That’s Not My Name
My driver’s side window of my vehicle has been out of commission since New Year’s. I kept telling myself it hadn’t been broken that long. Denial. I finally snapped out of it and realized it was time for action when the Wendy’s drive-thru cashier started recognizing me by car. Plus, her looks of pity/disdain were starting to weigh on me. I’d have to get it fixed.
Fortunately for me, my car’s window is super special and required not only a window motor replacement, but also a new regulator. Ridding yourself of drive-thru shame is quite pricey. For $400.00 you can order that spicy chicken combo with your head held high.
I will admit though, that the repair shop I chose did a wonderful job. They even gave my vehicle a free once-over and provided me with a detailed report card. Like a dead-beat mom in a hurry, I shoved the report card in my wallet and went on my way.
Today, remembering about the report card sparked my curiosity. As I pulled out the document, I was blind sighted by what I discovered.
NO.
A painful memory suddenly gripped my brain. I went into full flash-back mode.
There I was, high school me standing in the Raising Cane’s dine-in line. I could practically smell the grease. As I ordered my food, the server asked for my name. “Becca,” I said.
Mouth watering and legs bouncing, I waited for her to call my name. After the server grabbed my tray from the window, she took her position in front of that piercingly loud microphone. Next, my worst fear was recognized. She had mistaken my name for Becky as she beckoned me to the counter. Everyone heard. Everyone stared. Or, so it seemed. It mortified me, and I couldn’t help but anticipate someone yelling out something like, “Hey Becky, where’s Uncle Jesse?” in jest.
Until this day, I absolutely can’t stand when people call me Becky. I don’t fully understand why it irks me so, and I apologize shall anyone named Becky ever read this. It’s not you Becky, it’s me. Something about the nickname screams high-set pig tails, chewing gum, and a valley girl accent. You might as well pluck off my finger nails one by one. Not to mention that there was that song that completely put my hatred over the top.
Do you like your name? Do you prefer or despise a certain nickname that you have been given?
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Posted on November 14, 2012, in Humor, Music, Silly and tagged 25tofly, auto repair, bad memories, bad names, bad nicknames, Becca, Becca Cord, becky song, blog, Blogging, car report card, childhood names, full house, girl names, horrible bosses, I hate the name becky, names, nicknames, plies becky, that's not my name, the ting tings, ugly names, Uncle Jesse, what is a becky?, what is becky, WordPress. Bookmark the permalink. 123 Comments.
Not a Red Head 
Ha! This happens to me all the time but they’re usually way far off — My name is Doree. Door. Eee. Naturally people hear Julie, Laurie, or sometimes something awful like Donny or Poree (really?). Also, it has never been spelled correctly on a first try.
I’m new to your blog, btw. Hello!
Hello! Glad you came by. Doree is a unique spelling of the name. Dorie is how I would have spelled it. I am loving the name of your blog. Very catchy. Poree? Sounds like it should be pronounced like puree! Weird.
My mom grew up in a large family with lots of nicknames, so she instinctively hated them. I’ve never really had one until maybe 2 years ago. I have this bad habit of reducing and doubling peoples names. For example your name would be Bec-bec. But I would only use this nickname if I had say, won a contest of some kind against you. In that instance it would be used more as a mockery than a term of endearment.
You evil genius. That is such an annoying way to mock someone Mo-Mo.
Ohhhhh DAMN! I just got played.
as for cars, my driver’s window is currently rather touchy. if i put it down, it’ll take about five minutes to return it to its upright position. (i went for the airline pun instead of saying “five minutes to get it up”) what helps is if i lower and raise the rear window on that side while holding the button to raise the driver’s window. this same thing happened on my previous car, and it was about a $50 piece to replace that i was luckily able to do myself. this time, i haven’t fixed it yet. it should be mentioned that my car has about 205,000 miles on it. i drive a lot. i did the math and average about 105 miles a day.
about the names, i was never thrilled with “richard” because of the obvious “dick” possibilities, but luckily i never got that too much. i was called “red” much more than “dick.” if my father had his way, my name would have been “rocco,” but my mother talked him out of it. she said if they named me rocco, i likely would have just been called “guido” just for spite.
my kids have simple, one-syllable names. i just wanted something that couldn’t really be made fun of and didn’t take effort for a teacher to learn. thus, kate and rose. and i like colonial sounding names.
Kate and Rose are good ones. Sweet and simple. I actually like the name Rocco, although it does kind of make me think of a rock-star wanna-be kind of person. It may not count for much, but I think there is no other name for you. Rich is very fitting.
whenever i would introduce kate to someone, they’d usually react with “kaitlyn?” or “katelynn?” or any other spelling of that name, which was very popular at the time. can’t imagine how many times i had to say, “no – just kate.” and then when rose was born, everyone asked if i named them because of the movie “titanic.” and i’d react with WTF? and they’d explain how the character’s name was rose and the actresses name was kate (winslet). and i’d say, “yeah, when kate was born, we held off on naming her until her sister was born so we could find a great movie and then retroactively name her in sequence with the actress/character. yeah, exactly.”
People are so smart sometimes. Sounds totally reasonable.
i need to send you a picture of me when i had your color red hair.
You must.
i’ll tweet it. twit it. whatever the hell it’s called.
Besides for my husband, I hate when anyone calls me Cher. Maybe it is because of the actual Cher, she kind of always gave me the heebie jeebies, but whatever for whatever reason, I hate it!
I vow to never try to call you Cher. I think the nickname Reba freaks me out for the same reason. I am not big on her country music.
My name is Jen which you’d think is easy, but I’ve had people say “Jim” or “Jem” or “Jam” and even had someone write “Chum” on my Starbucks cup once. Now I just say Jennifer because it’s easier.
I’m glad you got your window fixed! I dented my fender on a pole a year ago and have yet to take it in.
Jam… that is fucking hilarious. I actually would enjoy being called jam. I think.
I always get called Megan. Apparently Becca and Megan sound identical, but I personally don’t hear it.
Car maintenance is a bitch sometimes. Let’s make that all of the time, actually.
Oh, Becca, I feel it. I’ve had the same problem my entire life too. Being a lone Louisa in a world full of Louises is exactly the same situation as a lone Becca in a world full of Beckys.
Really frustrating was when I worked in customer services and I’d email a reply to a customer, and sign my name (or I’d have emailed a supplier from my own work email rather than the generic one, so it had my name in there as well) and the reply would come back “Dear Louise”. Seriously. Can these people not read? Do they not have an ability to even copy and paste?
Being somewhat fed up with this, I eventually started replying to anyone who called me “Louise” by mis-spelling their names at them. So, for example, “Amanda” became “Amande” and “Rob” became “Robe”. Funnily enough, these people soon started getting my name correct…
You have great tactics ma’am. I definitely want you on my team when the bad name pronouncers try to take over.
Louisa is actually a very pretty name. I probably secretly like it more because it shares the first five letters with Louisiana, my home ;).
In my Community, we’ve already had a Sister Louisa, so in order for me to keep being Louisa (as I finally started to like my name in my mid-20’s) I’ve had to become double-barrelled. To not annoy my parents too much, I’ve used my given middle name which is Ann. I like the name Anna but couldn’t call myself Louisa Anna because of Louisiana! (Even though my nephew has “Utah” as one of his middle names.)
In terms of my name being mis-heard, of course I’d get Louise. I’ve also been called Lisa, Laura, Lucinda, and on one occasion, Teresa.
The reason people don’t hear our names correctly is simply ignorance on their part. They’re too “something” to pay proper attention. (Where “something” is probably “busy” but could also be “noisy” or “deaf” or “just plain thick as two short planks”.)
My middle name is Ann as well. Looky there :).
Eeep, that’s freaky! Of course, we’ve another double-barrelled sister here whose second name is “Anne”, which means that occasionally I get (another) unwanted E.
In terms of nick-names, I’ve always liked being “Lou”. It’s straight forward as a shortened form of Louisa. I absolutely cannot stand “Loubie” however!
I knew a chap who was known as “Andor”, as in “and/or” because before he was born, his parrents had a choice of two names for him – and he got both the names anyway, but the nickname stuck. His wife was Susan, and so for their email address they used “susandor@…” which was kind of cool but also a bit freaky. I found out a few years back that he’s since died, which made me sorry that I didn’t keep in better touch with them when I moved in 2006.
I like Lou too. I mentioned somewhere else in the comments that I adore the concept of females taking on traditionally male names or nicknames. I guess that is why I like Bec for myself. I consider it sort of unisex (maybe because of the show Becker?).
Andor is a very unique name.
Peter,
I will never call you Becky, not even in jest.
Le Clown
Thanks Ernest.
My name is versatile. It also refers to a toilet and a person who patronizes prostitutes. Oh, and if they find a dead guy, and don’t know his name…automatically…john doe.
Whoa. Such a non threatening name for a person, but representative of a very disturbing list of things.
You’ll always be Becca to me…
Great post, by the way! Your style is just.. so, you! Wahtever that means…
I am still trying to figure it out myself Hook. Thank you!
People always mistake my name as, “Julian” – All. the. time. I even had arguments with my students in Greece about what my name was (they don’t have an “i” like igloo sound in Greek, so they said I couldn’t be “Ji-llian” I had to be “Ju-lian”) But I definitely feel you on the misunderstood name front
You always provide me with new knowledge Julian! Uhhh JILLIAN!! That had to be annoying.
It actually happens so often I pretty much stopped correcting people :p
Oops sorry for disliking your name. I know what you mean about “Julian” though because I’ve tried a couple times to look up the meaning of “Jill” and it routes me to Jillian or Julianne which leads to Julian, which comes from Julius… basically my name doesn’t mean anything but “female name”.
Lol! That’s an interesting name meaning!
I’ve looked up before that my name derives from Julian, which helps me forgive people mistaking it 🙂
Your story caused me to flashback many years ago. We were at a Chinese restaurant as Avery, party of three. However, there was also an Avers party of 5. The happened to seat Avers party of 5, but scratched Avery party of 3. SO … we had a difficult time convincing them that it was our turn because there was only 3 of us.
Meanwhile, glad you got your window fixed.
Thanks. I used to be a hostess. If this happened at the restaurant I worked at, you would have been sitting immediately with a free appetizer.
BTW … we have a niece Becca.
High five!
My name is fine – it doesn’t have a lot of variation for nick-name-age..which is fine. I’m a fan of using people’s names too and I love nicknames (not ones that are necessarily shortened forms of the full name). I’m a huge fan of boy/girl names as well.
I have a serious infatuation with unisex names (see Sloan). I also like the notion of naming girls with typical boy names. For example if the universe shifts and I ever end up procreating a daughter, she will be named something like Joe or Chris.
I met a Johnette – which to me screams “My parents wanted a boy, got a girl and still wanted a boy”
Our kid is “Dorian” – excellent unisex name.
And ignore my repeated reply b/c it didn’t look like my first response that you are now responding to posted…so I sort of repeated myself…repeated myself…
hee hee… Joe…
There is a way of saying, Harper, that I dearly love and I’m betting a LA girl like yourself could say it just that way! I get Harp a lot. Don’t mind it. Prefer Harper said by a beautiful woman in a whisper. HF
I can’t help but think about the nagging definition of the actual word harp, so I will stick with Harper. Or Mr. Faulkner, because that sounds more official.
I have love/hate relationship with my name. My father insisted that I must always be called ‘Kenneth’. It was one of the very few things he did wrong to me. It is so posh and very unlike what I am. However, ‘Ken’ is a very nice and friendly name and I like that and, since I became an adult, my dad had no control on what people called me. Now NO ONE who wants to live calls me Kenneth. The final downside is that you can also get ‘Kenny’ which, apart from the awful “oh my god you killed Kenny” gags is also a bit crappy for a balding and greying 41 year old man. Nevertheless, occasionally someone is stupid enough to try it. We don’t talk about the potential references to Barbie because once mentioned, I find that the people can’t resist smirking whenever they say my name.
I like Ken too, Ken. My favorite uncle’s name is Ken, but my least favorite professor in college was named Kenneth. He was a bit on the cuckoo side.
Oh dear – I have often been called slightly cuckoo – I hope that isn’t a bad sign!
Never! Okay sometimes, but I am sure you are fine.
he he 🙂
My name gets shortened a lot, my favourite is probably when people call me V, but I also get the usual Ness, Nessa, Nessy, not to mention Loch Ness (hilarious eh?). When I was a kid some boys used to call me Charlie Chaplin (because of my last name) and I HATED that. But the others I don’t mind. I think generally people don’t use nicknames on people they don’t like, so I try and take any variations as a compliment!
That’s a very good observation about nick names in general, V ;). Similarly, I really like when people call me B. It is probably my favorite actually. There is something so casual and comfortable about it.
You are definitely not a Bec–. Becca suits your smiling face. But I’d be Bec– for a day if it would get me some Uncle Jesse.
Who wouldn’t ?! That HAIR.
I’m not a huge fan of my name either. But I’m stuck with it since nicknames are worse.
A girl once asked if she could call be Barbecue. It’s easier than my name, you see.
Another time, my classmate had took to calling me Bags. Bags .
You and I have already had a discussion about your name, so you know how I feel. But Bags? Whaaa? An ex-boyfriend once dubbed me “Bunny” (get your mind out of the gutter) for no apparent reason (he called his little sister “Bird” — guess he had a thing for animals?) and when I see our mutual friends to this day I get a big, “Sup, Bunny!” or “Hey Buns!”…
I am so sorry about Buns
But I kinda like Bunny 🙂
I also hate nicknames! My name is Andrew not Andy. Stupid Y’s!
No one under the age of two should be called Andy!
Somehow I just knew the title was alluding to that song before I even got to the vid. BOOM.
…do peoples use “Becks” as a nickname? Or maybe ‘Bex’? I don’t know, I’m just freestylin’ here.
You are too intuitive. And yes. A lot of people call me Bec and Becs. I am totally okay with those nicknames. I have never seen it spelled with an x though. That’s kind of seXy. Bexy.
Awww I totally get this. My name is Sloan. One short, sweet, wonderful syllable. My ENTIRE.LIFE. people have been trying to call me SaLone. Where the hell does the extra A come from? Really guys? Then I have to continue to spell it, they still don’t get it, then I have to explain it’s like Loan, like a car loan, or student loans or a loan from your parents because you can’t figure out how to pronounce a simple name Loan–with a simple S infront. Sloan.
I love your name. Very Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Plus, you don’t hear it very often. You’re lucky!
Becky and Becca have two totally different feels.
My first name is Jill and it drives me crazy when people assume my name is Jillian. I don’t know why but I hate that name.
I like both, but Jill seems more sophisticated. Definitely.
Sophisticated! I love it. Maybe I’ll go put on heels instead of sneakers right now (but no).
Nah, sneakers are very classy in my book. Shows you can RUN the show.
I’ll be here all day people.
That’s funnier than you know, because the top writer job on a sitcom is the showrunner, get it?
Oh, and that probably makes more sense if you know I’m trying to be a tv writer.
That just earned you +10 cool points. If you ever write a series, can I be one of your characters?
You are totally a character… I’ll just lift your dialogue directly from your blog 😉
Sounds good to me!
I don’t like it when women call me “god” or some variation of it. As in, “oh my god” or “oh my god I’m gonna come” or “my god how do you know how to do that?”
Am I answering this right? I feel like I might’ve missed something in class today.
This is why you take the short bus home, but at least all the ladies are fighting to sit next to you ;).
You’re sofa king we todd did.
Want to play doctor?
(I’ll take your lazy eye, head hanging to the side, and slobber as a yes)
I promise not to call you Becky, Becca! I don’t mind Amy, but it’s kind of common. When I was in college there were three Amy’s on the same floor. There was Amy Red, Amy Black, and I was Amy Blue!! which I didn’t mind!
Amy Blue is pretty shnazzy. My favorite baby sitter growing up was named Amy. Bam! You’re name is definitely a positive one in my mind.
Yay! And, it was for my blue eyes, you know. Not because I was sad…The others were named for their hair color, and since I have just boring brown hair, they used my eye color.
Blue eyes are in. I know someone in particular who also has them. *points at self*
My nickname is “Baz” which is not uncommon for someone who is named “Barry” and must say “Barry” is reserved for my partner, when I’ve done something wrong…!
Uh oh! I know that one. When I hear someone say Rebecca (my full name) I get nervous. Conditioned response I suppose.
I don’t like my name because it has “ick” in the middle of it. Oh my god I just figured that out. Thank god no one did back in the fifth grade…
BUT, your last name has “lay” in it. That’s definitely a good sign. My initials spell RAC. Not everyone gets to have sexual terms hidden within their names. Feel special. I do.
Oh no! “Ick Lay”! Don’t tell my husband!!
Well, I just learned RAC stands for rent-a-center…. I don’t know anymore Ericka.
Ick Clay and Rent-a-center We should just quit all this other nonsense and become a crime fighting team.
EF YEAH!
I loved Horrible Bosses!! So much toilet humor I felt shame sitting in the movie theatre but oh so hilarious. Uncle Jesse was hot. Was it really that bad being called by his on-screen wife`s name?
I love my name. My mom told me that she specifically bought a book of names when she was naming me because she didn`t want me to have an unpronouncable 12-syllable Indian name.
Every now and then though, someone will insist that I tell them my REAL Indian name and not my “Canadianized white name”. I then attempt to pronounce my name with an Indian accent.
Haha! Good for you. I actually thought about the Uncle Jesse’s wife thing after I wrote it. He WAS.. no, IS hot. Becky’s character wasn’t half bad either.
Of course! Uncle Jesse is a dreamboat! If he were his wife, I`d let him call me whatever the hell he wanted. Except any unpronouncable 12-syllable Indian names…or the name Bertha. You gotta draw the line somewhere.
Or Gretta.
Preach!
See? There are definitely worse things you can be called than Becky.
I take exception to being called Tommy, Becca, although I didn’t mind it when I was at school. I didn’t like school, which may have something to do with the Tommy thing.
Totally, I mean I also hated being called Reba by an old lady at my church. I didn’t like church, therefore also dislike the name Reba.
The old lady was cool though.
Association has a lot to do with things, hasn’t it?
Call you Becky. Got it. I don’t enjoy being called Lars. My mom calls me that and I want to stab it.
I am going to call you Larsy if you say Becky one more time.
Damnit.
I don’t get the Uncle Jesse joke. 😦
Most people call me Mike, but some call me Michael and a select few actually get away with calling me Mikey. When people try to co-opt one of the others, it feels wrong.
How about Mikey-Mike? Yea. Sounds good.
Wait, did you say you didn’t get the Uncle Jesse joke?
http://bloggerofthebride.blogspot.com/2010/11/aunt-becky-and-uncle-jesse-get-married.html
No wonder I didn’t get that reference.
As for ‘Mikey-Mike’, it’s unique, I’ll give you that. You can use it, but you have to promise only to use it for good and never for evil.
Totally rufus!
I like all the variations of your name—Rebecca, Becca, Becky, Becki, etc. I’m not a huge fan of my own name, although I don’t dislike it as much as I did when I was growing up. There’s one standard nickname that everyone uses to shorten my name, which is fine, but overall I’d rather have a different name. I don’t know *which* name, but a different one.
I think it is sort of natural to want what you don’t have even when it comes to names.
I hate my name. Of all the names my parents coulda chosen they chose a knitting needle wielding grandmother name. But after 30 odd years I’ve made my peace. But what I hate more is when I go to hospital or clinic appointments with Offspring the First all the nurses, doctors and therapists refer to me as Mum. “Mum says… “or “Mum is concerned.” Hello. I have a name. I might not like it but I have it just the same. Use it. It’s free.
I think it sounds elegant.
I always did the opposite to my mom. She would always ignore me if I nagged her while she was in the middle of a conversation. I figured out that she got used to tuning out the incessant, “Mom… mom… mom… mama…” and so I started yelling out her real name instead.
Did it help?
For the record I really like Becky. I actually named the lead character in my novel Becky.
Yep, she would fall for it every time.
Hm, I am going to have to read this character. Make her extremely cool and charming so I can once and for all attempt to get over this rejection of Becky.
She’s all those things. Plus she has a mind of her own.
I usually get upset when a dude calls me Jonny. I let it slide for the ladies though.
I’m glad you have your priorities straight, Jonny. 😉
I love the name Jonathan – full names are excellent.
Unless you’re not a “Jonathan” then ignore…
And it’s cool because you get two names in one – Jon and Nathan.
Exactly – I’m all about using people’s names – nicknames (ones that are not necessarily shortened forms of the ‘full name’ ), full names etc. I love the name Jonathan in particular. My favorite names are boy/girl names. I always wanted to name boy Vyvyan (from Vyvyan Bastard The Young Ones)…but alas no one was ‘down with it’ – which is why it’s important to have pets, so you can saddle them with favorite names that others despise.
Pets are the lab rats for all of our silly human shenanigans. I like the name Lindsey and Kelly for a guy.
Llewellyn is my favorite name (it’s a guy’s name)
My husband’s family has Leslie (guy), Robin (guy), Jeri (girl) and a family friend Stacey (guy)… I love the name Robin for a guy.
I’m rather fond of Welsh names in general. Particularly their spelling. Rhys is a drooly name.
Yes! Rhys!
Yeah, I like it a lot more now than I when I did when I was a kid. It’s weird though.
Jonathan is not weird – it’s a rather sexy name
Can y’all get a room please?
The NAME, THE NAME!
No, I forgot to finish my sentence. I was going to say that it’s weird, that it seems only people in places of authority call me by my full name. Boss, bishop, etc.
Oh, and thank you too.
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