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My name, by western standards, is a "misspelled" version (it's actually the ancient Greek original). And here in SA there are some with the "normal" version of the name. All fine and dandy, spell it however you want for your kids. BUT STOP "CORRECTING" MY NAME! Anything and everything that stores my name these days has a 50% chance to get it wrong. What's worse is that is this is more prevalent when I WROTE IT ON A PHYSICAL APPLICATION FORM. NOBODY IS NOT GOING TO NOTICE IF THEY ACCIDENTALLY ADD A LETTER TO THEIR OWN NAME!

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  • 3
    @TheCapeGreek It depends on the greek name, the letter added and the misspelling. If someone dares misspell my glorious ancient Greek name, I will find them and I will make them pay for their transgression. 😛
  • 6
    @Qaldim Nikolaos to Niklaas Nicholas and the other 100 variations

    EDIT: I had to get campus management involved because admin was purposefully doing it wrong on exam sign in charts. If they do it on my diploma heads will roll.
  • 4
    @TheCapeGreek To your defense, the name has become internationally known through Christianity and it has been adopted by various cultures. "Jason (Iason/Ιάσων)" can be another example. Less known names in West Europe, like Basil (Vasilios/Βασίλειος) and Dimitrios/Δημήτριος have calling variations even in Cyprus and Greece and even phonetic distinctions in the Slavic countries were Orthodox Christianity is more prevalent.
  • 3
    @Qaldim Yeah, it's interesting to see the distribution. But if someone writes their name a certain way I'm not going to assume they're doing it wrong. It's not like I'm asking for non-standard pronouns.
  • 3
    @TheCapeGreek And also that's because SA has been occupied by different culture groups over time and has a more diverse background. You can't go and scream to someone "YOU DARE ASSUME MY NAME SPELLING?!"...
  • 3
    @Qaldim haha true. But honestly, the people misspelling my name read "stranger" ones every day. SA is a bit disconnected from the rest of Africa so names from the rest of the continent are uncommon, and yet nobody bothers with those 🤔
  • 3
    @TheCapeGreek You got me intrigued now: Misspelling, mispronouncing or both? 😅
  • 3
    @Qaldim Meant to be more clear in OP: misspelling. Mispronunciation I expect.
  • 6
    @TheCapeGreek I feel ya, my name gets misspelled or written incorrectly a lot because it's the Slovak version of the name
    Fun fact: The Slovak version of your name is Mikuláš (yes, I know, It's completely different)
  • 6
    @theNox another fun fact, this time about greek surnames:
    Back when I was in Germany I had two greek classmates, everybody thought they were related because they had very similar names. One was named Papantopoulou and the other Papadopoulou
  • 4
    @theNox Papadopoulos is the most common surname in Greece, by the way! 😂
  • 4
    Omg this! I tell them my name, they look confused, I spell it and then they correct me on the pronunciation.

    No,I know how to pronounce my own fucking name, YOU don't.
  • 4
    @theNox haha yeah that's a common surname. Mine is native to one island so it's rare to find even in Greece. Found 1 family with it here in SA and saw one reporter in Greece.

    In grade 10 I was the 3rd Nik in my class, and 6th in a school of ~600.
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