Why do you spell my name wrong even though it's in front of you?

[TigerRag]

I get this all the time on Facebook. My name is in front of people and they still get it wrong. But why?

It's like having a name that ends in an A and putting an E on the end instead. (Julia instead of Julie for example)

I get this. It’s unusual but not that unusual and it’s in my email address. Sticking with the Julia example people write, “Dear Julio….” I’m JuliA. Ffs.

I once did it to a customer who contrived a conversation about how difficult it was to make sure he spelt my name right and hoenupset I'd be if he didn't. I laughed it off and said "oh you'll have to try harder than that to offend me".

It was days later when I realised he was actually telling me off for getting his name wrong. He has one of those names that can be used for men and women, but is usually spelt differently, and he uses the "female" spelling, which I'd missed, believing I knew how his name is spelt

DSS has a name that isn't all that hard to spell, but one of my friends constantly spells it wrong. She's seen me type his name in a text before, seen his name on other cards etc but still spells it wrong.
For example, say his name was Jaiden, she would spell it Jiaden. Every. Single. Time.
He's about to turn 10 and I've given up at this point 😅

I get an extra letter added to my surname all the time because it sounds as though it should be there. It would be like being called Sophi and everyone spells it Sophie. It’s been spelled like that for at least a few hundred years but sometimes I wish I could add an E and be done with it!

I’ve got a name that can be spelled a few different ways and also get people replying to e-mails spelling it incorrectly even though it’s right in front of them.

I’ve recently had an online account for something set up for me recently and the person setting it up has used one of the alternative spellings for my name as my login. This is something I’m going to be using for several years and every time I log in and see it I get mad 😡

I get it. My name has a version with an e on the end and it's the more common spelling so most people spell mine like that. It's happened so consistently through my life it just doesn't bother me anymore. I've even had people check which way round it is and then even when I've clarified they still continue to spell it wrong, lol.

Try having my name! It's French and there's half a dozen ways of spelling it outside France, and I bet I've had every single combination, except usually the correct one.

50p and a bag of crisps goes to whoever can guess what my name is (and spell it correctly 😂)

I have come SO close to changing my name over this
my email address is Danielle, it’s written on stuff as Danielle and every single day someone calls me Daniel
I am not male so my name is not Daniel… how fucking hard is it if I send an email from Danielle with an email address of Danielle to not reply to it saying “Hi Daniel”
ARGH

I’ve got a longish name with various shortenings. I go by the long name (Elizabeth) and my email address contains my preferred “shortening-if-you-must” (Beth). 99% of emails I receive start Dear Liz 🤦‍♀️.

My sister has a first name that people love to add a letter to, and a surname that people often leave a letter out of...it drives her mad! Along the lines of Sara Sharpe but people write Sarah Sharp.

I have several colleagues who spell my name wrong on teams - I mean it's right bloody there in front of them.

Some like to change a letter, some like to add a letter. It's most bizarre. And done by a good few people.

(Think Marie changed to either Maria or Marion). They all actually call me by the correct name in person / on the phone.

People do it on work emails too, it's there in the "to" section and then they refer to you in the body of the email and spell it wrongly! Ok, I accept that one of my names is tricky to spell but it's there in front of you to help you get it right.

I don’t care if people spell my name wrong. In fact, they sometimes say it wrong. It’s not intentional so it doesn’t bother me. I’ve answered to the wrong name numerous times. I’d never correct them as I think that’s a bit uppity

People shorten my name without permission which bugs me hugely. I also corrected the spelling of my surname with someone recently and told him it was one “s” not two. He asked incredulously “are you sure?” Yes you plonker, it’s MY NAME!!

I have an online account for something which I set up in person. The person who set it up spelt my first name wrong even though I stood there and said "my first name is Julia. That's J U L I A"

My last name always gets spelt wrong too. But everyone with that name who isn't related spells it differently. Despite it being English / Scottish, no one can pronounce it either!

I do this with Tracy/Tracey and Micheal/Michael all the time because my brain doesn’t think the words “look right” so I’m super careful when emailing people with those names!
I’m frequently on the receiving end of this as well though as my name has two spellings and I often get emails with the ‘other’ spelling (even though my email address is the correct spelling!) I’ve given up letting it bother me

I’ve had that happen at work before.

One by a senior manager. She would always start the email saying, hi xxxxxx, missing the last letter off my name.
I always found it odd since my name is on the signature and on the email address too. I find it quite lazy when someone doesn’t bother to spell your name right, especially when it’s right there and they do it repeatedly (The manager was known for being lazy at work)

Maybe I’m old school but I always check to make sure the name is correct on an email/message. I think it shows respect and attention to detail.

I used to have my maiden name spelled wrong constantly. Then I got married and thought, phew, that won't happen again. But alas!! I'm in Scotland and the name is Irish and spelled slightly differently, so even if I write it down, whoever it is looking will then spell it the Scottish way. Nightmare!

Edited to add that my husband recently bought a new car and the man selling it copied his name from his driving license, then when the V5C came - wrong spelling!! gah

My name has two legit spellings and then a few made-up unique spellings. People have been spelling it wrong all my life, including close friends. I don't care at all. They are people who love me, they're not doing it on purpose, and they tend to be poor at spelling in general, so it's just not their forte, or they're dyslexic or something. I literally don't care at all.

I have a simple, 4 letter name. Its spelt how it sounds, but I've often had this misspelt or the letters swapped around.

My surname is rare, so I automatically spell my names out. Despite this, I've seen some ridiculous spellings in emails/deliveries etc.
Say my is Mary Franks, I recently had a delivery to Mr Ramy Franken-Furter! 🙄

I received two emails from a partner in my firm this week and he used two incorrect spellings for my name which was set out TWICE in my response email. Infuriating.

Basically the equivalent of:

"Hi Amy, can you help with this"

"Happy to help. Thanks, Aimee [Aimee BackToStart in signature]

"Great, thanks Amie!"

Autocorrect 90% of the time

I'm in the same position OP and have had it all my life and long before screens and autocorrect too.
I think it's just normal to default to the more usual or familiar version for most people, so Louisas and Joannas are just as used to being called Louise or Joanne, for example.

I get all sorts of spellings of my first and last name, despite it being there on screen.

It wouldn't be so bad, but I've recently started mis-typing my own name occasionally on emails too, which is even more embarrassing!

I have a very short surname - one syllable, which is very obviously foreign, but actually very easy to pronounce phonetically, if you take 5 seconds to look at it properly. I'll regularly go to appointments or anywhere with a reservation and say that I have a booking under surname - and spell it to make it easier. In almost 100% of cases, they'll roll their eyes, or giggle at me, and ask "Do you mean *massively mangled version of name with four extra syllables"?

Yes, yes, you're right. That is exactly what I meant. Forgive me for getting it wrong for 35 years and I'll bow to your superior knowledge as someone who has seen it written down for the first time ever, within the last 3 minutes. So glad I met you today.