Spelling names

[Alice Faber]

Karl J. Krahnke wrote:
>So what do I do with my name?  KRAHNKE
>
>Graphotactically, when I "spell" it for folks, they very frequently write
>KAR ...
>
>Even when I say, "K" (pause) "R" (pause).
>
I'm starting to see a pattern here: nobody gets anybody else's name right!

In my case, there are people who are *sure* (in the face of all
evidence) that my name *must* be Farber. One of these was my first
grade teacher, who spent the entire year mispronouncing my name.

Then there's the fact that /f/ isn't acoustically robust, so, when I
register for something over the phone, I often find that the
reservation has been recorded under "s". This happens even when I
spell the name out "F as in FRANK, A as in APPLE, B as in BOY, etc."
(as /Ef/ and /Es/ are equally confusable over phone lines).

These days, I'm surprised when folks get it right.

Alice F-A-B-E-R
--
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Alice Faber                                             faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                                  tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                                     fax (203) 865-8963