In the long run of things this is such a minor thing but it is something that really, really annoys me and I want to bring it to others attention. I can't stand it when when people misspell my name. My name is Ann and is spelled 'A..N...N' there is no 'E' at the end of my name. I can't begin to tell you how many times people will assume there is an 'e' there and spell it 'Anne'. I tell people all the time DO NOT assume there is an 'E' at the end of Ann unless that person tells you their name has an 'E' or is spelled that way - Anne or Annie.
I used to think it was nothing big, and ignore it. But legally it is a big thing having everything spelled exactly correct on a document. Old typist for Legal firms will tell you they would have to retype everything if one word was misspell. You can just imagine having your name wrong on a legal document.
Case in point, when I graduated undergraduate school, I got a second replacement diploma so I could use that for job interview and such since I wanted to frame my original one. They misspelled my name and added an 'e' to my diploma. I took it back to have it corrected and it was going to cost me more money to get it changed, so I decided to keep it as it was.
Here's the part with the misspelled name.
No big deal or so I thought. Then I went for a summer job interview at the only petroleum based company in my home town. They wanted to see an official degree not a duplicate and not a photo copy since those could have been altered. They wanted to see the watermarked paper and the embossed seal.
I didn't get a job with them. Didn't know why. I wasn't too concern because I had been accepted into graduate school (at the same place I went to undergrad school) anyway and that had been my plan all along - to go to graduate school and to get my masters.
The next year they were interviewing at my school. I saw one of the same people who turned me down the summer before. I wanted to improve my odds of getting a job and to polish my interviewing skills, so I asked him why I didn't get the job. What he said totally blew me away. It was something I really wasn't expecting, but have never forgotten.
He said you know how important it is not to have a single spelling mistake on your resume. How you should have people review it to make sure it's 100% accurate. Well, it's 10 times more important on your diploma. When we saw your diploma name was spelled wrong, that instantly told us you were not concerned about details- you're either sloppy or a slacker or both. If you can't even get your diploma right how on earth can we expect precise conscience work for us if you aren't even concerned about one of the most important documents of your life. If we were to hire you, that diploma will most likely sit on your wall in our office and all of the world will see your name misspelled. It would be a poor reflection on our company.
That was such a wake up call to me. I went to the to the administration office and worked on getting my diploma changed. The girl there was having a hard time understanding why now all of a sudden I was making such a big deal out of having my name spelled Anne with a 'e' at the end. I told her that is not how I spell my name and it needed it changed. She tried to talk me out of it again but I was insistent I wanted it change and I didn't feel like I should have to pay for it since it was clearly their mistake in the first place. IT was wrong and it just needed to be corrected, period. She thought I was making a mountain out of a mole hill.
To drive my point home, I noticed her name was Jan on her name tag. I asked her "how would she like it if someone added a 'e' to her name. So now when people would read her name they would make the 'A' in it long and call her 'Jane'. Because the rules of grammar say that when you add a 'e' at the end it makes the 'A' long, and the 'e' becomes silent. Think of the girls name Shanne in that name the 'a' is long. Some people also write it as Shayne. Either way the 'a' is long. Now drop the 'Sh' what do you have 'anne or ayne'. Have you ever heard anyone use a long 'A' to say Ann? No- its always a short 'A'. So now you have to recognize the 'e' just like they do when you say 'Anna'. Don't you call that person 'Ann - ah'?"
She then said "yes they call the person Anna and not Ann."
I then asked her "Have you ever heard anyone called Ann'E' or Annie?"
She said "yes all the time".
I said "see they are recognizing the 'e' but don't even realize it. So technically when a person spells their name 'Anne' the correct way to say it is make the 'A' short and say the 'E' at the end. 'Anne' is not the same as 'Ann'."
To be cute with me she responded back 'but I now of people that spell their name 'Anne' called 'Ann' all the time.'
My response to her was 'People shorten names all the time to a one syllable name. Have you ever known a Robert called 'Rob', or a Samuel called 'Sam' or a Pamela called 'Pam' or a Donald called 'Don' or a Johnathan called 'John' or a Patricia called 'Pat' or a William called 'Will' or a Daniel called 'Dan' or a Janet called 'Jan'?'
She interrupted me and said 'okay, okay I get it.'
To rub the point in I said 'So you see Ann is just a shorten version of Anne.'
Her response back to that was "Oh, wow! My sisters name is Anne with a 'e' at the end. We called her 'Annie' all the time when she was young. I always thought it was just her nick name, but now I'm beginning to realize we were really calling her by her true name and that now that she's going by Ann we are using a shorten version of her true name of Anne."
I responded 'I think you got it! Now do you realize why it is so important for me to have my name spelled Ann with no e.'
Please pass this on to others -
If someone tells you their name is ANN DO NOT ASSUME THERE IS AN 'E' AT THE END OF IT.
Now that I have this off of my mind I can get on with other things.
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