What's in a name...

Last night was our company's annual "All Hands Meeting". This year was one I actually chose to attend for two reasons: mostly because the company is being bought by an investment firm (currently we are privately owned) and secondly because I was going to get mentioned because I'm one of 3 folks celebrating 20 years with the company this year. We have about 12-15 that have been with the company longer and even a few at the 25 year point. Company is 28 years old. Anyway, they put up a Powerpoint Slide with the 3 names... there is mine: Kathy Wiedemann 6/30/1986 One of the owners of the company goes to read it and says Kathy Weeder-meyer. OMG. Can you say "slaughter" of my name? Geez. Today, after the dust settles I wondered if he was thinking about the dorky military guy from Animal House... Niedermeyer and he just put a W on there. Our name is obviously German (duh!) and it is Weeda-men. Just like the old beer from Kentucky. Wiedemann. My bosses' boss after the meeting says Weeder-meyer, eh? And then says "What do you expect when you've had 7 names since you've worked for the company?" Oh geez. In actuality, it is only 3 names. My maiden name (Lang - as simple as it gets) then marriage 1 (Boik - for a short name... it gets messed up alot) and now marriage 2 - Wiedemann. I got a big laugh out of this. Kathy (having a complete identity crisis!)

Don't feel bad. I can always tell if its a telemarketer or a bill collector on the phone because my last name gets butchered all the time its Gratzl. Pretty simple if you use your phonics. Its German too. I get Gretzl, Grotzl, and then sometimes I just need to talk to Janet (again I'm not called Janet by family or friends so know its not somebody I want to talk to). LOL Jan

I have a funny story about my last name, which means I'll come out of the closet with my last name. It's Noel, we pronounce it Know-ell (like Christmas). Anyway, long ago I used to place orders by telephone for books (I was a librarian). Once I gave my name to an order taker. Eil--eeen Know-ell, I said slowly. There was a silent pause on the end of the phone. The person asked, "How do you spell Eileen with no L?" Eileen

Now, that's comedy!

Don't feel bad, Kathy - I had three legal names in one day! I was Thompson (my 1st married name), got divorced at 10 a.m. and took my maiden name back (Howard), and then got married that evening at 6 p.m. and took on my new married name (Cloud)! Talk about an identity crisis! Going to get my driver's license, new SS card, etc. I had to have my divorce degree and marriage license so that I could prove that Michelle Howard signing on the marriage license was really me cuz everything I had said Michelle Thompson! Michelle - ummm...yeah, Cloud!

My maiden name was Hough (pronounced Huff), but most people pronounced it Ho, which was wonderful in High School. They even announced it that way at the graduation ceremony. Now my name is Seely, and while most people know how to pronounce it, we get all kinds of spellings, including Sealy, Seeley, Ciely, etc. Some telemarketer out there does have our last name as Feely, which I think is pretty funny. Angie