Wednesday, November 28, 2007

What's in a Name?

It happened again.

The other day I called a realtor about a duplex for rent, and after getting some basic detail about the place, he asked for my name and number to call me back to set up an appointment. It went something like this:

"What's your name?"
"Lindsay."
"Last name?"
"Newcomer."
"Um, well, uh, ok, but what's your last name?"
"Newcomer."
(He seems to need some help).
"My last name IS Newcomer."
"Oh! Well, ha! That's funny! I thought you meant you were a newcomer to the community or something! Haha!"
(fake chuckles)."Yes, many people make that mistake."

It doesn't really annoy me when people do this, but I just don't really understand the confusion. I of course am aware that newcomer is an actual word, but do new people really ever introduce themselves as newcomer right after saying their first name? I moved around a fair amount growing up, and as a Thurman, I never introduced myself as "Hi, I'm Lindsay. Newcomer." Maybe at the most my parents said something like, "We're the Thurmans, and we're newcomers to Houston."

Am I crazy? Has anyone ever introduced themselves at a new place with "newcomer" directly following their name? If you have, please stop. It's my name, not yours. Just kidding.

5 comments:

thelittlefields said...

Thats great. We get a lot of confusion with our name too. For some reason, people feel free to adlib our last name: LittleTON, LittleFOOT, Little____. Its LittleFIELD.

To make matters worse, I'm married to a man named DIRK. We get all kinds of variations of that: Derrick, Dick, Kirk.

It always makes for a fun time when meeting someone for the first time. I feel your pain.

--Kathy

Jamison said...

Lindsay,
that's when you sing Dr. Cox's famous, "Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong.....wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong! You're wrong....You're wrong...You're wrong...."song.
=)

Anonymous said...

I don't think you should get upset about people messing up your name, Lindsey. . . .

Nicole said...

I understand Lindsay... and I don't think you're crazy :)

ninepoundhammer said...

You think YOU got it rough! I had to have my name legally changed--I was born Johnny Comelately.

Count your blessings, Newcomer! :)