PSA From The Admin

[plumtreeblossom]

Memo to new and pending parents:

If you give your child too long a name, it will not fit on business cards, desk plates, name tags, conference badges, place cards or file tabs. This effectively cripples his or her career before it begins.

Please, think of the admins.

Comments

[thespian.livejournal.com]

My full legal name is Stephanie Mae Scholastica Clarkson-Aines.

I'm actually kind of amused when I screw up databases.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Order your business cards from someone else, lady! :-)

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a former boss who was doing some volunteer data entry at his son's school. He came across a kid whose parents named him J'son.... (Yes. Really....)

Also, reminds me of this classic:

http://xkcd.com/327/

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Gag me. That's the kind of spelling that the kid might adopt himself when he's going through his hip hop DJ phase in high school, but you don't do that to someone on their birth certificate. Reminds me of the woman I once knew whose sister's two girls were Easter Bunny and Ballerina.

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

Oh dear lord. Those poor, poor children.

[moria923.livejournal.com]

Easter Bunny? Was she *trying* to have her kids bullied?

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

I was just about to link to the Bobby Tables comic . . .

[mizarchivist]

Noted. On it (Not hyphenating the last name because we're not that kind of sadists)

[buxom-bey.livejournal.com]

Also not hyphenating and I think that's half the battle. Having grown up as a 'Barbara-jean Annette', it was cruelest when I was learning to write my name in grade school. As i got older I learned very quickly that 'Barbara A.' was sufficient.

as louis ck says

[cthulhia]

it doesn't matter what your kid's name is, other kids on the playground will find a way to ruin it.

and the playground can follow you well into old age.

Re: as louis ck says

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

Being Mary Sue was bad enough. Mary Screw took it to new levels of suckage.

Re: as louis ck says

[bedfull-o-books.livejournal.com]

Children are evil.

Re: as louis ck says

[moria923.livejournal.com]

My legal name is Mary Lynn. After giving me that perfectly fine name, my mom, when I was about four, decided an appropriate nickname was "Mertzy Wynzy". So I din't need to wait for the playground.

[deceptiverose.livejournal.com]

No worries! I'm totally with you. When we picked our baby's name, we picked a name that is easy to spell, is easy to pronounce, not too long, and doesn't have awful initials.

But I am always thankful that my parents didn't hyphenate for the reason you said!

[koshmom.livejournal.com]

My last name is "too long" for many databases, and often the last letter of my last name has gotten dropped. Also, mom claimed that she (born in the 1920's) never had any use for a middle name, so she didn't give me one. This screwed up the database at a government job of mine, and I still occasionally get mail sent to me with the middle initial "N". This is a result of a database that insisted on entering something in the "middle name" field, so they put in "NMN" (no middle name) and of course this was perpetrated thru many databases. I was even told by some clueless dolt that I should give myself a middle name that starts with an "N" just to make "my" life easier, and they were serious. ugh.

[xiphias.livejournal.com]

When we were small children, I was Ian David Angelou-Osmond, and my sister was Leila Claire Angelou-Osmond.

At some point in elementary school, my sister and I decided that the hyphenated "Angelou-Osmond" was too long for conveniently filling out forms, so I dropped the "Angelou", and Leila dropped the "Osmond."

[rdcf.livejournal.com]

I dropped my middle name and made my maiden name my middle name when I got married. I use all three professionally. Before our business cards were redesigned mine looked ridiculous once you added my two professional designations after my name. Luckily everything fits with the new business cards :-).

[kencf0618.livejournal.com]

The only advice my father ever gave to his daughter-in-law was "Remember, their names have to look good on a letterhead." And they would!