#truthursday – the spelling of names is important.

When I first meet someone with a name that has multiple common spellings (take Sara/Sarah for example), I will frequently clarify the spelling of the person’s name.

For some reason, if I assume the spelling of someone’s name incorrectly, they visually become a different person to me once I realize the proper spelling of their name.

This all came up because myself, Becky and Laura were discussing hair color. Becky asked if I knew what color her really dark hair naturally was. I looked at her and thought about it and confidently responded, “light brown.” To which she shook her head and said “bright bright blonde.” I absolutely did not believe her, until she showed me pictures. My mind was blown. since then, every time I’ve looked at Becky.. she’s looked different to me.

It was then that I explained to them my thing with names. I’m starting to even try and guess the spelling of someone’s name; Jeffrey or Geoffrey, Sara or Sarah, Casey or Kaci.. how it is spelled changes how they look. Have you ever known somebody and then two years later found out they went by their middle names? Hate it.

By the way, I was trying to figure out very common names with very common multiple spellings. Here is my list. Please comment any ones you can think of. Let us make this list very long. Don’t add new spellings to names already listed.. I know there are tons not being written, but I’m going with the most common ones.

Jeffrey / Geoffrey
Sara / Sarah
Casey / Kaci
Rachel / Rachael
Rebecca / Rebekah
Jamie / Jami
Jonathan / Johnathan