"What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."
By any other name would smell as sweet."
-William Shakespeare, Romeo & Juliet
I LOVE my name. I mean, c'mon it is an epic name- Kjersti Adeline Oda Parkes. I love it.I love that my initals could be a radio station, "You are listening to KAOP your station for the latest hits..." (Once it was a radio station, in the 4th grade when I made tapes as a DJ... but I digress).
As cool as my name is, it is constantly being butchered. I've heard every possible pronunciation of my name that is in existence. When people first meet me, I tell them to not look at the spelling, just to remember it is pronunced Chairstee (like a chair you sit on, then you add stee, I've recited this so many times that I've now heard other people recite it when they are introducing me to new people.) This usually works. Except now... The school year is almost over and some of the secretaries at the school mis-prononce my name. I am positive that I told them the correct pronunciation to begin with, but now they must have forgotten. Do I correct them or just go on being Keerstee? Or Kristen? Or whatever?
C'mon it's like a chair you sit on and add stee!
I love my name, I love that it makes me ethnic (albeit in a Scandinavian way). But do I go on having it butchered?
As cool as my name is, it is constantly being butchered. I've heard every possible pronunciation of my name that is in existence. When people first meet me, I tell them to not look at the spelling, just to remember it is pronunced Chairstee (like a chair you sit on, then you add stee, I've recited this so many times that I've now heard other people recite it when they are introducing me to new people.) This usually works. Except now... The school year is almost over and some of the secretaries at the school mis-prononce my name. I am positive that I told them the correct pronunciation to begin with, but now they must have forgotten. Do I correct them or just go on being Keerstee? Or Kristen? Or whatever?
C'mon it's like a chair you sit on and add stee!
I love my name, I love that it makes me ethnic (albeit in a Scandinavian way). But do I go on having it butchered?
5 comments:
My last name is constantly mispronounced and my first name is constantly misspelled. It's very normal for me to say my name and just spell it automatically. What's funny to me is when someone will post to me on Facebook or reply to a comment I made or something and address me as "John" when my name is RIGHT THERE for them to see. Good luck with those secretaries. Kjersti isn't hard to remember at all.
Just tell them... I had a hard last name (Skousen) and people NEVER got that right. Best just to politely correct them and maybe, just maybe, they will remember next time. :)
Correct them. Better now than in four years. You never know how long this could go on. I didn't nip it in the bud, and I've been "Eve" to my favorite pilates teacher for five years.
If you want to get really technical, the Swedish pronunciation is "Share-stee" and the only reason it turned into "Chair-stee" is because Mom couldn't pronounce it. Of course, it's probably because nobody ever corrected her/you until you'd been using the name for over 20 years that the mispronunciation stuck. You'd better correct the secretaries before they call you the wrong name for 20 years.
Politely correct them. My six year-old does it all the time with her name already. Some people will get it and work hard to correct it, but others will be oblivious and will never be able to correct it. I, too, have dealt with it my entire life, so I do it automatically.
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