Forums » Smalltalk » A personal PSA

So I'm not upset or anything (honestly not even annoyed), but I just thought I'd let folks know...

It's N O V A L Y Y N with 2 y's and only one n at the end.

I don't blame anyone for misspelling it. I know it's much more common to see "lynn" rather than "lyyn" and I know we all sometimes do sort of a speedread on things and let our brains complete the picture (that a huge part of its job, after all!). I've just noticed that when folks type my name, more often than not, they'll use -lynn, so I thought drawing attention to it might help.

Again, not upset or anything, and please don't feel like you need to apologize. Even if folks continue to mistype it, I'll probably just continue to be amused.

And if you're curious how I pronounce it, it really is pretty much what you'd expect the imagined "Novalynn" to sound like. Usually. If there's a way you've been pronouncing it, honestly, I've probably used that way too.

noh-vuh-lihn, nuh-vah-lihn, noh-vuh-line...

I know that by posting this you've probably already concluded this, but I want to reassure you how valid this is! This is the name you identify with on here and it's important to get it right when addressing you.

I understand. My IRL name is rather hard to read and pronounce. It's a Jewish name, so it's pretty unique in spelling. I've grown used to it, though.

I feel like I may have been guilty of doing that once, but nowadays I think I'm pretty good about it. Mostly because literally everytime I post your name somewhere I have to run to your profile and double check that there is indeed 2 y's

I have mild dyslexia and horrible eyes in general, seeing double yy's, and ii's specifically is quite difficult for me so I'm definitely guilty of this. I'm sorry ❤️ Up until now I would've swore your name was Novalynn while staring right at it, I struggled to even see the two yy's now knowing but I for one will work super hard to remember because I hate that you've been made to feel frustrated.

As someone with a name people often mispell and mispronounce I know how it feels.

I feel this in my bones. "Lib" is my nickname in reality too, but I can't tell you how many times I've ordered a coffee only to have it written on the cup as Liv, Lin, or my favorites, Lip and most recently Lid.

The amount of people who type my username as Cooper or Chopper instead of Copper is stunning, so I absolutely get where you’re coming from on wanting others to get it right! Your amusement (and some amount of frustration?) is totally valid.

I feel your pain. I once had someone spell my name with about eight letters. Heyideei or something. It's my current record.

Standardly, I tend to get Hidi, Hide, Hayde, Hiedi/Hiede/Heide... Hayley, Helen...

I'm just grateful my mother didn't opt for Adelheid or Adelweiss which were her original choices. That would have been atrocious!

Ha! I feeel the pain. My name is Alycia. but most people call me Alicia, Alyssa, Alison.. Alice.. so I often go by Aly for short. but not long ago someone called me Amy?
Of course coffee shops are notorious at writing Ali wich is a male middle eastern name...

Mipps is SO much easier.

I get to blame myself at least in part for not only making up a name, but spelling it in a pointlessly odd way. Again, I don't really blame anyone, and it's not really any more annoying than, say, someone using the wrong your/you're or something. Just that awareness of "well, that's not correct."

I'm fortunately pretty passive about name mistakes. IRL presently, there's 2 different names I go by depending on where I'm at, and they're both pretty simple, but also both with a slightly less common spelling, so getting my name wrong is just a standard that I maybe note and promptly forget, so long as it's not something where it actually matters (like a legal form or something).

I should probably keep all of this in mind as I'm choosing a new name to go by IRL.

Anyway, I love you all.

I think Novalyn is a name irl too altho I have yet to meet anyone with it 🙈 it's cute tho