21 October 2010

Another rant

It's not just titles that cause trouble, but my name itself. At least in these parts. "Hull" will stand in nicely for my real name, as both are common-enough English surnames, from English place-names. I never have this problem in the British Isles, despite my American accent and the variety of regional accents there; from Cork to York, Edinburgh to Exeter, on the phone, in person, my name is immediately understood and correctly spelled.

In the U.S., however, from coast to coast, conversations go something like this:

"Your last name?"
"Hull."
"Hugh."
"No, Hull."
"Spell that, please."
"Aitch, Yew, Ell . . . "
"Aitch, Yew, Oh . . ."
"No, Ell, as in Lightbulb."
"Oh, Hull!"

What the Hull is so hard about my name?

4 comments:

Nicole said...

Hahaha! I have that problem too. Whenever I give my name it goes, Aich, Yew, L as in lemon, Ell. I don't have the problem everywhere in the country though-- in one state someone billboard prominent has the same spelling so in that state I can just go, "Aich, Yew, Ell, Ell"

maskani said...

am realy sorry you have to go through that but i cant stop loughing about it

Laura said...

I really can't figure out how to NOT spell your name correctly. Do people want to insert Vs or something?

Dame Eleanor Hull said...

Laura, ask me in person sometime.