Changing your first name in client facing roles
Hi everyone! I’m an intern in S&T at a BB in NYC. I’ve been noticing a lot of people saying and spelling my name wrong. I have a very Eastern European name and surprising it’s still pretty butchered. I’ve had multiple emails addressing me the wrong name and anytime I meet someone the first question they ask is how to say my name. It’s fine for an internship that’s a few weeks but I can’t imagine having this continue especially in a client facing job like sales. Correcting clients and bosses on my name constantly does not seem like a good way to build a relationship. Should I adopt a new first name professionally/ anglicized or western version of my name before starting full time in a professional environment?
Change your name to Dick Tips
I understand the concern, but you should be proud of your name. It's part of who you are and where you come from.
Second this, embrace your name. If anything, having a unique name will make you more memorable, as people will try extra hard to remember it once they mess up. Add pronunciation next to your email signature to help them out.
Separately, pronouncing a name wrong or forgetting it is one thing, but who the hell messes up a name on an email when it's right there to reference...
I have a friend whose terminal letter in his name is "h" in a name where it doesn't really affect the pronunciation (think Sara vs Sarah), but it's a fairly unusual name. He definitely runs into the pronunciation problem which he has no problem with, he understands, but because of the uniqueness of his name his email addresses have always just been "first_name@company/school" whenever he was able to create his own address. Despite it literally being the email address he still gets people leaving the h off his name when they email him. People are just dumb.
Thanks Jim! I hope all is well out in East Setauket! :)
I went by a stupid Western abbreviation of my Slavic name for like 8 years. Felt good to go back. If people can't figure it out, fuck 'em. Every time you bend on that, your self-esteem takes a little ding. They add up.
A Nigerian colleague of mine had the same problem. Once she joined, she did two things:
1. she requested a new email address with the shortened version of her first name.
2. she added the pronunciation of her first name in her signature next to her name.
It was effective, people say her name correctly ever since.
Change your name to Deez Nuts
If you’re elite enough, people will learn to pronounce your name. Just ask Chamath Palihapitiya or Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Fair points. Solid commentary bro. You do you :)
Put your nickname in parentheses on your email signature.
Hubert Blaine Wolfeschlegelsteinhausenbergerdorff is my name. Never had any issues
I have a boss from eastern Europe with a brutal first and last name. He just signs his emails with a shortened nickname, but then has his full name in the signature with the nickname in parenthesis. Try that.
For what it's worth my name is pretty fucking simple and I still have people swapping out one of the vowels for another on a regular basis. Really grinds my gears because my email is literally [email protected]. Some people just do not give a shit.
Go by what you want to be known as. Cheat a little with spelling to make things phonetically simpler if you want, but you HAVE to own it. I've got two examples:
I had a boss with an unfortunately ethnic name he shortened and simplified it. I'm not even sure I found out his real first name until I saw some HR document. I could probably respond to it, but it would take a lot of brainpower to shift that.
I had a coworker with the greekest of greek names. A proper translation of his first name would be Tony, but he wanted Tom, so it was tom.
Personally, I sign with the simplified version of my (admittedly very white) first name and then just let the drop in signature do the rest:
-Hugh
Hugely J Important, BFD, JFC
Grand Poobah of Information
Company You Desperately Want to Work For
This is my first ever post, but be proud of your name and heritage. I did the same thing you did, and I regret it a lot. Our first names were given to our parents who busted their asses off to get us to where we are now. I didn't have a middle name before, so it just became EnglishName EthnicName LastName, but I always make sure to emphasize the full name when signing something.
My fiance is also Eastern European, and her name is extremely ethnic. Like my dad still can't pronounce it.
Any ideas for a good female name?
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