Called by the Wrong Name

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, hello. This is Todd from Balboa, California.

Hi, Todd. Welcome.

Hi, Todd. Welcome.

Greetings. Hello.

My question actually directly concerns my name.

For as long as I can remember, grade school, substitute teachers in high school, college professors, doctors,

And the most comical one to me is when you’re at an event wearing a Hello, My Name Is sticker with my name Todd on it.

I am inevitably called Scott, and it’s happened too many times for it to be coincidental.

So my query to both of you is, have you heard of this phenomenon before?

And if so, is there an explanation you could offer?

People getting our names wrong? Absolutely, all the time.

What do you think the reason is?

I don’t know. I mean, I suppose, you know, with the double consonant, that would be something to consider.

But again, it’s happened too many times over my life for me to think that it’s coincidental,

And especially with someone looking directly at a name tag, shaking your hand, and then saying,

Nice to meet you, Scott.

Yeah, well, how annoying it must be.

Well, I don’t know. I don’t know that I need to change my name yet,

But it’s something that I’ve just been curious about,

And I thought that your avenue might be an interesting way to figure out what’s going on.

That’s really interesting.

It’s the fact that the name is written down in front of me that kind of throws me for a loop,

Because I can understand when you’re first introducing yourself to someone with your voice.

Your name is context sensitive.

So there is no context surrounding your name.

They’re just my name is anything could fill that blank.

And so they don’t have any particular kind of rules governing what could follow my name is.

So when you’re speaking aloud and you say, hello, my name is Grant Barrett,

People often say Brant or Graham or Gary or Grant Barnette and a thousand and one variations

Because they don’t have anything to associate my name with until after they’ve met me and known me for a while.

And then they tend to get the name down, right?

Sure.

People who’ve known you for a while probably don’t make this mistake.

Well, close friends and family, of course, but as I mentioned, college professors, TAs,

And there’s been cases where doctors who have my file, you know, we’re walking in.

Hello, hello, Scott, nice to see you again.

Oh, really?

Very strange.

It’s not just a preliminary introduction that this is occurring with.

How interesting.

So you’re thinking that maybe it has something to do with those double letters, the two Ds and the two T’s?

That’s just a thought.

I just figured I’d throw it out there.

And again, I didn’t really have an explanation for it, and that’s why I wanted to…

It’s possible that the T and the D sounds are formed in nearly the same part of the mouth,

And they’re remarkably similar sounds, which is why in words like butter, B-U-T-T-E-R,

Americans tend to say butter, which sounds like B-U-T-T-E-R.

And there are many words in English that behave this way.

So for many of us, those two sounds are either identical or nearly identical,

And they can be heard.

One could be said, and the other could be heard.

They could be mistaken for each other.

I see.

The first sound is a little more difficult, the S and the T,

But the vowels are the same, too.

So you’ve got two of the three phonemes are nearly identical,

Identical or nearly identical,

And it’s that initial sound that’s different.

So a little stumped is why they would make this mistake.

You know, I bet there are a number of tods in our audience

Who can tell us whether or not they have the same thing happen.

This is the kind of thing we need to do, right?

Maybe Scott’s have the Todd problem.

I don’t know if it goes both ways.

I just know that I’ve been there for every occurrence, and I can tell you there’s been quite a few of them.

Scott and Todd, I’m talking to you guys.

Send us an email and tell us.

Do people get your name wrong?

Tell us.

Do people call you the other one?

If your name is Scott, do they call you Todd?

And if your name is Todd, do they call you Scott?

We want to know.

We want as many people as possible.

You can also call us on the telephone and let us know, 1-877-929-9673.

And you, Todd, we will get back to you and let you know what we uncover.

All right. Thank you so much. Take care.

Thank you for calling. Bye-bye.

Participate in our call to action.

Send an email to words@waywordradio.org or call us at 1-877-929-9673

And let us know if your name is Todd or Scott if you are often confused for the other one.