Spelling people's names correctly at work

[mater-three]

My name is very common and has two very common spellings. People are always getting it wrong. I don't let it bug me, but I sometimes wonder about people who have to type my email address and then spell my name wrong in the body of the email... My name is my email address so it makes sense that they get that right and then get it wrong in the body. Just shows that people do not pay attention to details.

Sara is the other spelling, right? I’m Lori - not Laurie.

Yes. I'm Sarah - not Sara

Different subject, same class - but did you know that people from the north seem to pronounce the name “Alicia” like this: uh-Lee-see-uh(forgive my phonetics) while people in the south tend to pronounce it like this: Alisha? My job works out of Portland, Oregon is how I know.

Also, Tonya and Tanya are pronounced the same in the north - T-on-ya

The south pronunciation of Tanya is “tan ya” - assuming you’re in the states. Sometimes I overthink that.

[MrsDavidB]

In a professional setting at work people should take the time to get it right. My name is Stacey. So I've gotten Stacy, Stacie. It doesn't really bother me. What does bother me is I have gotten Tracey more time than I can count. Like hello The "S" is the first letter lol.

[MrsDavidB]

I love the name Lori spelled Lori. Simple and beautiful. I really hope simple names like that come back around again. I cannot stand this new trend of horrible names like Paizleigh, Braxxton etc

No. My name is Lori. There’s a girl on my team whose name is Laurie. Just today - she was having phone issues before I was even in for the day. I came in with my phone in system issues. I kind of feel sorry for her because she probably missed a lot of calls because they put the wrong person in system issues. As for me, I was very confused when I came in.

[Olioxenfree]

I commonly get Olivia instead of Olivie. I have just gotten used to it in places like restaurants where I get that’s what people are used to at first glance, but it does annoy me at work where I am always careful to corrected spell others names so I think it’s professional to do the same. My name is in my email address so all they would have to do is reference the name they are sending it to.

At my last job I had someone who directly reported to me, knew how my name was said, received emails from me on a daily basis with my name spelled for her, but still spelled it Olivia every time she emailed, texted me, etc. Even once screwed up her paperwork because she spelled it wrong and still continued to do so. She lacked professional behavior in general though.

I have two names, my Japanese name and my European name, and when I was a kid I always used my European name because I thought it would be easier but I don’t think it saved me much. People get just as mixed up with my Japanese name though even though it’s phonetically spelled. So I gave my kids the names I wanted to give them and everyone can learn to say/spell them or not, it’s their problem and not ours.

[AZOldGal66]

You'd be amazed by how my very common first name, which is Lisa, can be mispronounced or even misspelled. It's four letters only yet still, throughout my life, there have been mistakes made.

My husband's old-fashioned first name...Forrest...is often misspelled and instead, it's been Forest. No biggie and my husband and I don't care about the mistakes.

However, in a professional job setting, I think attention to this sort of detail is important.

My name is Lisa as well and I'm shocked at how people can mess it up. When I was little someone spelled it Leasea and when shy 4 year old me told them that was wrong they laughed at me and told me I didn't know how to spell my name I was too little. Yet another strike for my social anxiety.

That was so cruel for that person to laugh at you and especially given how young you were. You knew how to spell your name and were simply correcting them.

[mater-three]

I love the name Lori spelled Lori. Simple and beautiful. I really hope simple names like that come back around again. I cannot stand this new trend of horrible names like Paizleigh, Braxxton etc

No. My name is Lori. There’s a girl on my team whose name is Laurie. Just today - she was having phone issues before I was even in for the day. I came in with my phone in system issues. I kind of feel sorry for her because she probably missed a lot of calls because they put the wrong person in system issues. As for me, I was very confused when I came in.

Aww thank you! Definitely needed that tonight/morning.

[Anonymous 3]

Also, I am supposed to be giving a presentation at a conference soon and I noticed the proofs that our manager sent over have my name spelled multiple different ways (proofs are for power points, a name badge, and outline). Would you bother mentioning it to them?

I would definitely mention that.

It affects your professional development.

[SisterSomeone]

I have an incredibly common name with two common spellings, and it's a coin toss whether people pick the right one on the first try.

On things that will be seen by other people who may be looking me up, like professional credits, publications, public presentations, etc., I do insist on having my name spelled correctly, if only because I've determined that the other spelling doesn't lead people to me. Internally, I don't care at all. Call me whatever you want as long as you're getting your job done. Though if it was absolutely everyone in my office spelling it wrong, I might investigate why that is, like was I logged into the employee database with the wrong spelling or something.

[Gorilla_Mama]

I have an unusually spelled name, it ends in -ie instead of -ey. I constantly get it spelled wrong and for the most part I forgive it and don’t bother to correct. Unless it’s super important. But my one aunt is especially bad. She’ll message me on FB where my name is clearly spelled correctly at the top of the chat message and still spell it wrong. First off, family should know how to spell it to begin with. Secondly, ITS RIGHT THERE.