What's in a name?

Apologies to The Bard for that title.... 

All right, I’m not uptight about my name, but, if any of you have strange names, it does get hilarious after a while trying to explain it. I blame my parents.

For the record, my name is Anne-Geri’ Fann. My FIRST name is Anne-Geri’. It is pronounced “Anngeree” and the apostrophe/accent mark/whatever that is – is after the “i”. Again, I don’t know why. My parents, although both very educated people, have never given me a valid linguistic answer. I can only assume they didn’t learn how to spell until they were both 35. “Anne” is for my mom, who is “Anne”. “Geri’ “is for my dad, who is “Gerald” (which is pronounced “Jurl” if you are his Texas family). He now goes by his second name, “Glen”. Most people call me “Angie”. It’s a whole lot easier, but it’s not on my birth certificate….

My LAST name is Fann. Sometime I sign my initials AGF, but that stands for Anne-Geri’ Gray Fann b/c Gray is my maiden name. I don’t have a middle name. I don’t know why. I guess my parents thought the one they chose was long enough. I agree.   I was so glad I married someone with an easy last name – but then I try to say it over the phone. F sounds a whole lot like S. We were listed by the phone company as The Sands for a while until we fixed it. David’s brother was too, but he didn’t bother to tell them since he’s a youth minister (less calls from parents. Ha). ONE TIME I told a lady, “That’s Fann – with an ‘F’ as in ‘Frank’,” and she said, “Your name is Anne Frank! I read that book in high school!” I should have said Foxtrot. At this point, I gave up.

Why am I telling you this? I’ve had several people ask offline and several hilarious interpretations from Potters School parents, students who read my school website, people who read my online Blog, etc. I can’t imagine what it must sound like in your/their heads. Seriously, if I didn’t know my own name who knows how I would be pronouncing it if I saw it for the first time? But here are some of the ways I have recently seen myself addressed on email and snail mail (some of which were interpretations after hearing it spelled out on the phone), none of which are my name, but perfectly understandable how someone would come to that conclusion given the fact that my name, although I personally appreciate it, is freaking weird in the first place (btw “Sra.” means “Señora”):

Anne
Geri-Anne
Angela
Mrs. Geri (pronounced “Jerry” on the phone)
Sra. Geri
Sra. Geri-Fann

Annegeri Sand
Mrs. Annegeri
AnnGerí'

Mrs. Sand

Angeri Fand

Maryann Geri (where did this one come from?)

and my personal favourite...

Fann-Geri'

I’m sure you ALL had time to read this pontification on my own name today…….not that it’s all about me, you know. Haha.

I do go by “Anj”, “Angie”, “Anne-Geri’”, “Mrs. Fann” or “Sra. Fann”.  In Honduras, I gladly go by "Inchi" or "Enyi".  Occasionally I also go by “Captain Random”. I do not answer to my lifetime friend Rob’s version, “Annegeriatric” (although to his thrill I have accidentally turned around to it). And I also don’t answer to “Spot." But you can pretty much screw up my name to your heart’s content and I will probably answer to it because I gave up years ago.