Have you ever heard anyone compliment your name after they have done a horrible job of pronouncing it? These people want to try repeatedly to say your name correctly, yet each time they destroy it further. By the time they are able to say it correctly, you know the person is a moron and you don’t like them. It reminds you of the Seinfeld episode “The Seven” when George Costanza was recommending the name “Soda” and “Seven” for babies, and people around him thought he was nuts.

People somehow think that they must say a name correctly without actually trying to hear you, the “owner” of that name, say it. When you say it yourself, many people actually ask you “Oh, you must like that name, its so nice and different.” What else would I be doing; hating my own name when I have so many other things in life to like or dislike, or simply ignore? Are these people running out of topics to talk about, or are they just like that? Even “Wow, the weather is nice today” on a day full of blistering heat or hurricanes [I prefer hurricanes] sounds better than talking about the concept of someone’s specific name for about 5 minutes, without being actually interested in it. A name is considered part of the identity of many people, and destroying that identity destroys your worth in the mind of that person.

People keep hearing the name of any band repeatedly and love to say it to brag further, but they never really wonder how the band came up with that name. When it comes to people, these people rush to say the name without actually hearing it correctly. It’s not a hard name; you have hearing problems. I waste almost 3 minutes every other day hearing one of my friends or someone I meet talk about the name of some other person with me [different each time] or vice versa, talking about their name and how different it is. After that ritual is complete, majority of these people contribute absolutely nothing in any useful conversation for the rest of the day.

People wonder about the origin of your name. They wonder the origin of my name. They want to know if it’s from earth or from some other planet that was destroyed by those who mispronounced names. They want to know the meaning of your name, as if every name has a dictionary meaning behind it. They would like to know why you got that name, as if you knew exactly what your parents were thinking when you were born. If it was up to these people, they would even ask why your parents had you in the first place and how it happened.

Yesterday, I took someone to the hospital, and while that person went into one of the rooms to be checked, I was filling out a form to check both of us into the hospital. The nurse asked me what to call me, in case she needed to call me later on with any questions. I said “Bes”, and she asked me “Is that with a B?” I looked at her, smiled, and said, “No, that’s with an M.” She looked at me, smiled, and wrote down “Bes” with a “B.” It’s probably a normal reaction; some people ask some people about their complex names, and when a simple nickname comes by, they still have to ask for clarification. No matter what the reason, if it ends quickly and nicely, it’s very good, and you actually make a good impression, both ways. If you keep asking for clarification and the meaning and the historical relevance of your name to all the historical events and the astronomical phenomenon, you are just making yourself look dumb. Next time you hear a complicated name, no matter which culture you’re from or interacting with, hear it clearly, think about it, and then say it only once. If you make a mistake saying it, ask for clarification only once and then fix it. If you still can’t say it, drop it.