What's her name?

[Yaworski]

In the past week I've dealt with two men who didn't know how to spell their mother's name. One was an unusual name like "Lavonia," and I asked him to spell it. The response was "I don't know. Don't give me a hard time, I barely got out of high school." The other was simpler, Debra or Deborah. He had no clue. How do you reach adulthood and not know your mother's name?

Brings to mind something that happened at work thirty some years ago. A coworker, a college educated programmer, was talking about his wife. I wasn't sure of her name from the way that he was saying it so I asked, "Is your wife's name Marion like Maid Marion from Robin Hood or Mary Ann like Gilligan's friend. He got a confused look on his face and said, "I'm not sure."

 

[Fox Mike]

Names are sometimes strange. My MIL was a born and bread Massachusetts lady. She often spoke of her friend Madge. It wasn't till years later that I actually saw "Madge's" name written. Marge was the actual name. Accents also have a lot to do with what we hear as to what something really is

 

[hittman]

Yeah it’s not unusual, sadly. Years ago working in the credit business I had a family all upset about their names getting mixed up with creditors and on credit reports.

You had father ( Sr ) and adult son ( Jr ) living at same address. Both of course also married women with same first name. Then Jr and wife had a son and named him Jr. Then the original Jr began using Sr. So you now had Sr and Sr formerly known as Jr living at same address as ….. Jr.

They couldn’t figure out how details matter and I couldn’t fix their ignorance.

Oh, and my oldest daughter had a classmate named Unique but of course spelled it Euniqee.

 

[LDB]

Thank you Dept. of Education and NEA. You've ruined the education system and severely dumbed down the populace. The better to make them leftists. The dumber the more leftist. Destroyed from within.

My mother was Naomi. Her mother, my granny was Beulah. My grandma was Nellie. I suppose Nellie could have been a nickname but that's all I ever knew. And all I ever needed to know was grandma, and the tin SO FAR up on top of the china hutch had the molasses cookies she made in it.

 

[bedfordboy]

My grandmothers name was Ariadne Lavinia, you don’t hear names like that very much anymore. My grandfather use to say she was from an aristocratic family. I don’t care for the scrabble nonsense names people make up these days.

 

[Cholo]

Oh, and my oldest daughter had a classmate named Unique but of course spelled it Euniqee.

Like the singer Sade, pronounced SHAR-DAY

 

[blume357]

I have to admit a couple months ago I went to pay my American Express bill via phone like I have for the last 20 years or so and they threw an extra security hurdle in.... "What is your mother's birthday?" I was stumped for a minute.... then I thought it was one of two days in October... got it on the 2nd try....

 

[Yaworski]

Like the singer Sade, pronounced SHAR-DAY

No "R".

Sade (/ˈʃɑːdeɪ/ SHAH-day or /ʃɑːˈdeɪ/ shah-DAY). FWIW, she's Nigerian.

The Irish spell names strangely, like Siobhan is pronounced "Sha-von."

 

[Danjet500]

My mom's name was Geraldine and spelled her name "Gerry". My aunt's name was Geraldine and spelled her name "Jerry".

 

[GypsmJim]

When Grandpa was ushered thru Ellis Island they asked him his name. He said Franz. The guy said we don't have any of those here. From now on you will be called Frank. Of course the family knew all that. After he passed and we went thru his chest of papers, his birth certificate and US citizenship papers did indeed have different names.

Dad's middle name was named after Aunt Sue's husband. When Dad was still an infant Uncle Frazier divorced Aunt Sue. Dad grew up thinking his middle name was Fraser. When in his forties he had the need to use his birth certificate and found a different spelling of his middle name. When Grandpa was questioned he said that Uncle Frazier was a SOB so they changed Dad's name.

 

[golferboy426]

Names are sometimes strange. My MIL was a born and bread Massachusetts lady. She often spoke of her friend Madge. It wasn't till years later that I actually saw "Madge's" name written. Marge was the actual name. Accents also have a lot to do with what we hear as to what something really is

did she come from a bakery family??? LOL

 

[xTopGun]

Like the singer Sade, pronounced SHAR-DAY

how 'bout La-ha, pronounced Ladasha.... everyone is supposed to know that the - is pronounced "das" ..... morons abound

 

[Yaworski]

how 'bout La-ha, pronounced Ladasha.... everyone is supposed to know that the - is pronounced "das" ..... morons abound

The dash don't be silent.

 

[Jeepnik]

Names and name changes were different in my parents generation and before. My dad was born and on his birth certificate he is a junior. His dad died during WWI in France. Some time later his mom remarried (or not, no one is really sure) and his name was completely changed. In order for his new dad to take the family to Panama he had to be legally adopted. They completely changed his name. He was too small to know why. His younger half brother's name was changed as well, but my uncle upon entry into the Navy during WWII changed it back. But paperwork wasn't such a big deal then.

Near as we can tell now the "legal" adoption was nothing more than telling the USN that the kids were adopted. As I said, no one knows why the complete name changes. The family has joked about it being a "witness protection" thing. And considering my grandmother's life it well could be true.

On my mom's side, and quite boringly, there are a lot of Ernestines, Ernests, Dorothys, Mays and Madelines. Shortened versions of those and just plain nicknames to avoid confusion abound.

 

[Jim Walsh]

“Roisin” is an Irish girls name, it’s pronounced “row-sheen”. There are lots of Irish names derived from Irish Gallic which don’t follow what we consider normal English pronunciation rules. I guess I was lucky in that my Irish grandparents had what we would consider normal names. My grandmothers name was Hanorah and my grandfather was Charles. I remember them speaking Gallic to one another on occasion but it was never taught to their children. As with most immigrants in the early 20th century they were thankful for having been given the opportunity to emigrate to the United States and assimilate into American society.

 

[xTopGun]

“Roisin” is an Irish girls name, it’s pronounced “row-sheen”. There are lots of Irish names derived from Irish Gallic which don’t follow what we consider normal English pronunciation rules. I guess I was lucky in that my Irish grandparents had what we would consider normal names. My grandmothers name was Hanorah and my grandfather was Charles. I remember them speaking Gallic to one another on occasion but it was never taught to their children. As with most immigrants in the early 20th century they were thankful for having been given the opportunity to emigrate to the United States and assimilate into American society.

the Irish immigrants on my mother's side of the family were all poorly educated farmers, and when checking historical records, i.e. immigration, church birth, marriage, death, etc., it seems that each family member spelled their last name in a different way.....

 

[Yaworski]

As with most immigrants in the early 20th century they were thankful for having been given the opportunity to emigrate to the United States and assimilate into American society.

Most immigrants spoke the mother tongue to their children and the kids learned English out in the community. English was a second language in my mother's home, Slovak was the primary tongue. Out in the neighborhood she learned Polish, Serbian, and Romanian.

Go to nearly any ethnic neighborhood and you'll hear the jibber-jabber of the prevailing mother tongue.

Sadly, my parents used the mother tongue as a secret language so my brother and I never learned it.

 

[coach]

It’s never ending for my wife Lois. You can’t image how often she gets called Louis from people reading her name or misspelling Louis when told her name.
Although whenever I got a telemarketer asking for Louis it made hanging up even quicker.

 

[eveled]

Names are sometimes strange. My MIL was a born and bread Massachusetts lady. She often spoke of her friend Madge. It wasn't till years later that I actually saw "Madge's" name written. Marge was the actual name. Accents also have a lot to do with what we hear as to what something really is

I know a lady named Margaret and she uses both Marge and Madge for nicknames. Your MIL may have been correct with either name.

My father in law met a lady whose first name was spelled La-a. He tried to pronounce it Lah Ah.

She got angry and said “it’s pronounced Lahdasha, the dash don’t be silent”

 

[Fox Mike]

did she come from a bakery family??? LOL

???????????????????

 

[blackhawkshooter]

Yeah it’s not unusual, sadly. Years ago working in the credit business I had a family all upset about their names getting mixed up with creditors and on credit reports.

You had father ( Sr ) and adult son ( Jr ) living at same address. Both of course also married women with same first name. Then Jr and wife had a son and named him Jr. Then the original Jr began using Sr. So you now had Sr and Sr formerly known as Jr living at same address as ….. Jr.

They couldn’t figure out how details matter and I couldn’t fix their ignorance.

Oh, and my oldest daughter had a classmate named Unique but of course spelled it Euniqee.

I worked with a lady whose name tag read Eugenie, She would correct you if you didn't pronounce her name Err zhun A,

 

[vito]

Not knowing the legal name of some great grandparent is one thing, but not knowing the actual name of one's mother or wife is another thing entirely. There is no justification for being this ignorant. When I was working, if I had an employee who did not know his own mother's name I would consider firing him on the spot for unacceptable stupidity or ignorance.

Accents and pronounciation are different than total ignorance. Back in the '60's, during my military service, I had a new Sergeant arrive at my unit (I was a Lieutenant at the time). He handed me his personnel file, and I asked him to pronounce his first name. His actual name was "Bile", which he pronounced as "Billy". I asked him to say the name because I did not think anyone would knowingly name their child "bile". He explained that his mother was illiterate and tried her best when spelling the name for his birth certificate, but what she wanted was "Billy".

 

[Jack Ryan]

Don't even get me started on the stupid trailer park names these days.

 

[Sam Summey]

Names are sometimes strange. My MIL was a born and bread Massachusetts lady. She often spoke of her friend Madge. It wasn't till years later that I actually saw "Madge's" name written. Marge was the actual name. Accents also have a lot to do with what we hear as to what something really is

Well Mashooshits accents "a's into r's" as JFK did with "Cuba" pronouncing "Cuber". The other identifier is the way they pronounce "car" substituting another "a" for the "r" pronounced as "caa". But then there is my NJ friend that pronounces the word "drawing" as "draaring" or "drawring"???

 

[Richbaker]

Like the singer Sade, pronounced SHAR-DAY

She's a furriner...

 

[caryc]

Well Mashooshits accents "a's into r's" as JFK did with "Cuba" pronouncing "Cuber". The other identifier is the way they pronounce "car" substituting another "a" for the "r" pronounced as "caa". But then there is my NJ friend that pronounces the word "drawing" as "draaring" or "drawring"???

Lots of times people on TV will refer to some place as being there but pronouncing it as thaa. Jut where is thaa? I can' find it on any map.

 

[peachhead]

My mom's name was Geraldine and spelled her name "Gerry". My aunt's name was Geraldine and spelled her name "Jerry".

My aunt Geraldine spelled it Geri.

I was named for my uncle HB, Horace Brunson. But everyone called him Pat. Thankfully my mother said we will go with Patrick. His brother was named LH and I don't know to this day what those initials stood for.

My grandfather did not have a middle initial and at one point somebody told him he had to have one so he just picked L. Didn't stand for anything.

 

[blume357]

The dash don't be silent.

Well it saves on lettering... and now that I think about it wouldn't that make the tattoo cheaper?

I have no middle name since I change it back in the mid 80's and so I often just do 'Z'. Of course on the 4473's I put nmn.

 

[KIR]

When my youngest son was born, my wife wanted to name him Benjamin, but when I first took him into her room so she could see him, the nurse was filling out paper work on him when my wife asked me how to spell Benjamin. "Is it ...man or ...min?"
A couple of decades later, I got a phone call from Ben, who had joined the Army (20 yrs. EOD and some of that time as a paratrooper as well); First words out of Ben's mouth were, "I hate you"! I asked him why? He said everytime he prints or writes his name on a form or docuement, he has to put in 'NMN'!. I told him would you rather have to add more letters to your name besides the 18 total he had in his first and last name. He was placated after I pointed that out to him.
My best friend was a beautiful Polish descendent with nine letters in her last name. I didn't find it all that difficult. When I asked her boy friend if he could spell her last name, he had a lot of difficulty doing so. shortly thereafter, she broke up with him...

 

[Bud0505]

You can call me Ray, You can call Jay , you can call me RJ, but you doesn’t have to call me Johnson