My mom decided to name me Rebehka.  It's been an issue my entire life. 

She told me she took it from a biblical spelling of her name.  She had the easy spelling, Rebecca.  But no, I got the h's and k's.

If you're thinking of naming your child something that will need to spelled every day of their life, just know what you're getting them into.  I don't dislike the spelling of my name by any stretch of the word, don't get me wrong.  But it was something I had to get used to as I got older, and it's something I have to deal with every day.

If I'm working on the computer and I try to type out my name, ten times out of ten it will show an incorrect spelling error and try to autocorrect me.  Same on my phone.  If I'm on the phone with a company or trying to resolve a problem or trying to order something, it's the same every time.

"What's your name?"

"Hold on, I'll have to spell it.  Rebehka. "

"Oh, woah.  Really?  Is it Rebekah?"

"No.  Rebehka."

"Rebekkah?"

It's a process.  Everyone has to get it at least three times. And if I don't bother to try to get them to spell it right, it will always, always be wrong.  Nobody ever goes for my spelling just by luck.  And even if someone knows my name is spelled funny, sometimes they won't even TRY to get it right.  They'll just go for "Rebecca" and have done with it. Heck, it's not that hard, is it? It can't be.

Sometimes I envy people with simple names, like Husbando.  Jim.  That's it.  No special circumstances, no weird apostrophes, no umlaut. Nobody ever asks him how to spell it, because they don't have to.  Three letters, simple, easy.

But in the end, my name is my name and I like it for what it is, even if I have had to spell it my whole life.  If I had a dollar for every shocked, confused or bewildered face someone's made at me after I've spelled my name.... I would be financially independent.

Do you have a strangely spelled name? Do you have an unusual name you have to spell to people?  Tell me all about it!

Namingly yours,

Behka

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