I've had people ask how to spell my name, or ask "Is that with a K?" or "Does that end in Y or I?"

Khany.

Yes, I got an OK Cupid message from someone named Ondray. Really, dude?

Khany.

Urgh.

But now I want to grow my hair out, wear a lot of leather, and maroon Kirk on a deserted planet/

Ondray

Oy.

There was a guy at my old firm whose name was Di~an. Yes, with the tilde.

But now I want to grow my hair out, wear a lot of leather, and maroon Kirk on a deserted planet/

Or you could go hang with Bobby Hill.

~ma to Seska and to Nora.

After years of hearing my entire name butchered on the first day of school, I started just using "Barb" (obviously). It just makes life so much easier. Which made it that much more ironic that First Publisher wanted something more "Latina sounding" for my name, so I went with my middle name which no one can pronounce correctly, especially with my maiden name. Too many r's...

Not that my married name is a whole lot better.

Which is why I go with Barb. (Although my mother still calls me "Bobbie" and my older relatives still call me "Barbarita" and I have two people whom I've allowed to call me "Barbie.")

There was a guy at my old firm whose name was Di~an. Yes, with the tilde.

I knew a woman in college who legally changed her first name to end with an exclamation point. Seriously. (Actually, now that I think about it, the city of Hamilton, Ohio, also changed its name for a time to be "Hamilton!" But now it's back to boring old punctuation-less Hamilton.)

Question: is it too ass-kissy to go see their production that opens tomorrow? It's Rossum's Universal Robots!

In honor of Dollhouse, you kind of have to go!

I knew a woman in college who legally changed her first name to end with an exclamation point. Seriously.

Well, the creator of Wondermark is David Malki !

I spell my name with an exclamation point, like so: David Malki !

It’s considered an honorific, and used in the same manner as “Jr.” or “PhD”: there’s a single space before it. The exclamation point is not pronounced — though many have tried, often with hilarious results.

McGunnigle

How do you pronounce it, Nora? I'm wondering if it is different from how I pronounce it in my head, because it's one of the names I've known since before I could spell (friend of my Aunt, who for a long time, I didn't realize might have a name other than her surname).

Is it normal that I'm a little skeeved to get a story from one of my editors wherein the fantasy woman sounds a lot like me? I mean, not that anything would come of it anyway...not only is he married, he's half a continent away from me.(Also, blind...the jokes write themselves.) But I'm inclined to feel that the lighthearted flirtatious banter I used to engage him with was something of a mistake. I mean, I suppose it's not that unusual to find an American male with a Thing about blondes...I've just never really felt it aimed in my direction before. So, this is being a sex object... it's not as fun as I'd hoped for. I'm kinda hating it actually. Like when that guy built that mannequin that looked like Elaine.