it to give her a chance of occasionally getting it right.
Sadly everyone who knows her, also calls me by my incorrect name as she says it with such authority. Family members are also convinced her version is my given name.

I wouldn't mind but I don't like either version

I used to stay at a B&B quite regularly and the owner was convinced I was Margaret. When i corrected her she insisted I looked like a Margaret and continued to call me that for evermore. I didn't mind as she was such a darling and the whole place was so hilarious I would never have thought of staying elsewhere.

You need to correct her op for the sake of when she leaves her house to you in her will! Otherwise, it's all Vals!

My lovely ndn called me by the wrong name for 7 years. I did try to correct it early on then just went with it. We've moved now but got a Christmas card from her in the post this week. It's now eleven years since we first met and she has suddenly used my correct name. What happened ????

Oh I thought I was the only one, my next door neighbour is adamant I'm called Debbie! Nowhere near my actual name, but I like that she doesn't know my real name 🙈 My 12 year old daughter likes to tease me, and says she is going to tell her everytime she does it! However this neighbour isn't elderly, she's about 10 years older than me!

I do like to keep myself though so if that means I'm Debbie, then Debbie I am!

My DH has a non-english name. To an acquaintance he has known through me for over 10 years, he has a very english name of our generation..... it sounds nothing like his name, is not the name of anyone we are aware of.... he just accepts it now!

I am often called by my surname - which can also be a first name but isn't MY first name!

Many years ago, when I was temping, I had a three week stint working for a really lovely chap. My name is Bridget, but he kept calling me Belinda. I kept correcting him and after a few days he apologised and told me that he had a real problem remembering my name so he was just going to call me B. I thought this was hilarious, so went along with being called B for three weeks - not just by him, but the entire department

Obviously Bridget/Belinda is not my real/fake name combo!!

We’ve lived here for more than 10 years and I’ve never known if our neighbour is Pam or Pat. I’ve cleverly navigated this by writing their card to “all at no. 20” but this year her daughter and grandson have moved out. I’ve not yet done her card. I’ve no idea what to put

I went out once with my lovely Indian friends for a meal, we met someone They knew.
Their names were traditionally Sikh names eg palwinder and Manjit but they were called Steve and Angie. They saw nothing extraordinary in this and when I asked them they said that in the village they lived (in the Northeast) people just started calling them those names so they answered and the names stuck.
I saw them recently and he had a personalised number plate with a form of his “English” name!

Dh always seems to get called Paul by people, no idea why as his name doesn't sound anything like it!

Maybe he looks like a Paul. 😁

I'm Anne for a similar neighbour. It's been going on for years and I don't feel I can correct her now.

Like a lot of dog owners, I know exactly what the local dogs are all called since they get introduced daily (‘Hello, Monty, I see you’ve been to the groomer...!’ etc) but am embarrassingly hazy on the humans. DH once stormed back from taking the dogs out, berating me for telling him that the elderly lady up the path was ‘Peggy’. Peggy was in fact the Westie. She was Barbara.

‘But, DH added, ‘Barbara lost a bit of the moral high ground when she rolled her eyes and said, ‘I must see Rosie every day! I can’t believe she thought I was Peggy.’’

Rosie is, obvs, our dog.

I was the first girl in the family for 3 generations, grandma wanted me to be called Lydia (not my name) but I always got cards addressed as such. Fast forward to my wedding and when the vicar read out my name she said very loudly why is he calling her ***.