All right, I’m not uptight about my name, but, if YOU have a strange name it does get hilarious after a while trying to explain it, right?
I blame my parents.
For the record, my name is Anne-Geri’ Fann. My FIRST name is not Anne. It's Anne-Geri’. It is pronounced “ann-juh-ree.” The apostrophe/accent mark/whatever that is, is after the i. In fact, I think the person who made the birth certificate tried to 'correct' the accent mark to put it on top like it is supposed to be, but it never stuck. And it's AFTER the i, okay?
Again, I don’t know why. My parents, although both very educated people, have never given me a valid linguistic answer. I can only assume they didn’t learn how to spell until they were both 35.
“Anne” is for my mom, who is “Anne." Geri' is for my dad, who is Gerald (which is pronounced “Jurrl” if you are his West Texas family). He now goes by his second name, Glen. Most people call me “Angie" because it’s a whole lot easier, although it’s not even on my birth certificate.
My LAST name is Fann. Sometime I sign my initials AGF, but that stands for Anne-Geri’ Gray Fann b/c Gray is my maiden name. I don’t have a middle name. I don’t know why. I guess my parents thought the one they chose was long and strange enough.
I agree.
I was so glad I married someone with an easy last name – but then I try to say it over the phone. F sounds a whole lot like an S. We were listed by the phone company as The Sands for a while until we fixed it. David’s brother was too, but he didn’t bother to tell them since he’s a youth minister. ONE TIME I told a lady, “That’s Fann – with an ‘F’ as in ‘Frank’,” and she said, “Your name is Anne Frank! I loved that book in high school!”
I should have said Foxtrot. I think it might have been at that point that I gave up.
Why am I telling you this? I’ve had several people ask offline and several hilarious interpretations, missionaries who read my book, people that read this blog who I haven't met personally, etc. I can’t imagine what it must sound like in anyone's head. Seriously, if I didn’t know my own name who knows how I would be pronouncing it if I saw it for the first time?
Here are some of the ways I have recently seen myself addressed on email and snail mail (some of which were interpretations after hearing it spelled out on the phone), none of which are my actual name, but perfectly understandable how someone would come to that conclusion given the fact that my actual name, although I personally appreciate it quite a bit, is truly weird in the first place.
Here it is (btw “Sra.” means “Señora”):
Anne
Geri-Anne
Angela
Mrs. Geri (pronounced “Jerry” on the phone)
Sra. Geri
Sra. Geri-Fann
Annegeri Sand
Mrs. Annegeri
AnnGerí'
Mrs. Sand
Angeri Fand
Maryann Geri (I have no idea where this came from...)
Fann-Geri' (my personal favourite)
Dear reader, I’m sure you had ALL time in the world to read this post as you found me pontificating about my own name. Not that it’s all about me, you know. It's just ....
I do go by “Anj”, “Angie”, “Anne-Geri’”, “Mrs. Fann” or “Sra. Fann”. In Honduras, I gladly go by "Inchi" or "Enyi". Occasionally I also go by “Captain Random”. I do not answer to my lifetime friend Rob’s version, “Annegeriatric” (although to his thrill I have accidentally turned around to it).
Anyhoo ... you can pretty much mess with my name to your heart’s content and I will probably answer to it because ...
I gave up years ago.
If you've got a story about YOUR name, I'd love to hear it in the comments below!