For my whole life, I didn't really mind that people would assume my name was spelled a more common way or differently than it actually is. I always blamed my mother for making it more, "unique," and, "different," when really I should have been embracing it. Only my family and closest friends knew the correct way to spell it, which when I was younger, didn't bug me that much because I lived in a small town and those were the people I hung out with the most anyway. Now, I'm a sophomore in college and things are a little different.
I recently joined a sorority and on bid day, when I received my bid and the sign with my name on it, you guessed it, they were spelled wrong. "Bid Day, Best Day," was tarnished slightly because that one person decided not to double check the spelling of the name from the forms. "Oh, I'm so sorry about that. It must have been wrong in the system." After hearing excuses over and over again, I'm getting slightly tired of people spelling it wrong for the more official things in life. I'm now applying for internships and jobs, and application after application I will spell my name correctly, yet when I receive a callback and have a pile of forms with my name on them, wrong.
Even in class getting papers handed back with comments, despite the fact that my name is at the top of the page in the headline that is always required, wrong. The worst part is even people from different countries who have the most exotic names I've ever heard of get theirs spelled correctly, because everyone double checks so they won't, "offend," them. Sorry, but I'm offended too.
It's not the fact that physically spelling my name wrong just annoys me, it's that I'm now as a scholar, am trying to make a sophisticated name for myself for my future career, and every time someone makes a mistake about that, it just makes it harder to build a profile. It's understandable, yes, and pronunciation is one thing, but I'm tired of correcting people and I know I'm not alone.
Whether you have a common name not spelled exactly as it normally would be, or a completely unique name, check twice before writing it down, or just ask how it's spelled, nine times out of 10, they won't be offended and appreciated that you asked in the long run. My name makes me who I am, and the spelling adds to what makes me original. So to everyone, whether it's Peyton with an, "e," vs an, "a," or Sara without the, "h," you're not alone. My name is Tatumn, with an, "n," at the end, and I'm proud of it.
