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??

[MissSmiley]

My favourites are the nan who's headstone was spelled wrongly (hope they corrected it)

And Francesca being called Manchester!!

I used to live on a street that I had to spell out every time I said my address. In fact two the one after was just as bad. We have named all of children with easy to spell non ambiguous names but you still get the odd person who gets confused.

Slightly off topic but I worked with a Jane who changed her name to Strawberry once.

[DizzyKipper]

Tbh I don't. For some reason lots of people call me another, completely different name that happens to begin with the same letter. Generally I just answer to it. Obviously there are some people/situations where it's a lot more important to let them know/remind them what my actual name is, but if the situation doesn't seem to warrant it I don't bother.

[DizzyKipper]

My name was one of the most common/popular for my generation btw so I'm not sure why people so often confuse it with that other name. I actually find it quite curious that so many people do.

[ebwy]

CrohnicallyExhausted the teacher has a local-to-here accent and your example doesn't apply!
(my former inlaws were yorkshire people and while they wouldn't say it with a rolled R at least I'd be able to identify that there was one in their way of speaking,if you see what I mean)

I've corrected her so many times but with less than a month to go in nursery now I've given up. Hopefully the reception teacher will give it a bit more of a try.

[ebwy]

though his little brother starts nursery in 2 years and will have the same teacher most probably... and he also has a Welsh name with a rolled R in it!

wonder how she'd have coped if I'd given them names with the LL sound or Ch in them? makes me laugh to think about it.

[carabos]

What I don't understand, as someone with a double-barrelled name, is why people just assume that I don't use it. I introduce myself as (say, Anne-Marie) my full name and the response is always, always "do we call you Anne or Marie then?" No matter what I answer (usually "well, Anne-Marie " ) they always pick a random diminutive and use that. I just don't get it. Does this happen to everyone? Say your name is Rebecca, and that's how you introduce yourself, do people just call you Becky regardless?

[netty7070]

I have a moderately unusual name that people can say but not spell. It doesn't bother me although I do often get called a variety of more common names that start with the same letter. It's like people have a 'bank' of names in their heads for each letter and mine isn't there.

[x2boys]

Carabos Anne-Marie is my actual name all my life I have had this well what do you prefer Anne or Marie well Anne-Marie as that's my actual name and the one I have been known as my whole life very frustrating!!

[AnnaBegins]

My name is perfectly normal, but has a more common variant with an a on the end (in the UK, funnily enough in France and Canada my name is the more common one). Unfortunately my colleague (only us two in our team) has the name with the a on the end. We are getting so fed up with having to constantly say on the phone, "no you want the other one."

But the responses I get to correcting people take the biscuit! I always start by apologising (for them calling me the wrong name ) and then telling them my actual name. I get some very uppity responses, like "fine then" (said with attidude) or "hmmpf", or one lady who I corrected when she was asking me to help tidy a chair away said "oh really, well, you'll have to tidy two away then"!!