My name has two common spellings. I have a new colleague who constantly spells mine the wrong way. He’s a touchy, difficult person. I’ve already mentioned it once, casually, to no effect. It is really very grating. What would you do?
People misspell my name sometimes and I don’t care.
I have FAMILY members - 3 or 4 in a larger extended family - who misspell my name and the name of one of my kids, both of which have two fairly common spellings. It’s really irritating and hard to not think they don’t care enough to get it right. Bottom line, I think some people are not very observant or careful. They do it even when the correct spelling is right in front of them on facebook or email. I’d have to say that they tend to be more self-focused people, and these are otherwise intelligent people. It is irritating. Curious as to what others suggest that might work without coming off as bitchy.
I think it becomes rude after awhile. Learn people’s name and how they spell them! Is that too much to ask of reasonably-intelligent folks?
The rarity is when people spell my name right, though it’s a simple name. I don’t care at all, but sometimes its family members, and friends whom I’ve known for years. I guess they must think when I’m sending them an email, that I’m misspelling my own name. Repetitively.
I’m referred to as Marion here lots of times. And a couple of days ago, somebody called me Maria.
And this is nothing compared to the many variations of my real name.
I gave up caring long ago.
My first name is foreign, and unusual. There are about seven different common spellings of my last name. The result is that almost no one gets both right at the same time.
I live with it. There are far biggest issues in the world.
My last name is very similar to a more common last name so it is frequently spelled wrong. I actually enjoy some of the other misspellings which are more creative. They give me a good laugh.
My first name is spelled incorrectly all the time. Honestly, as long as it’s not on my paycheck or ID cards. I don’t care.
I always ignore misspelling of my name, which is occurring very frequently, there are more of real issues in life. I do not have good memory to keep in mind everything, got to operate on a priority basis, I will never remember to focus on my name being misspelled, too old for that!
Are you referring to your first or last name? Is your colleague misspelling it on written correspondence to you only, or to multiple people?
That’s the issue. If its on correspondence that others see, those types of errors can be self sustaining, and grow.
If it just a mere annoyance, I would let it go. If it affects your professional communications and work in general, I would try to bring this up with this person again, not by email, but in a personal conversation in a non-confrontational manner. If the pattern continues, I recommend asking your HR for their professional advice on how this matter could be handled.
(One sure way to get a misspeller’s attention is to start misspelling his/her name. Not something I would recommend doing in this particular situation, but Mr. B sometimes does it, and it works 
).
I have a colleague who keeps calling me “Doris,” which isn’t even close to my actual name.
^^If it’s man, consider calling him ‘Boris’.
I have a female colleague who was riled on her 10 year hiring date anniversary to get a congratulatory letter from HR addressed to “Dear Greg”.
Our last name, if you change it a bit, can be a woman’s name …for example…if my last name were Miller…that is similar to Millie…
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been called by that female name, as if it’s my first name.
Weird
A high school BF’s father used to call me by a name that is similar to my own. I would correct him over and over and over and over again…finally I answered with, “Yes, Mr. (slightly changed his last name”…and he got the message.
I don’t care, as long as it’s close, I’m too lazy to correct them. But I consistently call somebody X when I know his name is Y. I don’t know why, my brain just works that way. Once my brain associates that person with X , it’s hard for me to call him Y. It’s been a long habit, not a recent memory problem.
iPad shortens CC name sometime. My big fat finger hits backspace or delete key sometimes. My eyes don’t catch it.
When my daughter was younger, we had friends and she consistently called the man the woman’s name and the woman the man’s name. Every single time. We were kidding one day about who the best mom was (me of course), and she said, “You’re better than Aunt K, you’re even better than Lewis!” I don’t know what it was, but she just couldn’t ‘undo’ it once she had learned their names.
My last name is spelled wrong so often that when I go to pick things up at stores or ask for a reservation, if they can’t find it I say “Try looking under G-R-O” and often they find it. When it was a problem at work, it was because the person was trying to send an email, and if you don’t spell it right, I wouldn’t get the email.
The other day someone spelled my mother’s name wrong. It’s Mary.