People mispronounce my name a fair amount, which is always funny to me, because you just say all the letters in the common English manner.

I am home from the traditional 3rd of July at my uncle and aunt's, which is delightful, even if we got stuck in allllll the traffic yesterday. I think everyone was trying to "beat the crowds."

I never bother saying my last name, I just spell it, with the military alphabet: "C as in Charlie, Z as in zebra, K as in kickoff," etc. They still get it wrong. And they always, always, always ask, "How do you pronounce that?" Dude, I spelled it because you canNOT look at it and then pronounce it. I know this.

Of course I taught second graders to both spell and pronounce it by using a crude word homophone. Make 'em laugh, they'll remember. My maiden name was consistently misspelled and I had no particular attachment to it, not my blood, since adopted. I'd decided long before I would take my husband's name. Heh. A lifetime of spelling and repeated pronunciation has followed. Decent conversation starter, though, should that be needed or desired.

My first name has issues but I quite like that my last name is unusual enough to not be confused with anyone but also quite spellable and pronounce-able

I had no idea how many ways there are to spell my last name, so I always spell it out when dealing with people who have to look me up in a computer. Mine, of course, is the least common.

It never occurred to me to change my name when I got married and it always sort of surprises me when a woman of my generation or younger does. I understand that it's complicated for some people.

This. I mean, I hate my last name, but it's mine. First!Husband has zero expectations that I would change it. M was a little surprised when we went to get the marriage certificate that I wasn't changing my name, but then I asked if he wanted to change his, and that was that. (If he had wanted to portmanteau our names, I would have jumped on that in a heartbeat.)

It never occurred to me to change my name when I got married and it always sort of surprises me when a woman of my generation or younger does.

This is me.

I understand that it's complicated for some people.

Also, of course, this.

I also never considered changing my name. Though if I'd known that Noseworthy was an option...

People misspell and mispronounce everything. No matter what. It's like a challenge. My last name is six letters long and not difficult. And yet.

Mine (maiden name, still legal) is 4 goddamn letters, German as hell in one of the most German cities in the US. And yet it gets misspelled.

I also never considered changing my name. Though if I'd known that Noseworthy was an option...

Since I haven't legally changed my name yet, maybe I should go with "Noseworthy." (I did tell Tim I'd change it for our 5-year anniversary, and god damn it, that's getting close.)

Then your cat could be Murderbiscuit Noseworthy the Third. Even though he's the first one.

Murderbiscuit Noseworthy first of his name!

Best name ever