In my opinion, "y'all" can be plural, while "all y'all" (which I also use) puts more emphasis on the totality aspect, that one is discussing not merely y'all generally, but ALL y'all.

Wow, I guess I'm all y'all's worst phone nightmare. Blanket apologies for doing the things that bug, but I'll probably continue to call the number that shows on my caller id and say "I'm so-and-so, someone from this number called me, but I don't know specifically who," because I don't know who called or what they were calling about; and "I'm not sure who I should be talking to, but it's regarding -this-," and not leaving voicemail, because of the number of times that I haven't been "gotten back to."

Anyway.

Pbuttercup, you really should talk to your neighbor, because if it's a collection agency, they are not doing something almost illegal, they are doing something that is clearly illegal. They are not allowed to attempt to make anyone else do their job--which is what they're doing, by bringing you in. Not you, not her boss, not her family (unless someone in her family co-signed on whatever it is she owes.)

As to y'all vs all y'all, in Mobile, y'all was non-determinate (just like "you",) and all y'all was clearly plural (all (of) you).

Ive lived in Atlanta all my life and went to school in Alabama and I've never encountered "y'all" used in the singular. Actually, the only times I've heard it that way are in movies or tv by actors with bad southern accents.

What bugs me is the way people mispell it. I hate seeing ya'll. It's spelled y'all...very obviously, a contraction of 'You' and 'All'. When people spell it ya'll, I have to wonder what the hell they think they're contracting.

Here is what I've managed to gather about using the second person plural and singular in the South. I'm originally from California but I've lived in Tennessee & Georgia for several years now, and have tried to study carefully so that I don't make a fool of myself.
YOU is singular and always singular unless used by a transplanted Yankee.
Y'ALL is plural, but might be addressed to a single person if other people were included by reference. For example, if I am talking to my neighbor Andrew, I might say, "why don't y'all come over and pick some beans from my garden sometime?" if it were clear that I was referring to him and his brothers.
ALL Y'ALL is plural, used about a distinct group, and used for emphasis. Example: Someone from Alabama calls the local sports talk show here in Knoxville and says, and he says, "all y'all Tennessee fans just wait, the Tide is going to make the Vols cry in October."
YOU-UNS is a special form that seems to be restricted to the Appalachians, particularly traditional, poor people from Appalachia, and parts of East Texas. I asked a friend from North Carolina what the difference is between you-uns and y'all, and she told me it was "three income levels and twelve missing teeth." (Please don't shoot me for trafficking in blatant cultural stereotyping here, I love living in Appalachia and wouldn't trade it for the poshest highrise of NYC's Upper East Side - I'm just repeating what my snobby North Carolinian friend said).

This is the exact fight I got in with a copy editor some years ago. What made it worse was she was spelling it ya'll in 48 pt type in a headline and refused to change it.

And then if you're from Jersey, the plural of "YOU," rather than being "Y'ALL," is "YOUSE." Which is horrendous and wrong on so many different levels that it actually scares me.

I'm working as a receptionist right now, so all of the complaining about the phone calls is wonderful because it makes me realise that I'm not alone. In fact, just today I had to call a client at home, and the phone call went something like this:

Me: Hi, this is Jade from Blah-Blah Incorporated, is this Dave?
Guy: Yeah.
Me: Hi Dave, I'm calling about blah blah blah...
Guy: [grunt]
Me: I'm sorry?
Guy: This ain't Dave.
Me: Oh. I'm sorry, can I leave a message for Dave?
Guy: Idunno. Sure.

So then I started to leave the message, and the guy hung up on me while I was still talking. Furthermore, if one's name isn't Dave, why would one say "Yeah" when asked if one is Dave? Stupid fuckface.

Ugh, my OH's relatives in Ohio do this. "Did youse have breakfast?" or "Did youse go to the amusement park yesterday?" It takes every ounce of self-restraint I possess to not go "Youse is a verb and it doesn't have the "yo" on the front. Just say y'all like normal people do." Of course everytime I say y'all they look at me like I'm insane and like I have the strongest Texas accent they've ever heard when I really don't have one at all unless I sing country songs.

Of course, "youse" is also a strong feature of Australian vernacular. Here it's used much more broadly too - as in "all youse people". When I was a kid boxing champ Jeff Fenech patented a national catchphrase with "I love youse all".

The other grammar strangling line I'll always remember is stuff along the lines of "You gone done this". It drives me up the wall whenever I hear it, yet you never forget you're an Aussie if you hear it being used!

See, now I feel barred from saying y'all at all. It would be silly, like somebody from Alabama talking about his wicked pissa good time making a beer run to the packy. So I refrain, and with some regret, because it's such a nice, friendly phrase.

Hildy you go on using y'all as much as you want. I've never understood why it's supposedly just a southern thing. Everyone should say y'all. It's a perfectly cromulent word.

I occasionally get these too SureShot. I usually enjoy the randomness but one time I found a very embarrassing butt-dialed voicemail accidentally left by a friend who was talking to his sister about breaking up with my other friend. It was rather difficult to hear his disparaging remarks about their relationship. It put me in a really awkward position.

Anyway, to continue the "all things y'all" conversation. I use "y'all" and "all y'all" in conversation all the time here in the Pacific NW but never when I'm back east in DC. I guess that makes me totally affected but I don't care.

My grandfather is 1/2 German and grew up in Pennsylvania Dutch country and says "y'ins" instead of y'all. "Y'ins going to a movie?"
It's very endearing...

Y'all is very useful, it's ridiculous that "standard" modern English doesn't have different words for singular and plural forms of the second person. Hildy, you should use it as much as you want.
My family is Quaker and I grew up hearing thee and thou occasionally, especially from the older folks. I am not sure how modern English lost those words. Although I don't use them myself, it drives me nuts to hear or read them misused -- as plurals, or using them as some sort of formal, exaggerated term of respect. Or to see them mixed up. I was reading some YA novel last year, set in colonial Pennsylvania, and they had some Quaker lady saying "thee art kind" and "I am with thou" and it just made me want to scream.

I say y'all all the time and have been known to say all y'all as well, even though I was born and raised in Michigan. When your mom's family is direct from Alabama and your dad was born in Tennesse, these things happen. I have to agree that all y'all refers to a very specific group of people; it's not just a generic plural, but, say, "all y'all Lakers fans are gon' be cryin' tonight." Of course, in Michigan, most people say "you guys" for the plural, which I can't stand. "What do you guys want to do tonight?" "You guys better get away from my truck!" Etc. Ugh.

ETA: Hey, nck, at least he was a polite drug dealer! (Not that I'm speculating, of course.)

Weighing in on y'all v. all y'all: Although I haven't lived there in decades, I'm from generations of Texans and was raised there. We also have family in Kentucky, Lousiana, and West Virginia. I have never heard y'all used by another Southerner to refer to only one person. It might be used in this context "Hey Bubba, are y'all (meaning Bubba and his boyfriend Chet) going out for barbeque or are all y'all (meaning Bubba, Chet and Chet's seven sisters) going dancing?" I'm throwing in my linguistical vote in with Miss Alli and Penutbuttercup.

One of the defects of American English is its lack of a second person plural pronoun. Y'all feel free to use y'all whenever you want, no matter where you harken from.

Annoying phone story: Many years ago, when we lived in suburban Washington D.C., our phone number had a 301 area code. There was a guy named Michael who had a cell phone with a 717 area code and the same number. If he and his cell phone were in Maryland (where our area was based) we would get his calls, even if the caller had dialed the correct, Virginia, area code. I do not wish to speculate on what kind of life Michael lived, but we would get calls at all hours of the night from people desperate to make contact with Michael, telling us that they needed their fix. They often were sure we were deliberatley keeping Michael from them and often would say things that would cause us to leave the phone off the hook. Michael himself would also call us to apologize and try to solve the problem. He eventually got a new cell phone number.

My phone number is one off from an immigration attorney who's name is very close to mine. Fortunately, her mother misdialed once, and I was able to get the correct number from her and give it to those who would call for her. Because I really didn't need to be berated again by a woman in broken English insisting I'm lying to her when I say I've never spoken to her before.

I always call those who've left messages on my answering machine that are not for me. And this comes back. Because I've gotten calls from folks when I've dialed the wrong number and it's really very kind to let someone know. My favorite messages were from the guy who kept calling (even after I called him to tell him he had the wrong number) to ask where his Christmas roast was. (Also, one number away from a suburban Acme.)

My phone is also one off from a really good Chinese restaurant. And they did misprint a flyer once, so I used to get lots of calls. Now, I just get the occasional call when someone immediately starts speaking Chinese. As soon as I say, "I'm sorry," they switch into English, apologize, and hang up.

I live in a building with 164 condos, one of which was once owned by a guy with my last name who clearly has financial issues. It took two times of asking for supervisors of supervisors to get the idiot bill collectors to not just pick my number out of the phone book because of the last name and street addy being the same in spite of the first name being clearly NOT.

One more office etiquette thing. If I am introduced as "Deborah" that is probably because that is my name. If I want to be called "Deb" or "Debbie" I'll be introduced as that. Don't shorten my name. Don't assume you can. Don't express surprise or disdain when asked not to. I have excellent reason for wanting you to use my name. It's primarily because IT'S MY NAME!!!! But if you ask me why I don't like my name shortened, you will be given the short and very unpleasant explanation that gives you way more information than you want or need, simply because you are too rude to just use my name.

Going just a bit west of PA Dutch country to the P'burgh area you get y'uns (like you ones). It has always sounded very very crude to me. I don't know why. Youse doesn't really bother me and y'all is fine. But I hate y'uns.

I always thought you-uns (pronounced like Ewan's) was more than you, less than y'all, and a whole lot less than all y'all.

As in the following sentence, spoken by my uncle at my cousin's wedding in the sticks of Illinois, which can be more redneck than anywhere in Kentucky: "I wish you-uns all the best." This was directed to my cousin and her husband, more than you, but less than y'all.

Phone story: my grandfather, the one whose cremated ashes were rolling around in my parent's trunk (contained in a box), had subsriptions to magazines, and donated money to the political party of his choice. My father runs his estate per my grandfather's wishes. He had my grandfather's mail forwarded to his house so he could pay bills, etc. Somehow, people got my dad's phone number, thinking it was where my grandfather is living now. But he's dead. Has been for two years. He tried to be gentle right after his death, but it now leads to phone exchanges like the following:

MagazineCo: Hello, could I speak to Mr. [Ender]?
Father: Which one?
MagazineCo: [Grandfather of Bart Ender].
Father: I'm sorry, he can't come to the phone right now.
MagazineCo: When would be a better time to reach him?
Father: Well, it's going to be a little while. He's six feet under right now, and it's going to take a little time to dig him up.
MagazineCo: [Stunned silence].

Yet they still call. Bitches.

In other news, DEEEEETROIT BASKETBALLLLL!!!!!!!!!! I'm damn glad I didn't have to make a choice between TAR and the NBA Playoffs. Yet instead of focusing on the game, the local media's just waiting for something to happen in Detroit, where nothing has gotten out of control as of 1:00AM. They're hovering over downtown Royal Oak, a major bar district, where lots of people are, but no one's rioting or anything even close. I'll be damn happy if folks celebrate with the same class that Larry Brown showed in his speach at center court after the game was over. I watched the game with friends and had a damn fun time.

Yay Pistons!

Normally I don't care about the NBA playoffs, but I kinda got a little peeved with Karl Malone when he left the Jazz just to get a championship ring the year before he retires. So I was hoping the Lakers didn't win. So, yay again.

My phone story: I was doing microscope work in a building on campus when the phone rang. I answered with my usual "Geology lab" because people never understood me when I said "Microscopy lab". The rest of the conversation went like this:

Caller: I'd like to get my cat spayed.
Me: (thinking, HUH?) I'm sorry, this is a geology lab, you...
Caller: Well, I'd like to make an appointment to get my cat spayed.
Me: I'm afraid you have the wrong number--this is a science laboratory at BYU.
Caller: (Getting a little huffy) Well, do you know the number where I can make an appointment?
Me: (thinking, do I look like a telephone book?) I'm sorry, I don't.
Caller: (Hangs up)

And JenEx congratulations! I'm so excited for you and your husband and your little girl to be! What a lucky kid she is!

And MamaTiger thanks for the Dell advice. We finally got the problem straightened out, but not without a total of eight hours on the phone, talking to India, Panama, Manila, and someplace in Texas, I think. I think I'm against outsourcing customer service because I don't have the best hearing, and I have the hardest time understanding people with accents, even if they speak perfectly grammatical English. I feel stupid asking them to repeat themselves, but I honestly can't comprehend what they just said! It's frustrating for both of us.

Bart I completely sympathize with your dad's phone tactics. I did something similar shortly after Mom died--my sister, her kids and I were at the house going through stuff when some phone solicitor called. None of us were in very good shape emotionally and that was the last straw, especially since they started out asking for <Dad's name>. I responded that he couldn't come to the phone, as he was 25 years in the ground. "oh. ... May I speak to <Mom's name>?" I replied that that would be difficult as we had not opted to have an extention phone installed in her coffin. "oh. ... Um. ... Thank you... <click>. Sis looked at me, I looked at her, and we both got (literally) hysterical with laughter. I think we needed it badly.

So, they'd use it when referring to just one person? That seems so strange to me. I remember one comedian (Jeff Foxworthy, probably) "explaining" that "y'all" was singular and "all y'all" was plural, but he was clearly joking. To me, the difference between "y'all" and "all y'all" is exactly the same as the difference between "you" and "all (of) you", or "us" and "all of us", or "them" and "all of them".

"Y'all", "you-uns", and "yins" are perfectly fine, and "youse" is even better because it's sorta logical: add an "s" to "you" to get the plural, right? Except the spelling is messed up--shouldn't it be "yous"?--but this is English we're talking about; spelling is hopeless anyway.

Apparently "Standard" English did have a distinct plural for "you" back in the old days: ye. Apparently it dropped out of use because people didn't feel a need for the distinction, which seems real funny in light of our discussion.

Thou and thee were actually from middle English. so its possible that you and ye were intended at an earlier point to represent the second person singular and plural pronoun, but that ye fell into widespread disfavor. Of the regional slang terms, y'all really does seem to be the most logical in terms of grammarical English since it represents a contraction of "you all" referring to more than a sigular person.
Even though I'm a midwesterner by birth, I've spent a total of over 40 years (non-consecutive) in the couth, and I'm quite used to using y'all to represent the second person plural pronoun. This "all y'all" I'm not familiar with and I don't recall hearing the phrase being used.

Spelling it "yous" implies that the word is pronounced with a soft 's' at the end, but it's supposed to be a hard 's', more like a 'z'. Hence. the extra 'e'. Youse see, English can be logical sometimes.



God, Word. People take such a bizarre interest in my name that I feel like I should print up business cards with three facts on them:

1) My name is not a boy's name. I am a girl, therefore my name is a girl's name.
2) My name is not short for anything. If you can come up with some name that mine could possibly be short for, I'll give you a medal.
3) My name is not available for shortening. The only person who's allowed to call me by a nickname is my mother, and that's only because she gave birth to me, and even that's pushing it.

So, yes. Because of that I'm always very very careful to avoid calling people by nicknames until I know them well enough to be assured that it's okay by them. I really wish everybody else had that same courtesy.

Mmm...I spend much of my workdays answering the phone, and am scrupulous to use the name people give me when I ask them. It's common courtesy more than anything else - if you don't know somebody personally, you've got no real right to start shortening their name spontaneously. Quite why certain people advocate doing that in the name of "creating a friendly workplace" I have no idea.

Maybe I'm just more sensitive to these things because I've always liked to be referred to by my full first name, which is one of those boys' names which is shortened by everybody. And people always use the diminutive form, believe me. I tolerate it if it's meant in a friendly fashion, but always point it out when asked.

In fact, the only thing I hate more is when I am called "mate". And if you find yourself in a conversation with most Australian men, they call you "mate" - whether you've just met or not!

It might be a ingrained part of the culture here, but to me it's patronising and I don't appreciate it at all. Again, it all comes back to being taught a certain degree of verbal ettiquette and manners. It's one thing to teach kids to have manners physically, but being polite when speaking is a real dying art.

Hildy, love the super flamingo, Thanks for the pic!

JenEx, mucho congrats. You and Mr. Jen Ex will be great parents, you like TAR and it is educational!

Labral, ouch. Get better soon!

As a Texan, I used to get offended when I heard Yankees use y'all. Doesn't bother me anymore. You can tell when it comes naturally to someone as opposed to when they are forcing it. Miss Alli uses it well.

My favorite phone story came when I was temping in Human Resources at a stupid company. They had a little script you were supposed to recite when answering the phone. Good morning/good afternoon. Stupid company name. This is (your name here). May I help you? Can I help you was strictly forbidden, it had to be may.

So one crazy morning, I answered the phone. Good morning. Stupid company name. This is Terry. Can you help me? It wasn't some salesperson or something where I could get by with it. It was the CEO. Luckily, he had a sense of humor. I know this because they ended up hiring me...

Word, jadeddaisy! My name is Karla, and I invariably get mail for Mr. Karl Bubbacat. When I was in high school (about a million years ago), the school went to a new computer system which only printed out the first four letters of the students' first names on class lists. The first day of class, a new teacher was calling attendance. When she came to my name, naturally she called out Karl. But when I answered, she wouldn't believe it was really me. When I explained that she needed to add an "a" to the end, she was still looking for Karl and asked where he was. I finally said that he had been dead for about 15 years--it was the great-uncle after whom I was named. I don't think I ever quite convinced her that I was really me.

For some reason, everyone immediately wants to call me by a different name. I finally came up with a polite and amusing way to get through to them that it is not my name. My given name is Laura, and people immediately want to turn it into Laurie. I learned, however, that as a child, when we were living overseas and had many British friends, when someone would call me Laurie I would reply, "I am not a truck!" It makes my point without being rude, fortunately.

But a coworker of mine was telling about one hideous law firm he worked in, where the office administrator has nicknames for everyone. If I tell you that he nicknamed my (gay male) coworker "Big Boy" on his first day, does that convey the depths of disgust we all feel for this man?

I'm glad the Dell stuff got straightened out. The only problem with changing software is that they won't support you for that, but that has absolutely zero, zip, nada to do with a hardware issue! It's persuading them of that that's the problem.

My phone story is this : I answered the phone at my apartment one day, I'm a pretty chirpy, polite phone talker. So the person on the phone asks for Mrs. Fields. Well, I know it is someone selling me something, I'm wasn't married at the time. So I say "speaking", so the guy pauses, then says "I'm sorry can I talk to your mom or Dad" To which I replied "Sure, do you want their number? It is long distance". What a jerk.
Also, when we moved into our house in September some guy rang the doorbell, it's a Sat. I'm in shorts and whatever, It's Sat. morning, I am not dressed up. I answer the door and the guy asks to speak to the owner of the house, I go "Yes?" and he says, "Well, is that person here?" to which I reply "that would be me".
He thought I was like 13 years old, Considering I was 30, I'll take it.

And once again, Miss Alli puts what I was thinking much more succinctly than I ever could. I always figured y'all is plural, but may or may not refer to the entire group of people. All y'all is more inclusive.

Peanutbuttercup, so how does one use thee and thou properly? My husband, the font of all things trivial, told me once that -- among other things -- they were the familiar form of you (another thing English is missing in the you department). If this is true, I find it amusing that many people use thee and thou now in church-type situations when they're trying to sound extra formal. (Although y'all comes naturally to people around here, thee and thou do not.)

I'm with you, Mama Tiger. Same name here, and people do that to me all the time. I don't understand how I can say, "Hi. I'm Laura," and they can then five seconds later call me Lori, especially when my name is not pronounced Lora. The "au" is pronounced like the "a" in car (or Carla). People never listen to this.

Speaking of phones, I got a wrong number call at 5am today. Isn't it amazing how you can go from a stone cold sleep to wide awake and wondering who died all from the tiny sound of a ringing phone? Unfortunately it took me over 40 minutes to get back to sleep, so Ron, whoever you are, your stupid friend woke me up this morning and scared the hell out of me.

PeanutButterCup your handling of the debt collectors is too funny! Now I'm looking forward to my next call from them so I can try that.

Even though I guess I'm a Yankee, I like "y'all." It is a perfectly cromulent word, but I find "youse" annoying and "you'ns" bugs the living crap out of me. Sorry to the fans of those words.

Annoying phone story:
(In fact, I think I came here to complain on the very day this happened.) I'm in sales. I took a call from a very annoying guy (demanded I call him Reverend Smith, not just Mr. Smith). Well, it took more than one call to finalize the sale, I ended up having to call him back to have two or three multiple conversations. So later in the day he calls the office. I answer. Here's how the conversation goes:

Mr. Smith: Is Erin there?
Me: This is Erin.
Mr. Smith: No, I need the other Erin.
Me: Sorry, sir, I'm the only Erin here. In fact, I recognize your voice, we've been speaking all day.
Mr. Smith: But I've been talking to a man at your company.

Ok, now people... I'm a smoker. But I still have a fairly high-pitched and clearly female voice. My response: "No, sir. I'm a girl. Have been all day and I was the last time I checked." He never did believe I was the same person.

As for name issues, I get that all the time. Everyone wants to spell my name with "Aa". There is clearly a difference between the female and male spelling, not that anyone cares to notice.

And then there's the occasional old person who calls me "Erwin." No sir, there's no "w" in my name, and I'm most certainly not male. Gah.

I always thought my name was fairly straightforward and that there wasn't much you could do to it. I mean, what can you do to "Karla", right? Wrong. Besides the whole Karl issue (not to mention "K" versus "C"), I get called Karen, Carol, Clara, Carmen, Carrie, Charlotte, and yes, Carly like the racer (although I refuse to spell it with an "i"). I used to babysit for a family whose mother (a real flake) always called me Karma no matter how many times I corrected her. I finally decided to just go with it because karma's always fun anyway.

Heh. My mom's name was Carla, and people would always try to shorten it up. My dad could get away with calling her Cal, but that was about it. I think people just have a tendency to want to mono-syllabize any name that they hear (I've been guilty of it too). My parents, being very conscious of this, gave both me and my brother names that have very obvious monosyllabic nicknames that can't be screwed up, and then proceeded to only use our nicknames growing up.

It's been helpful in some ways, because the only people who call my house looking for Samantha are obviously not my friends. However, it does cause some problems on the gender confusion side of things. Case in point: My friend made spa appointments for us this weekend, giving my name as Sam. The spa assumed I was a guy and I ended up with a pudgy 50-something brooklyn italian guy as a masseuse. That was interesting (It was actually a really great massage, so you never know, but still - he was kind of freaked out too).

The other is that apparently, some guy with my (shorter) name apparently attended Wharton a million years ago. I went to law school at Penn, but not Wharton. I now regularly get this guys mail and phone calls, because apparently in trying to match alumni names with addresses, someone got confused and matched up some guy named Sam who got an MBA in 1953 with me, who got my law degree in 1999. When they've actually gotten me live on the phone, I've tried to explain it to them, but I still get his mail.

The other thing I don't get is the people who confuse my last name. It's Dow. Three letters. Also the name of one of the largest chemical companies in the world. and the name of the Company that runs the NYSE (I work in finance). But people? can neither pronounce nor spell it correctly most of the time. My favorite is when I call to complain about something with my Wall Street Journal subscription. They're owned by Dow Jones. I call and they always ask me how it's spelled, and I have to tell them to take a look at the masthead.

Hey, that's cool. My sister is also Laura, pronounced like Carla. Pretty much everyone ignores her too.


At least there's only one female spelling. I get Aron and Arron (and Erin, of course), unless I bother to say, "two As, one R." It's not really that unusual a name: brother of Moses, Aaron Burr, first entry in every book of baby names, Elvis Presley's middle name -- all the same. (Although there was some confusion about Elvis's middle name.) I did know an Aron (male) once; I've never met an Arron, but that's the misspelling I get the most.

As long as I'm rambling...I was hitting it off somewhat with a girl shooting pool in a bar one time, but things kind of fizzled after we introduced each other as Aaron and Erin. I think we both had the same thought: "I can't date someone whose name is a homophone of mine, can I? That'd just be way too cute."

When solicitors call you at home do like Jerry did...

TEL: Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance service.

JERRY: Oh, gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later.

TEL: Uh, I'm sorry we're not allowed to do that.

JERRY: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home.

TEL: No.

JERRY: Well now you know how I feel. [Hangs up]


Damn, I love that bit and that show...giddy-up.

Heh. I had somewhat the opposite experience while living in Britain. My given name really is Lori, and invariably the Brits I met couldn't process this. The usual scenario was that they'd think they'd misheard me, and that my name was really "Maureen." And auntlada, I always picked up irrational grudges against people who tried to pronounce my name as "Laurie."

I had this weird moment of realizing that I was getting older about ten years ago, when I was looking around in a truck stop gift store waiting around for my husband. You know all those cheap little doohickeys with your first names on them, that little kids love? Like pencils and fake license plates, etc. I realized that I was getting older when I could no longer find cheesy souvenirs with my first name imprinted on them. It's interesting how fashions in first names change.

All the phone and name stuff is making me delurk. I still remember the very first time I ever made a phone call by myself because I dialed the wrong number. And got the emergency room at the local hospital, which freaked me out and made me feel guilty because I'd tied up their phone line for 10 seconds while I panicked and hung up without saying anything. Maybe that's why I still hate making phone calls.

And when I was 10 or so I decided I wanted to be called by my full name, not a shortened version. For the most part, everyone I've met since calls me by the full name, but my relatives all still use the short version. The oddest thing for me is meeting friends of my sister, because she always refers to me by the short name, and so they do, too.

Re: Aaron vs Erin.

I love the name Aaron. It's always been one of my favorite names for a guy. (Maybe this is why I actually don't mind Aaron and Arianne?) Now, mind you, I don't actually know anybody named Aaron, but it bugs me when I hear it pronounced like Erin. To me, there's a distinction. Erin is pronounced the same way you pronounce the first part of Eric. Aaron is pronounced the same you you say the first part of Apple. I'm sure this is not an issue with any other sane person on Earth, Aaron, Erin or otherwise, but it really bothers me when people say Aaron like Erin, because I love the name so much. Yeah, I'm really weird.

Hi everyone! So relieved our favourite show is about to start again!

My phone story concerns my mother's method of dealing with sales calls. My Dad died 4 years ago, and after 59 years of marriage, Mom can't bring herself to change the name in the phone book. Now, if a salesperson calls, asking to speak to George, she just replies "I'm sorry. I really, really wish you could speak to him, but he's dead." Shuts them up every time.

See, here's what happened when I worked for a research company and some guy tried the Jerry Seinfeld bit, He did the whole "Give me your number and I'll call you at your home.
My reply : Well, I would, but that would be silly because I am not home now, and I'm pretty sure it's long distance. But if you want it - here it is, it's best to call at 9pm, I'll be home then.

If you don't want to buy something fine, but I was doing phone surveys, and frankly, I got tired of people complaining that no one cares about their opinion and then wouldn't do a survery.
Best weay to freak people out is to ask your computer :
Someone wants you to buy something respond with :
"I have to ask my computer"
hit the buttons on your phone a couple times and the come back with "My computer says no"

Ugh. My parents, being somewhat uncreative, decided to pick the most popular baby name of the year and call me Ashley. Aside from the fact that I feel like I should dye my hair blonde from all the "you don't LOOK like an Ashley" comments I get, there are way too many variations. Ashlee, Ashleigh, Ashly - I've even gotten Ashlyn before. And Alicia - of which there are even more variations. Let's not even get into all the crazy variations on my Ukrainian last name.

Sometimes I think my life would be a lot easier if I just changed my name to Jane.

Do you guys continue to get unsolicited calls these days? Since I signed up for the no call registry, my calls have stopped. Every once in a while I'll get a 'courtesy' call from my bank about some credit card thing, but I say "Sorry, not interested" and hang up before they reply. I figure that's more polite than slamming the phone down on the poor sap whose job it is to call me, but doesn't take up much of my time.

The only company which still calls me since I signed up for the do-not-call registry is Qwest. They seem determined to sell me a DSL line. I may even get one some day, but it won't be from a telemarketer.

My “y’ins” using grandpa that I mentioned above also uses y’uns occasionally too. He raised his family in the Monongahela area of PA so I guess that’s where he picked that up. He definitely uses y’ins and y’uns differently but I’m not sophisticated enough to pick up the subtle variances.

Name pet peeve -
My name is Kat. Not Katherine, Kathy, Kate, Katie... it always amazes me how many people want to add extra stuff to it. Or how often people think I'm saying Pat when I introduce myself. I don't think I mumble. So often when I'm meeting new people I tend to be a HUGE cheeseball, introducing myself as "Kat, like the animal that goes meow but spelled with a K." People look at me like Ohhhhkay, thanks for that explanation. **eyeroll**

We don't get any unsolicited calls and we're not on that do-not-call registry. I hope I haven't just jinxed myself.

For the most part. And like you, the occasional calls I get seem to be from companies where I'm a customer, like Verizon.


Obscure pop culture reference: years ago, on this short-lived NBC soap called Generations, there was a female character named Sam whose birth name was Stephanie. Although none are popping into my head at the moment, I can think of other real-life instances where you're wrong in assuming a name is short for what it usually would be.

My mother's name is Mary Ann, and woe be to the poor soul who calls her "Mary"! She hates that name by itself with a passion. As for me, I go by my initials--TJ--which you would think would be simple enough, but some people insist on shortening it to "Teej". Which I hate. I mean, come on. It's only two syllables. It won't kill you!

On telemarketers, I just hang up. You can usually spot them right away, because you'll get a second or so of dead silence at the beginning while their war-dialer picks up your voice and connects you to an available phone drone. If I don't get a response to my initial "Hello, this is..." within about a second, I'm done.

My 5-year-old niece's name is Elizabeth. Her sisters try to call her Liz and Lizzie, but it won't stick -- she's definitely an Elizabeth. She gets mad when her teacher abbreviates her name to E. to make it fit on things, so I told her to tell her teacher she wants to be called by her rapper name, "E-Dog."

By the way, I wasn't trying to go all Strunk and White on you's [Hey, I do use that! When I say it, it rhymes more with "buzz" than with "shoes." Maybe it developed as a contraction of "you guys," which is also common around here.] about "y'all" and "all y'all." I agree that "y'all" works fine as the plural, and "all y'all" is mainly for plural situations where "y'all" might not be clear.

I have name issues too. My name is Jessica. It's incredibly common, everyone knows that it's a name, etc. But for some unknown reason four out of every five new people I meet think my name is fuckin' Jennifer! Other than starting with the same two letters they are not even remotely alike! They don't sound the same at all! Sorry - this just gets my dander up.

True story - when I got my senior photos taken, I ordered some of the wallet-sized ones with my name and graduation year on them. I go to pick them up a few weeks later, and what do you know? 50 copies of my smiling mug with freakin' Jennifer all over them. Needless to say they redid them at no charge. I was half-tempted to take them though. I loved the idea of handing them out and have people say, "Jennifer?" "Yeah, don't ask."

Sureshot -- I think it's because they're both so common, and every recent time period I can think of where one name was popular, the other was also. So, you get mobs of Jennifers and Jessicas, all the same age. People just think "Girl .... common 'J' name .... oh, heck, I'll just pick one". And so we get called the other one. (-:

Right, but that's sort of the point in reverse. Because my name is Samantha, no one's going to get creative and shorten it to anything other than Sam. It doesn't always work the other way (I get a lot of "I assume that's short for Samantha" comments when I introduce myself as Sam.)



I hate telemarketers, but I'm always willing to answer surveys - the mom of a friend of mine is a pollster, so I try to always be polite to pollsters because it could be her company.



I can one up you on this one. For about 2 years after my mom died, my dad not only didn't change the phone listing so that her name still came up on caller ID, he didn't change the voicemail from her voice. He liked it because he would call it once in a while and hear her speaking. Everyone else? would get totally freaked out.

My mom changed her outgoing message way too soon after my father died. You could hear the sadness in her voice and it was awful. I finally asked her to re-record it months later.

Lots of fun conversations going on here today!



Which reminds me of my parents friends when I was a kid. Merle Brown (female) married Merle Bryan (male), so they became Merle and Merle Bryan.

Which also reminds me of the doctors in the town where I went to high school named Dr. and Dr. Doktor. We called her "Mrs. Dr. Doktor" to distinguish them.



I still remember when I was working for the Air Force and trying to call someone in our Washington headquarters and accidentally got the White House operator. Talk about freaked out, I kept waiting for the scary NSA guys to come drag me off to a back room to interrogate me or something!



Nah. They'd just start calling you "Jayne" or "J'ane" or some such.

My maiden name was White, and you'd be truly astonished at how many ways there are to misspell that (not to mention calling me the wrong color entirely)!