So I do not have a typical name whatsoever. In Indian society, my name should be spelled Amit, but because my mother felt that Americans will constantly be saying my name incorrectly she changed it up and spelled it Ameet. Now, i know many of you are thinking that my mother must be a genius to have the forethought of spelling my name in such a way as to prevent the mispronunciation of my name. While Mom is a genius in many ways, this was not one of them.
Dear Mother you forgot one key bit of information. . . If your name is not John, Paul, Matthew or Michael, most people will not pronounce and/or spell your name correctly. Now I'm not an idiot. The entire world is not educated with Indian culture and/or the Hindi/Gujarati alphabet and I don't expect it to be. And I'm not at all upset when people asked the proper pronunciation or the proper spelling. In fact, I'm often the first to offer this information. Its when the people i am talking to have to add a comment after i give them his information that bothers me the most. Let me give you an example:
Me: "Hi this is Ameet from Stacey's office, calling for John"
The people I am angry with: "I'm sorry what was your name again?"
Me: "Ameet. Its spelled A-M-E-E-T"
The people I am angry with: "Oh, that's such a unique name!"
Other People I am angry with: "Wow. Let me guess, are you Iranian?"
Even more people I am angry with: "That's such a pretty name!"
Now, in my mind I'm thinking: "Thank you for pointing out that my name is not Michael, Matthew, Paul or John. Now can you connect me with John so I can get my work done." Or I'm thinking: "I'm glad my name is like a game for you. It is not Iranian, it's Indian, I'm sorry you don't win the giant stuffed pink elephant, but you can purchase three more guesses for just one dollar. Now connect me to John so he can have a go." Or I am thinking: "My name is not pretty, stop bullshitting. It means 'Unfriendly'. What's pretty about that? Now will someone connect me to John so I can confirm this fucking meeting."
Begin Rant now: Just ask for the spelling! Its not hard. ask for the spelling, write it down and move on. I don't expect you to know how to write my name properly. If I wasn't born here, i wouldn't know how to spell John and would have to ask you how to spell it. But the only difference is I would not respond with some bullshit comment like *with an Indian accent* "Oh wow, Vat a cooool name!" I'd respond with "Nice to be meeting you John." and move on!
Okay my boss is about to come back, gotta go!
