To think DH needs to tell his barber his real name?

[ReligiousEel]

DH has been using the same barber for more than a decade. He goes about once a month. They chat when he’s there, about football, families, holidays, the usual stuff. We once bumped into the barber in the supermarket and said hello and had a very brief chat.

All fairly normal. Except the barber thinks DH is called Chris. He’s not called Chris, not even close.

I asked DH why the barber thinks he’s called Chris and he doesn’t know. He just knows at one of their early appointments the barber called him Chris and he didn’t correct him, as he didn’t think it was important. Now, more than a decade later, he’s still calling him Chris.

I suggested to DH that he tell him his actual name but he refused. He said it didn’t matter, he’s just the bloke who cuts his hair, and the ship has sailed - he’s just going to have to be Chris to the barber forever.

AIBU to think he should tell him?

It really is a uniquely British thing to feel embarrassment at correcting someone who calls us the wrong name, Only Fools and Horses were right on the money with the Rodney/Dave joke!

I'm in a similar situation with a lady on my training course. Somehow I gave her the impression that our dc were the same age. She's currently looking at primary schools for her dc and keeps asking me what schools I'm thinking of and if we've been to open days. My dd is 10 and will be off to secondary next year.

My late husband's real name and the name that everyone called him were totally different.

We're not certain, but we think that his birth mum gave him the name that everyone called him but that he was registered under the preferred name of the family couple that adopted him.

My mums neighbour calls her maxine her name is Lorraine my dad gets called Dennis in the park he's called keith lol

Many years ago, it was common for a boy or girl to be registered with the same first name as the Dad or Mum, but would often be called by their middle name. My Aunt hated her first name and just used a name she liked (wasn't even her middle name). I was in my teens before I realised the name I (and everyone else used) wasn't actually her registered birth name (in fairness it was a bit unusual). I've had people call me by the wrong name, mainly because I use a shortened version, Mel and not my full name. My then boyfriend was given a wedding invitation from someone he knew, instead of asking him what my name is, or using Mel, they'd guessed!! 😂 And got it wrong!! I've been called Madeleine and Mandy too!! However, I always correct people, if they do get my name wrong.

There was a woman I always knew as Kate, but it turned out that her name was actually Pat and her husband called her Pat-a-Kate, so Kate stuck.

My DH once sat up in bed at 2 a.m. and said
” Oh no he’s not called Clifford, he’s called David!”
This man often employed my DH as a Trainer in a specialist area. He had known him for a few years.
He’d spent all that day calling him Clifford (his surname) and was never corrected.

Somehow in the middle of the night he remembered that Clifford was the man’s wife’s surname and that he couldn’t be called Clifford Clifford.
I found this absolutely hilarious especially when he announced “ I even called him Cliff once” 🤣

Why does it bother you? Surely you have more important things to deal with in your life?

It’s harmless. YABU - no need to correct it.

live in a small village. I grew up here. Now in my 40s. Neighbour known me and my family all my life. She calls me Wendy. I am NOT Wendy. Calls my husband Gill. He is NOT Gill. We go along with it. We send Christmas and birthday cards with our actual names on ie x from number y. We do diy for them etc. makes no difference. If it’s a polite name then I usually just roll with it.

My parents' neighbour called my mum the wrong name forever, my mum even signed Christmas cards using the wrong name in the end!

My DH called our next-door neighbour Brian for 18 years until we moved, despite my telling him repeatedly that NDN was called Stephen.

I wouldn’t bother.
My maiden name was similar to Hayworth and a colleague called me Rita for years because he fancied Rita Heyworth.

A colleague was spelling something out on the phone. She said "N for Nora". Ever since the person has called her Nora and she doesn't like to correct him.

Years ago I worked in a shop and one of the regular customers always called me Susan. I dont know why and I never bothered to correct her.
Fast forward a few years and I got a job in a shop near the old one. The same woman shopped there and for some unfathomable reason I became Mary.
Again I didnt bother to correct her, I just couldn't be arsed 🤣

Maybe once a week I get breakfast from a local sandwich shop. One day I went in and the woman behind the counter announced what I was having. She was so proud of remembering I didn't have the heart to tell her it wasn't my order. Been eating the wrong sandwich for about a year now. It's actually quite nice 🤷

I had this with a work colleague. She REALLY reminded me of a friend from uni and I kept wanting to call her uni friend's name. The problem was my uni friend had the same name as me, so I would have seemed very strange mistakenly calling my work colleague by my name.

🙌🏻

Why give yourself a job of worrying about it. If your DH doesn't mind, let them be.

There is a woman I met when I was 19 (I’m 47) she always calls me Francesca. I have an Italian name but it’s nothing like Francesca. I feel like after 28 years it’s probably too late to correct her. I don’t see much of her now but did bump into her once when I was with dh. He couldn’t stop laughing afterwards when I explained I’d just accepted the new name.

My dry cleaner of 20 years calls me by my last name (I have a firstname/lastname).

too late now!

My hairdresser has called me Sheila for ten years and I'm Sylvia but I've replied to it for so long I can't say anything now xxxx

I mean…..it’s not as bad as the very drunk woman I met outside a hotel, who insisted on telling me the story that she had met, had sex with, yelled his name alot, spent the entire next day with him calling him said name……to then find out, she had misheard him and was using a completely different name.

Because of the famous British politeness and reserve!
I don’t think I’ve ever been called a completely different name but my name can be spelled in a few different ways, eg Katie, Katy or Lucy/Lucie as another example. Even some relatives eg an aunt get it wrong and I don’t correct people. Ots a complete name in itself but one friend occasionally lengthens it, eg to Kathryn. Or Lucinda in the second example.
I let it go because life’s too short.

I wonder if there's shop owners out there calling everyone Chris or Debbie just to see who corrects them 😂

I used to live in a forces married quarter and was on speaking terms with a lady that lived there . We moved to our own house in the village and she later moved down the road . We had mutual friends that we chatted about when we saw each other and she always called me Helen (nc) not my name but I didn’t correct her.
Anyway , I had a little girl and she was about 3 or 4 when we stopped by this lady’s gate and she investable called me Helen in conversation - my daughter piped up with ‘ why is that lady calling you Helen , your name is Marie (nc) . So embarrassed as I had to then explain to the lady that Dd was correct , my name wasn’t Helen but Marie - kids , don’t you just love em 😳😧