Seeing Double

How important is it that people get your name right?

The press prints name corrections all the time, which has always confused me.  How hard would it be to ask someone how they're name is spelt? Elliott Gould, apparently holds the record for the most frequently corrected name in the press and as a very famous actor, with a 50 year career; being an ex- Mr Streisand; Ross and Monica's Dad and part of the modern day Ocean's Rat Pack, you would have thought they would have had plenty of time to work out how many L's and T's his name had. They don't seem very ashamed of it though.  The LA Times recently brag-tweeted that they had gone 260 days without mis-spelling Mr Gould's name.

My daughter is currently training as a journalist and is being taught that your professional integrity depends on making certain that you spell a person's name correctly.  They are told that if they get someone's name wrong it will annoy them so much that they won't speak to you again. When people get your name wrong it can appear rude and can make the person feel unimportant or invisible.  After all, your name is your identity.

This week, my name was incorrectly spelt by the local press - again.  They insist on adding an S to the end of it.  They are not alone in this.  My boss does the same which annoys everyone else much more than it does me. It does confuse me because I have never added an s when writing my name unless it is preceded by an apostrophe and when speaking to the journalist on the phone I have never referred to myself in the third person with the apostrophe.  How odd would it be not to use the word 'my' in an interview?  Much of my correspondence with the local press is via e-mail and my email address is my name without the S.

Luckily, I'm not really worried what people call me. Someone I knew always called me Hilary and whilst I didn't think I looked like a Hilary it didn't stop me answering her. Children at school seem to constantly confuse the teachers with names that start with then same letter and I'm always quite happy to pretend I am that Mrs Someone Else. It does irritate everyone else though and both my Dad and my daughter were pretty cross about this fictional character quoting my words in the press.  They shouldn't worry though, I've worked it out.  They are not getting my name wrong.  It's just that, they, like everyone else, believe that there must be two of me.  They are talking about both of us.  It is the perfect explanation, which also justifies why people think I can get so much done and be in two places at the same time.