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A couple of weeks ago, Lynn Lewis told Home Truths how fed up he was with having a woman's name. But for many Home Truths listeners, it was the pronunciation of their names that was the real bugbear...
Margret wrote:
My major irritation is people that think I can not spell my own name correctly. My name is Margret - yes you saw right - Margret without the a after the g. But when I receive letters and emails answering letter or emails I sent and signed, my name is nearly always spelt the conventional way Margaret. What do these people think? I can not spell my own name? Margret is the original way of spelling this name, which by the way means Perl!
Barry wrote:
My name, as you can see is Barry Bines. In this country my surname sometimes causes problems and I have become used to being incorrectly called Mr. Binns. When I clarify the spelling and pronunciation to be "as in Woodbines" it usually sets matters straight.
In the late 70's I lived in Norway for a few years. In Norwegian the letter 'i' is almost always pronounced as a long 'e' sound, as in bee, and the consonants are harder with, for example, 'b' tending to more of a 'p' sound.
At the time I was there it was fairly usual and polite to be addressed by one's surname only. However, in my first month there I was shocked one day at work when someone hailed me from the far end of the corridor as 'Hey Bee-ness'!
Eileen wrote:
I had an experience some years ago where I worked with someone who persisted in calling me Elaine. Not that I have anything against that name it just doesn't happen to be mine. After a while I was getting more and more wound up by this so when she addressed me as Elaine, I just looked her straight in the eye and said to her "Well actually my name is John!". She always called me Eileen after that!
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