In Which I am Turned Into a Curse Word

"Jeanette?" people ask after I introduce myself. "No, Danette with a D," I say. Most people haven't heard of my name. I've barely heard of it myself, having met just a handful of other Danettes. One works at my dentist office and I love to go there. "Hi Danette!" "Hi Danette!" Half an hour later, "Bye Danette!" "Bye Danette!"

Teachers never could pronounce my name right. They always gave it the phonetic treatment: "DANette." Didn't matter how many times I corrected them; they never wavered. The other kids got it right, but never the teachers.

Even spelling it for people can be a problem. I was on the phone with the cable guy and he had some kind of mental block. He thought I was saying Denise, Janet, Danita. I spelled it for him three or four times before he was able to enter it into his files.

Then I got the bill. It was addressed to Dammet Haworth.

4 comments:

Regan Kirk said...

Ah, Danette, I feel your plight. "Regan" is a hard one for people to get right too.

My boss at a new job called me Ray-gan. When I corrected him, ("it's Ree-gan") he said, "I bet everyone calls you that," and left it at that, firmly believing that he had just re-named me!

Danette Haworth said...

Oh, yeah, I can see where you're coming from!

And on the flip side, I've never had to share my name with many people. I enjoyed being the only Danette in class, while others had to go by compound names: Lisa T. and Lisa W., Tim R. and Tim F.

elysabeth said...

Yep - Elizabeth was the popular name in my classes and when I took on writing I decided to change the spelling to the present one I use - Elysabeth - and still get asked, "How do you pronounce your name?" It is the same as the other spelling but if you want to get technical it would be more with a French twist on it - (long A,lees, short a, bet) since the H is usually silent in French pronounciations. I just like the classy look of the spelling, Elysabeth.

Now maiden name was a big problem (because it is French) and is spelled BOISVERT, pronounced Bwa vair, means Green Wood and we got - Boys verte, Bwosie verte, and everything in between.

I know a Danette in this area so you are not alone.

My daughter's name is Hailie and I've only met one other person with this spelling (pronounced just like the Hayley spelling or other variations - like Hayley Mills, et cetera) and she gets all kinds of weird pronounciations as well. Guess it doesn't pay to be different when naming kids or choosing a pen name or even changing the spelling of your given name - oh well - E :)

Anonymous said...

Oh, the joys of name confusion! I can imagine how frustrating it must get, but at least it makes for a great blog entry! :)