What's in a (last) name?

[elSicomoro]

Blastenbrei

As some of you probably already know, this is my last name. From what I've been told, it's made up German...and I don't speak with anyone on sperm donor's side of the family, so I have no idea what its true origins are.

Now granted, it's my last name and all, so maybe I'm biased...plus I'm familiar with various pronunciations. But in looking at the name, it doesn't seem too hard to pronounce.

(BLAS-ten-BRI) (long i at the end)

And yet, for 27 years now, this poor last name has been butchered to no end. And I've heard them all...(these will be spelled phonetically): Blastenbree, Blastenbrah, Blastenberry, Blastenbray, Blastenbryer...

When I was a child, it used to irritate the fuck out of me when pronounced incorrectly. And of course, it didn't help that I was taunted a lot as a child either, so it was made about 50 times worse.

When I started working in retail in 1992, the company I worked for had a policy of us thanking customers who used credit cards by saying their last name. (e.g. "Thank you Mr. Smith") And I made it a point to try and say their names correctly (even those crazy Polish ones, with all the c's and z's). What I learned from this was 1) I can actually pronounce names pretty well and 2) Most people are happy if you just attempt to pronounce it.

That second point was an important lesson to me, and I got to the point where I too appreciated someone just trying to say it. Nowadays, I get pissed off if people don't try to say it (like the stupid fucking clerk at Strawbridge's last month that didn't seem to want to be there at all).

I used to think about changing my last name all the time. But after sperm donor and I had our falling out, I thought about it...someone has to give some respectability to the name. And it's unique...much like myself. So, we'll keep it.