My name is not Natalie

[MangosteenSoda]

I'm fairly new in my street and don't know anyone well. I got a text from a lovely neighbour calling me Natalie.

I responded to the text and told her my actual name. No fuss, not awkward at all. I now feel completely un-British. I obviously should have gone by Natalie in her presence for ever more.

I actually prefer the name Natalie to my own name

So this is more of a WWYD - did I do the right thing, or should I have embraced the national stereotype?

What insanely British things have you done?

My neighbours always spell my name incorrectly and it annoys me. But it's been six years now so it's too late to correct them!

Many people shorten my name. There are 2 possible common shortenings. I don’t like either, but I absolutely hate one. Worked with someone who insisted in calling me the one I hate most. I hate that British people somehow feel bad in asking other people to call them a name that they actually like!

I remember going on a family holiday to Spain when I was about eight and it was the sort of holiday where kids get thrown into the holiday clubs so parents can relax all day. Anyway, everyone in the holiday club called me Helen for two solid weeks. I even received certificates naming me as Helen. I suppose my name is slightly similar to Helen but not massively, I just went along with it and didn’t correct a soul. My Mum thought it was rather amusing and of course kept calling me Helen herself to be funny...

One of my neighbours got my name wrong in christmas card and admitted the remembered the first letter but guessed the rest. She was so mortified that it was wrong she went home and wrote us a new card with my actual name in

One of the best things about lockdown is that DH is home and can answer the door to the Tesco delivery driver who once, years ago, made a comment about the amount of children in the house and decided that i must be a childminder. And comments on it each delivery. And I have gone along with it for years, even when the house is empty of children.

People often tell me that I speak really good English, been told this by British people and people from other countries. I'm British and was born and raised in England so of course its my native language but for some reason people don't think it is. A lot of people ask if I'm German, to save embarrassment I normally just say yes.

My neighbour 2 doors down calls me by my daughter's name and I have let it go for 8 years now so think I'm stuck with it. My ex manager always called me Ellie, still does if I see him. Must have told him my name 100 times before I gave up. Only person in the whole company who got my name wrong!

Lady at work called me the right name for a year and then randomly changed it.
E.g Sarah instead of Samantha.
First occasion Eeh hiya Sarah how are you?
Umm Samantha. I’m great how are you?

Second occasion
Sarah I’ve not seen you for ages how are you
Haha I’m still called Samantha and I’m great

Third occasion
Sarah how are you?
I’m bloody marvelous how are you?

For years when ever we met she called me Sarah. I just nodded along nicely. It wasn’t until I was walking into work with my friend and she was behind us and said hello.
My friend was like Eeh did you just calll her Sarah? This is Samantha.
Me- oh I answer to anything me 🤷‍♀️

Is the name similar to Natalie? If it is I think we have the same name and I feel your pain!!

bb It begins with N and has 3 syllables, but other than that, not really similar.

Natalie is a much nicer name

I had a similar experience with a client. I met with her, introduced myself, discussed services and left. All good.

I followed up later with an email (which has my name in the signature at the bottom) and I also signed off with my name. She replied with, 'Hi Natalie' (genuinely, she used the same name as you were called and it's nothing like my real name).

I replied and didn't mention it but again, signed off with my actual name. A few days later, she emailed me again, 'Hi Natalie' 🙄 this time I acknowledged the mistake and corrected her in a lighthearted way.

A few days later another email came through, 'Hi Natalie' 😤 I had to make it clear that time as it was getting awkward. She was mortified and apologised profusely. She was lovely and would have probably thought I was weird if I'd allowed her to call me by another name for weeks and not corrected her.

We moved house last week. Our neighbour introduced our other neighbour as bob. Bob told us afterwards his name is Kevin.

This is outing but years ago I had neighbours called Rod and Elaine.

The neighbour on the other side of their house was convinced they were called Ron and Yvonne. Cue all Christmas cards being addressed as such

I knew a man for years i always called him Derek grew up from a child calling him Derek I'm now early 30's and he told me a year or 2 ago before he passed away his name was actually Alan. He laughed about it when i said why didn't you ever tell me before he said he found it to funny

I did this. Bumped into a distant work colleague in supermarket, introduced my husband to them, " this is John", no I'm not, I'm Peter. Had been calling them wrong name for nearly 3 years. The embarrassment even thinking about it years later.

I have a less common name that I use a common shortened version of, many, many people who know me just as the short version lengthen my name to the incorrect full name...I generally just respond to it to save embarrassment!

When I was a child, a new family moved into my street. I got talking to the youngest daughter who was a year older than me and went over to their house to play. Her elder brother asked if I had any siblings to which I replied "yes, five." He then asked their names and ages. I first told them that E was the oldest with the intention of listing them by age when he then interrupted with "and the youngest?" He then proceeded to tell her other sisters that i had two sisters. I didn't say anything. When they met the rest of my family they were confused as to why "I'd only told them about two." I just shrugged and tried to play it off as nothing instead of explaining that they had somehow misheard me.

DH has been called Callum by a client for years now, even though he (and his dad who he works with) has corrected the client several times. To be fair he has the first two letters of DH's name right!

I pretended my DD was a boy to a lovely little old man who mistook he repeatedly for one. I even named her Colin for his benefit.