What's in a name?

It is the bare minimum you can do to show someone respect. 

Get their name right, when you address them.

Seems like a pretty simple concept.  Sure, not everyone has an easy handle like “Smith” or “Jones” but that doesn’t mean you can choose to arbitrarily shorten it to suit your purpose.

Friends of mine have a surname that many people seem to struggle with for some reason.  It’s pronounced exactly the way it is written and yet people feel compelled to shorten it. (I would give you the name and what it is shortened to, however as I have not asked for permission to identify them in my blog...I am taking the safer route.  You will just have to trust me...while it is a little longer...it really isn’t all that difficult)

This evening during a DARE graduation ceremony, (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) the children were awarded their certificates for completion of the course.  The time came for this young lady to receive her certificate and have her name announced to the audience in recognition of her achievement, and her teacher stammered not once but three times... and then chose to just shorten it and hand out the certificate.

Some might say, “No big deal”... but hold on.

The DARE program doesn’t just teach these kids to avoid drug use, it teaches them the greater lesson about respect for themselves and respect for others.  What kind of respect is being exemplified when the teacher can’t even be bothered to pronounce the name of a child properly.  What’s worse?  This child has been in this teacher’s class for TWO YEARS.

Talking with my friends after the ceremony we were able to have a laugh about it and make a joke or two, but this display of disrespect needs to be addressed.  They suggested that they will do so during the parent teacher interview when they will hold a “phonetics lesson”.  I would LOVE to be a fly on the wall for that exchange.

Now I realize I am being very accusatory in this submission and I know damn well that I have butchered a name or two in my day.  As a sports broadcaster who has had to pronounce women’s tennis star names, I know it can be difficult at times.  But no matter how difficult they are, they deserve to be pronounced properly. 

It really is the very least you can do.