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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Been calling our neighbour the wrong name for 2 years!!!

58 replies

GaaaaarlicBread · 25/04/2020 20:33

No biggie , got worse things going on in the world I know but I am so embarrassed.

My husband and I moved into our house two years ago, the neighbours are lovely but we don’t talk loads , they have two children and we just say hello as and when. Anyway when we moved in we sent them a card at Christmas and just addressed it to number 20, from Garlic Bread and DH.
We never got one back but didn’t expect one and assumed they didn’t really do cards .
We then got a knock at our door last year asking if they were ok to paint their fence on the driveway a different colour to ours as they were aware it may drip to our side, we said no problem we will just paint ours the same colour as it needed doing anyway and they were lovely about it, told us their names , apologised for not introducing themselves sooner.
Since then they’ve been friendly with us over the fence , so we often say good morning Jen & Stewart. The kids are nice too.

Anyway we got a card from them thanking us for our NHS service as they know both my DH and I work for the nhs and said if we need anything let them know. Well bloody hell , he’s not called Stewart. He’s only bloody called Steven. Not even slightly similar . I don’t think I can show my face again. Thank god for isolation.
I am so embarrassed and he hasn’t corrected me EVER ! he’s always responded when I’ve said hi Stewart.
Please tell me you’ve done something similar 😂

OP posts:

Delbelleber · 25/04/2020 22:13

😂😂😂

RiftGibbon · 25/04/2020 22:13

yelyah we have lived in our current home for 5 years. When we moved in, we met several neighbours. Next door were Joan and Hassan. The other side were Joan and Bill. Directly opposite were Joan and Bill. Diagonally opposite were Bill and Diane.

Blibbyblobby · 25/04/2020 22:20

My work colleague refers to him as Dave

A former colleague calls me Dave (I am a woman, and not called Dave). When we worked together we had a lot of colleagues called Dave and we decided to make it the standard team name. He knows my real name but I’m pretty sure he does think of me as a Dave.

Clearthinking · 25/04/2020 22:23

New dog, introduced Rubble. One lovely lady always calls him Rebel. Guess he is...

soundsgreektome · 25/04/2020 22:29

I’ve answered to someone calling me Susan for about 30 thirty years. I’m not Susan. Totally confused my kids when she yelled down the aisle in Tesco, “Hi Susan, how you doing?” then went into a full conversation using my not name on every sentence end. I just went with it. My kids faces.

BettyOBarley · 25/04/2020 22:31

My neighbour calls me Andrea for some reason. My name is absolutely nothing like Andrea and she takes my post in for me quite regularly! 😂

WhenItIsOver · 25/04/2020 22:37

I met a man called Peter. During the conversation that followed he told me that his name was actually Tim but someone had mistaken his name for Peter so he became Peter from then on. Except that he then used to clarify who he was on the phone by saying 'It's Peter here, you know, Tim'.

barberousbarbara · 25/04/2020 22:41

My parents neighbour called my Dad Roy for nearly 50 years. His name was Keith. She got my name and my Mom's name correct. She also got a Christmas card off us every year with the correct names on it

minimummum · 25/04/2020 22:42

I have been calling my next door neighbour Ian for 8 years. A few months ago I took a parcel in for him and it was addressed to Kevin. When I handed him the parcel I said they have got your name wrong and he said no that's my name you have got it wrong.

InconvenientPeg · 25/04/2020 22:44

DH has been known as Nick for the last 2 years by a manager of a sports team he's part of. That's not his name 😆

I never use people's names because I'm hopeless at remembering them. I'm really good at getting round using names now so that usually only DH notices and mugs off at me from behind them if he notices me doing it 🙄

SquirtleSquad · 25/04/2020 22:55

These are brilliant, we moved here at the start of the year and I can't for the life of me remember our 2 sets of neighbours names!
Since we've been in lockdown we've given them nicknames but I'm buggered once we start leaving the house more - they are both the types to want to chat constantly and who I'm sure curtain twitch and wait for us to leave the house before pouncing on us from their front door to say hi. They know all 3 of my kids names, and ours. Fuckers.

Boulshired · 25/04/2020 23:02

My neighbour is very popular in the street and when we moved in told the majority of the street the wrong name. It took years to figure out why people kept calling me Sandra. I answer to both names, although Sandra is a lot rarer now.

panicstationsready · 25/04/2020 23:03

My mother kept called my DH Andrew - his name is Mark. No one knows why - including her - I've never even been out with an Andrew (well I did but she never knew... and that was 40 years ago)

Timesdone · 25/04/2020 23:13

Not quite the same but a friend has spelled DH name wrong for 40 yrs. I lost it a few months back and sent a text saying FFS get it right. 40 yrs is long enough to learn a word isn’t it?

Original poster

GaaaaarlicBread · 25/04/2020 23:19

You’ve all brightened my day thank you! 🤣☀️

OP posts:

ViveLEntenteCordiale · 25/04/2020 23:26

Our new neighbours have been getting my name wrong for 2 years. She finally realised when my correct name came up on a text! She was mortified and said how sorry she was but it doesn't bother me... I have an unusual name which is easily mistaken for more common names, and we are both foreigners here.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 25/04/2020 23:30

40 yrs is long enough to learn a word isn’t it?

Maybe, maybe not. As a child I was encouraged to use adults' proper names, so Mrs Tissle next door was called exactly that. It wasn't until I was 50-odd that my mum clocked this and couldn't think who I was on about

She then worked out that for all those years I'd been using her nickname for Irish Mrs Connelly, who constantly talked about the "tissles" in her garden

SpicedCamomile · 25/04/2020 23:35

That is very weird, because our neighbour regularly calls DH Steve, and his name is Stuart!
Now I need to name change again...

thelocalwoolieshasnotp · 25/04/2020 23:39

It's Peter here, you know, Tim'.

😂😂😂

waltzingparrot · 25/04/2020 23:42

I found out last year that I've been sending a Christmas card to the wrong address for nearly twenty years. Now I'm wondering what it would be like to receive a Christmas card from an unknown family for 20 years in a row.

alexdgr8 · 25/04/2020 23:45

my darling father was called mr x for many years after next door neighbours moved in. one day another person went by when they were both in their front gardens and called out cheerily to my father, hello Mr Y ! hello, said my father, nice to see you.
the neighbour turned and stared. then he slowly approached my father and said, in a puzzled voice, that man called you Mr Y. yes said my father. is your name Y ? yes said my father. neighbour scratches head, well why didn't you tell me, when i've been calling you X all these years. ?

said father, X is a perfectly nice name, if you are good enough to call me it, it's not for me to correct you.
he was a lovely example of old fashioned courtesy. it might sound funny, but he meant his reply sincerely. i've often pondered its and his complete lack of vanity.

another case was a rather august woman when i was at college who called me by a different name, and i didn't dare correct her.
it didn't matter until some years later when by chance some other people who knew me from college were in her company with me, and turned and glared at me, as if i had deceived them.
i couldn't explain, and just felt like unfairly blamed child.

DontGoIntoTheLongGrass · 25/04/2020 23:48

Elderly neighbour used to call dh wrong name "Brian". Nothing like his real name. Even when I called dh name right to the neighbours face during conversation he still got it wrong.
Neighbour: How's Brian doing?
Me: Oh yeh Peter's doing great.
Neighbour: Glad to hear that about Brian.

Wtf

We got xmas cards to me and Brian. The next year he got mine wrong also. Mine's now Geraldine.

To Brian and Geraldine

Zfactorstar · 25/04/2020 23:48

At least the names you mixed up were close! I called one of our best regular customers the wrong name for months. Called him Matt, real name Casey. He was to polite to correct me. Then when someone pointed it out I overcompensating and used his real name way too much.

Original poster

GaaaaarlicBread · 25/04/2020 23:48

@waltzingparrot no way!!! That’s like a perfect storyline for a book or film ! I want to hear more. Did you ever write to them to say it was a mistake ? I love this !

OP posts:

DiscoDown · 26/04/2020 00:03

A tutor at evening class got my name wrong repeatedly, I corrected her the first few times and in the end gave up and went with it. It was okay until I forgot which name I should be listening out for. 😳

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