What's in a name?

[aryanhwy]

This week's Savage Love column considers a letter by someone who's boyfriend has a close female friend and who has been mixing up their names. Reading a lot of the reader responses made me laugh. I'm generally good with names, and don't have slips of the tongue like that, but growing up I was often "Car[olyn]-An[drea]-Sara" to my Dad (just as he, his brother, and the dog were "Scriny" (Scott/Craig/Tiny) to his mom). On the other hand, I can tell when I've been spending too much time at the office -- such as once when we were still in the old building I told Joel was I going to go "to the livingroom" (instead of the common room) to make some more tea, and just the other morning as I was leaving home to head out to the office, I said "see you tomorrow" instead of "see you later", and realized a bit later that the reason I said that was because "see you tomorrow" is what you say when you're leaving work and going home (I'd rather view this slip-up more as a positive comment about how I feel at work, rather than a negative comment about how I feel at home!). I haven't ever called Joel by either of the cats' names yet, but I do occasionally mix up the cats' names and endearments (at which I always feel guilty, since I know Slinky knows the difference between "babe" (her) and "baby" (Widget)).

Comments

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

My dad mixed my name and my youngest sister's name up ALL the time (and mine and my mom's less often) long before Alzheimer's. My sister and I never lived under the same roof, and none of us have similar-sounding names.

Some people are just like that with names.

(I mix up the cats' names all the time, but they do not seem to care as neither deigns to respond anyway.)

(That first letter-writer makes me sad, though.)