So, here’s a post that I’ve been thinking about doing for almost a year now, but being really bad at Internetting I just haven’t got around to it until now. Anyway, here goes:
Some guy at work recently called me “Pat”. Of course, by recently I mean about a year ago. It was a guy who works in a different part of the company whose name I didn’t even know, so his calling me Pat just struck me as being off somehow. I mean, lots of people call me Pat, but it is usually people who I now better. Often times even people that I’ve known a long time prefer to call me Patrick. This, I assume, is because if I am ever asked my name or if I ever have to sign something or introduce myself I will, without fail, call myself Patrick. I have often had people ask permission to call me Pat before they start to do it. Like “Do you mind being called Pat?” and I have to say “No, I’ve been called worse.” or something. And it is true. I have been called plenty of things (Some things I have been called: Patrick. Pat. P. PDR. Patty. Pappy. Peder. Pee Doctor. Doctor P. Pudrig. PDFNR. Pat Smear. Patroclus. Peacock. P-Cock. Patty Cakes. Mother Theresa. Patrick Rydol. Patrick Drywall.) So anyway, I don’t know why I found it caused me pause to hear this work guy call me Pat, but it did. I guess the moral is, I’m complicated.
On the topic of being named Patrick: I don’t like meeting other people named Patrick. Never have. I believe this is a problem that has mostly to do with my name being common, but not too common. If I were named Chris or Adam or Mike or John or some generic name like that, I’d probably be used to running into Homonyms. Or if my name was something really obscure, like Ordob, Wibbung or Hamham, well then I’d probably be so surprised to find someone with the same name that I’d actually like it. As it is, I’m just at that point where I don’t have to regularly deal with other Patricks so I don’t build up a tolerance, but I do encounter them often enough to be bothered. I guess the moral is, I’m complicated.
On the topic of being named Patrick: I don’t like meeting other people named Patrick. Never have. I believe this is a problem that has mostly to do with my name being common, but not too common. If I were named Chris or Adam or Mike or John or some generic name like that, I’d probably be used to running into Homonyms. Or if my name was something really obscure, like Ordob, Wibbung or Hamham, well then I’d probably be so surprised to find someone with the same name that I’d actually like it. As it is, I’m just at that point where I don’t have to regularly deal with other Patricks so I don’t build up a tolerance, but I do encounter them often enough to be bothered. I guess the moral is, I’m complicated.
Understandable, and I enjoyed the insight into your mind’s innerworkings. For what it’s worth, though, I hate meeting other Matts and Matthews, so you be the judge of how that affects your theory.
And I agree: it’s off-putting when someone I don’t know calls me ‘Matt’. I’m like, ‘I don’t know you!’
Interesting. I guess I just assumed that people with more common names weren’t bothered by it because I’d never known one to mention it. Presumptuous on my part, I suppose, and clearly wrong. Thanks for helping me see the world through other eyes.
I guess the moral is, we’re all complicated.
And the other moral is we need more names out there. Somebody had better name their kid Hamham soon.