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Original poster

Why are people calling me by another name? This happens all of the time.

111 replies

StPaulandTheBrokenBones · 22/12/2021 12:52

Obviously this is not my real name but let's say that my name is Deborah.

At work I send emails to clients very regularly and sign off with my actual name. However three times this week and a number of times last week clients have replied to "Dawn". The clients are not the same people, they are all different clients.

Deborah and Dawn obviously begin with the same letter but are not remotely the same otherwise! They don't end in the same letter, they don't rhyme with each other. I have even had a Christmas card from a client today addressed to "Dawn".

This has happened throughout my life and I am not sure why people are doing this. Has this happened to anyone else?

OP posts:
Allmadeoflego · 22/12/2021 16:54

I knew it! It’s really really common. No idea why - it’s not even the same number of syllables.

augustusglupe · 22/12/2021 17:00

All the way through Secondary school my maths teacher called me Theresa. My name isn't Theresa 🤷🏻‍♀️

IcedAbstinente · 22/12/2021 17:04

I get Natalie alot. Even one of my aunts calls me Natalie. I am not Natalie. My name starts with E.

fuckoffjournalists · 22/12/2021 17:26

Always get mixed up with people with a similar distinctive physical characteristic, if there is more than one of us in a workplace 😑

Kennykenkencat · 22/12/2021 17:28

Ds was called the female form of his name by a teacher for ages. No malice intended and was completely flabbergasted that Ds wasn’t a Dd. In fairness Ds even now in steel toe cap boots and all his work gear on people still refer to him with the female form of his name He does have a very feminine face.

It is only when he speaks do people realise he is a man.

Famousinlove · 22/12/2021 17:31

Oh OP i have the same problem as you the other way round!
If I understood why it wouldn't annoy me as much but I don't get it, neither names are similar?! Maybe just popular around the same time and start with the same letter but I send emails with my name at the bottom and from an email address containing my name and get a few replies with spelling it wrong or different name!

IKissedSantaClaus · 22/12/2021 17:33

I get Sarah a lot. I 'look like one' apparently.

It's really weird because Sarah is the name of my older sister who is deceased. I'd like to think I do look like she would have done (she died before I was born).

QuantumWeatherButterfly · 22/12/2021 17:53

I have something very similar to this.

Using fictitious names with the same degree of similarity: assume my maiden name was Helen Bellamy. At all three of the companies I worked at before I got married, I regularly got called 'Belinda'. Nothing at all like my actual forename, but very vaguely like my surname.

The two weird things about this are:

  1. always Belinda. Nothing else, even though there are other similar names. And if I was to tell you the actual name, it's even stranger because it's less like my surname and there are plenty of other names that are just as or more similar.
  2. it has also happened at my current company, where I have only ever been known by my married name and which is nothing like either Belinda or Bellamy. No one even knows my maiden name. But I still occasionally get called Belinda.

I've concluded I must just look like a Belinda.

Anaximedes · 22/12/2021 21:39

Because there is a category of people I call 'name idiots'.

ImInStealthMode · 22/12/2021 21:46

Happens to me all the time, always different people, always the same name (and this is by phone mostly so no basis on looks).

The weirdest bit is that these are clients and business partners who don't know me personally, and the name often used is my Mum's ConfusedConfusedConfused

DancerPrancerDonnerBlitzen · 22/12/2021 21:47

@Thegiftthatkeepsongiving

I have had this but not that often. If people get my name wrong it is always Sue, clearly I must look like a Sue! Hmm
Omg I had a colleague who got this at work! Her name wasn't even close! I think it was Paula.

Hello if you're her BTW!

Zxcvbnm123456 · 22/12/2021 21:50

If people hear my name wrong it's always the same wrong first name. The ending of the names are similar. The beginning of the names couldn't be more different though.

underneaththeash · 22/12/2021 22:06

Just correct them.

I have a mental block about names that are not usual names - so I can easily remember emily, parminder, cho, etc... but I cannot recall unusual Middle easten which don't follow the usual phonetic rules we have for names, like Tanweer, and this poor girl who I took to Legoland with my daughter last week whose names was something like Ar-Riche.
(Tanweer was a pre-reg student I had, who I had a work badge made for very quickly)

NinaDefoe · 22/12/2021 22:14

I have been called Jill (not my name) by several colleagues. I have no idea why.

Lollyfalalalalalalalalaaahhhhh · 22/12/2021 22:37

Charlotte. By so so so mamy different people, it baffles me. My name doesn't begin with an Sh noise, nor begin with a C...
One chap I worked with for FIVE years never got it right (despite name on lanyard etc).

So yes, I answer to Charlotte now

CurbsideProphet · 22/12/2021 22:40

This happens to me a lot. I send a work email which has my full name in the signature. The reply comes addressed to a name that starts with the same letter but is completely different. My name is completely normal / usual spelling / clearly stated in my email signature. I still haven't worked out why it happens.

Elisheva · 22/12/2021 22:42

I’m the opposite to you, my name is Rachel and I’m often called Rebecca. Obviously we’re not the only ones, so now I’m wondering why!

Onlinedilema · 22/12/2021 22:59

I have to admit I once worked with a Rebecca and I sometimes called her Rachael !
To be fair there was a Rachael too.
Another colleague did say to Rebecca that she did look like a Rachael.
Several years ago we had a temporary member of staff. The manager told us he was called Steve. We all called him Steve. One day he said to a colleague, look my name isn't Steve, it's John. We all felt terrible.

amusedbush · 22/12/2021 23:21

I'm Jessica but I've been called Rebecca my whole life. I remember it as early as Rainbows and the woman in the office at my first primary school, so I was younger than 8. Since then it has happened at different jobs - someone I work with will accidentally call me it or, once, a man I'd worked with fairly closely for TWO YEARS replied to my email with "thanks for this, Rebecca" Confused

It's always the same name too - I must just have the look of a Rebecca about me.

SE13Mummy · 22/12/2021 23:46

I wondered if you were a Rebecca or Rachel OP as it's something that happens to all my Rebecca/Rachel friends. One of them regularly answers to Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah and Ruth or as she puts it, "call me any Biblical women of the 1970s".

In a decade or so I expect it'll be Ava, Evie, Amelia, Olivia and the like who will be answering to any vowely name...

Albless · 23/12/2021 01:23

@BulldogDrummondBass

Apparently I look like an Alison. Years ago, I got into conversation with a friendly group of slightly drunk people on the Tube, and they all assured me of this. And then at least two other, random and unrelated people have called me Alison consistently, even though it’s nothing like my real name.
Don't suppose you're actually called Susan by any chance?

I'm an Alison and for many years various different people have called me Susan.

3luckystars · 23/12/2021 01:27

People often call me the wrong name, (Michelle) it’s nothing like my name at all. It’s very strange!! Always the same wrong name.

Emmelina · 23/12/2021 01:30

I go by Emma. It’s in shortened form right there on my lanyard.
One of the peripatetic music teachers - in several times a week with several of my class - calls me Hayley.

Octavi · 23/12/2021 01:31

I have contact with a number of people at work who operate from generic email addresses. So I have about six generic email addresses and there are about 3 people within each. I find it really difficult to distinguish between them because they dont take ownership of anything and you only ever get an email sign off of their first name. Which is usually Dawn, Ann, or Jane. Having said that my name is one of 3 that most of dh's friends wife's are called. We're either Lisa or Claire or Rachel.

KloppsTeeth · 23/12/2021 01:38

@amusedbush

I'm Jessica but I've been called Rebecca my whole life. I remember it as early as Rainbows and the woman in the office at my first primary school, so I was younger than 8. Since then it has happened at different jobs - someone I work with will accidentally call me it or, once, a man I'd worked with fairly closely for TWO YEARS replied to my email with "thanks for this, Rebecca" Confused

It's always the same name too - I must just have the look of a Rebecca about me.

@amusedbush My cousin is called Jessica, she’s mid40s now. She either gets called Rebecca (I think it is the CA part of the name people recall) or Jennifer, which I think is the JE. I have been with her when it happens and if she corrects them people are indignant that she corrects them and suggests that she has made the mistake of forgetting her own name! She did say it happens less once Jessica because a more popular name and people were familiar with it.

I get called Sarah. I am not nor do I have a name like Sarah Confused