To not know how to deal with this (name issue)

[mytwoblackandwhitecats]

I have a first name that is similar to another better known name, a little like Hannah/Anna. Mine isn't as common as those examples though.

All my life I've been plagued by being addressed as the wrong name! People see it and assume it is its slightly more common variant.

At any rate - how do you deal with people constantly getting your name wrong? I ignore it if I am unlikely to see the person again - in hospital waiting rooms for example, but it does grate as it isn't my name!

Then when you do correct people they keep getting it wrong. I keep just saying 'correct name' with a smile but it does annoy people; I'm sure some of them think I'm actually called the more common name!

My name LOOKS very similar to the other one written down but are pronounced very differently.

How do you deal with it??

[WashingFanatic]

I have a friend called Johanna who constantly gets called Joanna. She's used to it now and doesn't even bother correcting if it's not really important.

[Burren]

Irish people will get this. I have an Irish name that was popular in the 70s (still is, quite, I believe) that begins with the same sound as another Irish girl's name equally popular for my generation. People appear to be completely unable to distinguish between the two, and I am sometimes called by the 'other' name even by people who have known me for years. It is maddening. If I can distinguish between Conor and Conleth, or Helen and Heather, I don't see why it is I possible for others. Grr.

[CrohnicallyExhausted]

I get that too- people call me a name that starts with the same sound/letter. Apart from that though, there is no resemblance (don't share any other sounds and have a different number of syllables).

So why does everyone manage to call me by the same wrong name? No one ever calls me by a different name starting with the same letter!

[Elfina]

I get this. I just correct. Every single time. I've been doing it since I was tiny, so it's completely automatic. I do it with a cheerful smile, and people always quickly apologise whilst I quietly seethe inside: MY NAME IS NOT FUCKING SARAH OR ZARA! It's not that hard, knobhead

[MexicanSpringtime]

I tell people they can call me whatever they want as long as it is not rude

[Elfina]

Actually, that's not true - my consultant at work calls me Sarah, and I never corrected him initially and now it feels too late

[CrohnicallyExhausted]

Oh elfina I just remembered when I started my job there was a lady in a different area who called me by the wrong surname. I didn't correct her at first, then it was too late. Well a year later things were reorganised so we were working together and she was half mortified and half astonished when she found out my correct surname!

[Joysmum]

It's easier for me, I have a very unusual name and when telling people my name I tell them I expect them to forget it or get it wrong so not to get embarrassed if they need to keep asking what it is!

My daughter has a name that's not common but is old fashioned and spelt either with or without an accent and known in both forms. I've advised her to correct the people that'll feature in her life in future.

She was embarrassed about doing so but I made her have more confidence in this by explaining that if they continued to get it wrong over time and then found out, they'd be really embarrassed themselves so that wasn't fair. Since looking at it like that she's had no self confidence issues in correcting people immediately.

[tabulahrasa]

I have a classic but uncommon name, read phonetically it sounds like a completely different and spelled differently name - I am often called by that name.

After correcting people 3 or 4 times, I just answer to anything that sounds vaguely like my name, it's just easier.

[Pilgit]

I get this with my surname - and then get told I am being pretentious when I correct people! Erm not pretentious, it's how it is pronounced!

I think it very rude to use the wrong name when you have heard it pronounced properly. It shows massive disrespect. I get really annoyed on a colleagues behalf as she is forever having her name mispronounced. I think I feel the rage more than she does.

[dawndonnaagain]

Ophelia wins!

[HiawathaDidntBotherTooMuch]

My in-laws mispronounce my name, despite DH having told them how to say it. DH and I have been together for 12 years, and they still don't say it correctly. It is sooooooo annoying. Its only two syllables! They know that they're mispronouncing it, so they shorten it into a one syllable word that they can say.

[IvyBeagle]

Piglit is your surname Bucket?

[snakeandpygmy]

My surname is pronounced the same way as a well known girl's name. I get called by it all the time. I usually correct people but they still do it!

[BanjoKazooie]

Ohh, I get this ALL the time. I have a foreign names pronounced in an English way. what were my parents thinking No one can pronounce it or spell it. Even my siblings can't spell it. Fortunately, it doesn't bother me in the slightest. I think it's funny and I can't remember ever feeling insulted or annoyed by it.

[Inglori0us]

I have the same problem as Burren I feel your pain. People (outside Ireland) can't spell it or say it, or even remember it for that matter. Was planning on calling my daughter Caoimhe but couldn't face it as we live in UK.

[Scholes34]

I blame your parents!

[Pumpkinpositive]

I get called the common variation with an 'e' all the time. Something shrivels and dies inside me whenever I hear it.

But I gently correct the proles.

Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

[Pumpkinpositive]

I like Saoirse. Hate Sorcha though.

[PhaedraIsMyName]

My surname is a very simple, very basic Scottish name. It more often than not gets additional consonants added when it's written down.

And even more annoying are people who see it written and pronounce it in the most absurd way (it is a name which should be pronounced exactly the way it looks) and say it the same way as a well known girl's name. (Wonder if it's the same name as snakeandpygmy's part of whose post I've copied)

[SistersOfPercy]

Dd gets it a lot. Eleanor/helena because of the way it's pronounced here. Most of her friends and family use her nickname 'belle' so she tends to tell people who ask just call her belle.

[PomBearWithAnOFRS]

I have a friend named Ellen, and we live in 'Artlepool with an Aitch so although people call her Ellen, they often just assume it's Helen in our accent. She's spent years explaining the difference so I do feel for you OP
Not sure what, if anything you can do about it though, other than just using the correct form yourself and hoping people catch on.

[mytwoblackandwhitecats]

It is irritating as if I didn't correct people I would literally never be called my correct name!

But it GENUINELY isn't hard to pronounce!

[StrawberryCheese]

I've always had this problem. My name is Welsh and very similar to another Welsh name that more people have heard of. So they assume I have the more popular name. I correct people if I need to, although most of the time they do say 'did I say that right?'. It is a very straightforward, say what you see kind of name, but people tend to over complicate it.

I think it's important that you correct people. That's your name, your identity. If you don't care how they say it then why should they. At least that's my opinion. I have been called everything from Gary to Karen so it would be bonkers of me not to correct people.

[jopickles]

my gran has never once spelt my name right in a card despite the fact she has received cards from me with the correct spelling for 30 years now and to make matters worse she now spells my daughters name wrong as well! My name is Joanne so its not like its difficult but she has spelt it Jo-Ann for 30 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! not that it annoys me obviously