The Rule of Names

I'm very fortunate to know the origin of my entire name. Most of the time I take pride in its uniqueness, but there are two things that do annoy me. The first being pronunciation and the second (related) is that on average many people do not remember it. Or if they remember it, they remember some bizarre pronunciation. In my observation (american) people prefer simple names. Something like Jon, Joe or Tim always satisfies. In fact I think that people in general do not like (first) names with more than 2 syllables. Anything longer is either mispronouced or worse - forgettable. Hence the nicknames and short forms.

I made the stupid mistake of allowing a 2-syllable mispronunciation of my name in first grade here in the U.S. Since then almost everyone I know, outside of my family, says my name incorrectly. Senior year in high school, someone made a joke by calling me "Mo". Which by the way, I never liked - but it stuck. So inspite of my reservations, I used it as a nickname. The interesting thing in college was that when I told people my name during group meetings or lab sessions, no one would remember. They knew who I was, but never said my name. But if I mentioned that nickname - no problems. How frustrating.

For all my friends reading this. No need to fix things now, its all good.

Morr-yat = wrong, Morr-ee-ot = wrong, Mo = wrong, Maw-ri-yet = right

Posted in: Life, Philosophy,