To ask why people have such a hard time spelling names correctly

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So my name is Bryony. the 2 most common ways to spell it are my way or Briony. I have my full name in my email address and of course always sign off with it but after 34 years it still amazes me how many people will respond with "hi Byrony/Bryany/bryoni" etc etc. I mean my name is right THERE on the email- twice !

My mum also has a name that can be spelt two ways and she constantly receives emails with it spelt wrong. Even some of her friends she's known for years don't get it right.

Another example is a Latvian lady I work with named Liisa. Of course we would naturally be inclined to spell it Lisa, but that's not her name. After 8 years of her working for the company so many people still get it wrong.

I really don't understand how this happens. I can understand a typo but when it happens over and over again I struggle to see how just looking at how the email was signed off or the name in the email is so difficult.

And I feel awful for my brother as we have a surname that's also a first name , and his first name can also be a surname. So he's constantly getting called by his surname. I know in the grand scheme of things it's a minor issue but it's just befuddling to me.

Meh, my name can be spelled about 3 ways (mine is the traditional way IMO) - I don't actually use that name though, but sometimes people at work write it to be funny- when lists forChristmas party etc are put up (its in my work email) and the always miss out the e. So I write in in big.

There are two ways to pronounce Aaron (I know one of each), so it's totally unreasonable to expect people to know which one from only seeing it written down. They should get it right once they've heard it said a few times.

I do think it's easy for people to make an initial mistake with spellings of names and then never look at how it's actually spelt (because you think you already know).

NC here.

I totally agree with you on this. Most people spell my name, Naomi, wrong. Like you say, even if it's in the actual email address and I've signed off with my name, they'll get it wrong. I notice the very rare occasions when people say and spell my name right.

I think that it's common courtesy to attempt to say and write someone's name correctly....especially when it's there in front of you!

Just laziness - I've seen typos with bog standard names!

In our office Chris has been spelt as "Chrish" and "Cherish"...

@goldfishshoals Aaron should only be spelt one way. If it's pronounced Arron then it should be spelt that way. It's a big bug bear of my OH's he's 24 years old and all those years of correcting people and they think they know better and tell him he's wrong imagine being 24 and still having people telling you your saying your name wrong 😂. Aaron (air-ron) is the Hebrew spelling and pronunciation.

My surname gets misspelled constantly, there's a huge game with the same name.
It only has one M!

This drives me up the wall too. Especially with emails.

My first name and surname both have alternate spellings which people can't seem to get right. Think Jackie/Jacqui Stevenson/Stephenson

It doesn't bother me if someone hasn't seen my name written down, but have simply stopped replying to emails that spell my name wrong when I have already emailed them with the right spelling.

If someone has a name I haven't seen before and I'm not sure of it, I copy and paste it when I reply!

This irritates me too. Ds has a traditional name which is only 5 letters long, but people still get it wrong! It has aa in the middle, but lots only put one and double another letter instead. It's really not that hard. He's 5 now and some family members are still getting it wrong.

Most people can spell my name, despite the fact that it's not that common and can be spelt all kinds of ways, most of them manage to spell my surname, except my aunt.

My name can be spelt a few ways so am used to misspelling- BUT only today i was annoyed for the 7000th time about people at work constantly spelling it wrong when it IS IN MY EMAIL ADDRESS AND ON MY EMAIL SIGNATURE!! I’m with you OP 👊🏼

DH has a mate call Alistair. They've been friends for several decades and he had a significant birthday recently. We bought a card for him, and DH wrote it and put 'Alasdair'.

He has form for this sort of thing - our neighbour is known variously as Aileen, Eileen or Irene. Her name is actually Elaine

I decided at that age that it really wasn’t that big an issue - I’ve not changed that view

Just that - get over it

My boss has a name that can have two spellings, one is with an 'i' and the other with a 'y' and he told me that once he gave his name over the phone to somebody (It's Martyn - with a 'y') and when a letter came with his name on it they had put 'Martiny'

I have an ordinary name spelled in a weird way (imagine Serra). In informal settings, casual work emails, I don't care at all how other people spell it.

I'm female. There are two versions of my name, one female, one male. I get called the male version at least once a week without fail
Think danielle/Daniel, Samuel/Samantha

Just realised mine isn't even about spelling, it's just calling me by the male version of my name. I mean why would you be a doctor, see you have a female patient and shout out (for example) "Joseph?"
Er no, it's Josephine...

DS is John. So often is his name written down as Jon. How difficult is John?

YANBU to wonder, but I don't think you'll ever get them to change. I had a similar problem. My real first name, shortened first name and surname can all be spelt in at least 2 ways, as can DH's first name. I've lost count of the number of times someone has spelt either of us wrong in a reply to a FB post when the right spelling is right above what they wrote. You'd think they'd notice that it wasn't turning into a link!

I have known one Aaron pronounced air-on and lots and lots and lots of Aarons pronounced arron...

I would only ever pronounce Aaron as Air-ron. Because that is how it should be said, as a pp said it's a Hebrew name. It only seems to be the last few years that it has been said more like Aran (as in the island) and well...that's not the name of the Biblical patriach is it?

My name is not common, but not out there. It is spelled without a consonant that is the most common (English) spelling. Even after I have spelled it out, I have had people (looking at you DVLA!) spell it wrongly. I also gave DD2 an ordinary name, but spelled in the Welsh way (no Welsh connections, just liked the spelling) and have cursed her to a life of people telling her she has spelled her name wrong! And then there's the joy of not being able to get things with your name on it. XH had an aunt miserable old cow who announced she had never heard of my name, so called me something that started and ended with the same letter, but was a different name. Funnily enough, she managed to use the name when addressing my DM, who I was named after.

I suppose in the scheme of things, it doesn't really matter that much, except the other spelling is not my name and I resent when it is written (or said!) wrongly.

YANBU.

There are 4 ways of spelling my common name, think Tracy/Tracey/Traci/Tracie, and no amount of correcting people or putting it infront of them helps them spell it my way! It drives me nuts sometimes. My Gran seems to alternate between 2 spellings and always has done

It really doesn't take much effort to figure out once I've shown you and this isn't helped by my VERY unusual surname which is a common word with one extra letter that just confuses everyone!

My DS and my cousin's DS have the same name.

This name has two normal spellings, but both of us spell it the same way.

However, my cousin always uses the other wrong spelling when writing cards.
How? He has the same name as your DS!

My name has two different spellings but a lot of people spell it a third way, which isn't even a correct way to spell it.

Some people inexplicably use the feminine spelling of DS name. Something like writing Adrienne instead of Adrien.

I have an unusual spelling of my middle name, and get fed up of having to correct it repeatedly. Apparently data entry people think I can't spell my own name and feel the need to 'correct' it for me.