To find this ignorant

[whistlingtea]

I have an unusual name (and I know the way things go on here: I'm not going to disclose it!) It isn't a foreign name (not that that should make any difference) or hard to pronounce. It just isn't one frequently heard.

New people have recently joined the company.

They can't (apparently) get it right and their way around this is to call me any name that sounds vaguely similar. The most common one they've come up with is a pop singer with a slightly tarnished reputation but I've also been called two names that are not even close to mine (almost like someone introducing themselves as Annabel and being called Rebecca - because they 'hear' it incorrectly they come up with nicknames that are weird) and I've heard them saying to clients 'just call her ...'

IT'S DRIVING ME FUCKING BANANAS.

My name has been a source of irritation all my life to be honest because people persist in using a very similar but still different one (think Isobel/Isabella) but this is beyond anything I've had before.

The worst thing is I really don't think they are intentionally being rude. They just genuinely seem incapable of getting it in their heads that not everyone is called Sarah or Clare or Becky or something.

There are no nicknames I can use that I'd want to.

AIBU, and what the hell can I do? I really don't want to spend the next however many months being referred to as a pop singer I don't even LIKE!

To those saying that the OP shouldn't worry/care about it, all I can say is that it obviously doesn't happen to you on a regular basis.
People often mispronounce my name despite it being easy to say. It contains an 'h' which is pronounced but people insist on leaving the 'h' out or even starting my name with a 'y' instead of a 'j' German-style. I've noticed some news reporters have started to do this to a British tennis player now too. Be polite, get it right!

YANBU - annoys the fuck out of me too.

In your case, I would just start calling them random names, relatively unrelated to their own, see what they say/do about it. Then drive your point home.

I say this because I have one of those names that can be spelt two ways, one of which has an extra letter. Mine is the shorter version. Emails! Fucking emails, where the email address is there in front of you - and STILL a large percentage (about 66%) would add that extra letter into my first name when replying to me, despite having the email address with name right there in front of them, usually in the line above.

So I started adding the same letter into their first name when I replied - childish, oh yes, but it worked in more than half the cases. I never said anything along the lines of "please could you spell my name correctly" - just made the same mistake they did. As I say, more than half of them "got it" and didn't continue to make the mistake.

You've tried asking, you've tried telling - now you have no other option other than to ignore them completely until they get your name right, or do the same back to them.

Pretending it doesn't matter to you is pointless and will just drive your stress levels up.

I think they are just a bit thick to be honest. Don't think it's bullying. I don't think I share a name with anybody here. It's nothing like the tarnished pop singer it just begins and ends with the same letter.

The pop singer I've been 'named after' is Rhianna. I'm also being called Rhian.

My name is not however Rhiannon or similar.

If it's similar sounding to a more common name like Rhianna, agree with pp it's easier if you can say something to make it stick in their heads e.g. "it's like x name but spelled with a y" and then repeat it back yet again. Mine is one letter different from a more common name and that's all I ever do now, every single time.. without a reference point some people genuinely struggle to get the sound to stick in their heads it seems. My new boss struggled with my name for first few days, finally got it right, and then 6 weeks later has now reverted to mispronouncing it. The rest of my team has now got it right however! Really bizarre.

But it's nothing LIKE Rhianna!

I get - Rhianna, rhian, Joanne, Joanna, Rwanda and it isn't like any of them.

And it's really not hard

Rwanda? Seriously?

My mum's friend used to get called Rhianna, Joanna, Rwanda, etc (probably still does, I haven't seen her in years) she used to use her most patronising tone and say 'it's Rowena, R-O-W-E-N-A, say it back to me now, have you got it?' Once you'd had that conversation if you mispronounced it again she would just pretend she couldn't hear you .

Rowena reminds me of a lovely lovely girl at school and is therefore a great name. Ramona, or is that American? Rosanna, Rhona...

I can't believe any of those would be tricky enough to cause this though. I know a Rhona. I call her Rhona. It's not difficult.

I think I know it as DD has also been mistakenly referred to as Rwanda! And also Ribena 😁