Pet Peeve: Eric
Posted February 28th, 2003 @ 08:50am by Erik J. Barzeski
It's a pet peeve of mine when people write to me as "Eric." My name is "Erik." I have nothing against people named Eric and think that, like my name or "Steve" or "Dave" or "Ronald" or "George," "Eric" is a fine name - it's just not mine. If someone continuously called you "Rob" and your name was "Bob" it'd probably irritate you too.
In truth it doesn't bother me that much, but it does enough that i don't ever want to upset anyone by getting their name wrong, so I always double-check if I'm the least bit unsure. It falls into the "common courtesy" bin for me. The corollary makes me wonder, then: what pet peeves of others have I unknowingly tripped on, not knowing that it was a pet peeve?
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Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 10:52am #
People call you Eric? How can you tell the difference in spelling when you hear it?
Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 11:06am #
I mean when they write, in email, or in chats, or in comments on this blog, but "It's a pet peeve of mine when people write, in email, or in chats, or in comments on this blog, Eric" is so much more than "It's a pet peeve of mine when people call me Eric." Your sarcasm is noted, but I am relying on my readers to have an IQ of at least 70 to determine what I meant. I edited the article to make this more clear.
Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 12:28pm #
Strangely enough, I think "Eric" is an excellent name. 🙂
On the other hand, what really gets me are the people who call me "Albert". It's my last name, darn it, not my first. I'll often do things like fill out a form with "Albert" under "Last name" and "Eric" under "First name", only to have the person whom I hand the form to call me "Albert". Can't they read their own form correctly? Grr.
Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 12:28pm #
Hehe, my email address has traditionally been ebin@something.something. As a result I'm often called Erin rather than Eric, it usually takes several emails before they notice that they've been referring to me with a girl's name.
Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 12:33pm #
Instead of correcting people who write to me as "Eric" I sometimes edit their salutation when I reply to read "Erik." It's like subliminal advertising, I figure.
Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 12:42pm #
I sometimes get "Mat", which is bizarre. I also get "Matthew" from time to time, "Mathew" often, and (if I've given my name on the phone), I'll periodically get "Mark". A really common one is missing out the final "l" of my surname, "Gemmell". Oh, and it's pronounced with the emphasis on the first syllable rather than the second. I got "g'-melle" a lot in high school; it's "gemm-'l", with a hard "g".
Here's a pet peeve of my own: when folk send me an instant message consisting solely of an URL, with no explanation or summary. You know who you are. 😉
They're saying "I don't think you have anything better to do than to immediately visit this web page that I want you to see, and read through it to discover why." RUDE!
(Admission: I did call Erik "Eric" once; it really does get on his nerves. It was in a blog-post, which I later edited to correct the mistake. I toyed with calling him "Special-K" from then onwards, but have so far refrained.) 😀
Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 1:16pm #
😛
I think I wrote of you as Eric once. I'd have to check. I wonder if Vinay gets 'Vinny' much?
My best friend goes by Erik as well. I go by 'Eli' because nobody can pronounce 'Elijah'. I get the spoken equivalent of either 'Elisha' or 'Ejila', though I'm not so certain those who pronounce it the second way aren't dyslexic.
Posted 28 Feb 2003 at 4:20pm #
I know the feeling, for some reason people in general have a thing for inserting an "h" in my name..
Posted 01 Mar 2003 at 3:00pm #
I feel your pain. I stopped counting the times people refer to me as Laurie, Laura, Larry, Lawry... (yes, people have a hard time figuring out my gender -- M -- and I don't blame them).
And don't even get me started on the number of variants I've seen or heard of my last name.