Don’t correct my name

Filed under: Rant | 15 Comments

In the past few weeks I have had several people cite me as “John Gales”. This normally isn’t a big deal, John is a lot more common than Jon, so it happens in real life fairly often. But these instances have been online–in response to things I have said. For example, if I post a comment as “Jon Gales”, I might get a “Re: John Gales” or “John Gale’s” back. What the hell? Do you think I don’t know how to spell my OWN name? Anyone else have this problem?

(My name is technically Jonathan, but note that is not JoHnathan)

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15 Responses to “Don’t correct my name”

  1. dowingba says:

    Really, John, is it that big a deal?

  2. Ingrid says:

    Hi John, nice to meet you 🙂

    Sorry but glad I got it wrong. No-one likes to see their name printed incorrectly but if I had not done so, you might not have linked me.

    I did notice your name was Jon when I was drafting the post, don’t know what happened – guess I must have edited the post and re-typed your name. Usually, I am extra careful over details like that, ie Leslie and Lesley or Anne and Anne or Teresa and Theresa…etc.

    Now, I shall never forget your name is Jonathan Gales (with an S) not Jon Gale. Next time I’ll probably have trouble over your surname, ie Jon Gales’ (or Jon Gales’s) post says…John Gales’s (or Jon Gales’) readers say…

    My surname is Jones…my family get referred to as the Joneses – I wonder if yours are the Galeses. I had similar trouble over a post I wrote about Don Park. I wanted to blog about the garden he and his wife keep, ie the Parkses Garden? no matter how I phrased it, it all looked wrong. In the end I changed the heading to: Park Life 🙂

    PS I’ll correct the post today with a copy of this apology.

  3. Tomas says:

    Happens to me all the time, just like that. The name is Tomas, not Thomas.

  4. dowingba says:

    Ingrid, technically, “Galeses” would be the correct way to write/say it, just as “Joneses” is correct.

    Now, if Jon Gales owns a PowerBook, the correct syntax is, “This is Jon Gales’ PowerBook”. Remember, apostrophes are only used to denote the possessive and to omit characters from a compounded word (like “it’s”).

    Grammar lesson for the day…dismissed.

  5. Jon Gales says:

    Hah thanks guys. To add insult to injury, my official name with the honors institute at my college seems to be “John Gates”. I have told them several times… Just gotta make sure it’s fixed before I get a diploma.

  6. Ingrid says:

    Dowingba, thanks for the grammar lesson but I still don’t get it when it comes to Don Park and his wife and their garden. If it was Don Parks and his wife I’d say it would be the Parks’ Garden. But because it is Don Park without an “s”, I can’t figure if it is the Parkses Garden, Park’s Garden or Parks’ Garden. Which is why I changed the title of my post to PARK LIFE!

    btw Neat blog but sorry no yellow smiley faces around here 🙂

  7. Lynn P says:

    It would be the Parks’ garden. The s makes them plural, Park is singular. Does that make any sense?

    “those are the Parks” is like “those are the Parkers” (for Parker).

  8. Ingrid says:

    Yes Lynn, thanks it does make sense. So, now I wonder if I’d be right in saying that the Jones family are referred to as the Joneses – and the Park family are referred to as the Parks. And that the Joneses garden is the Jones’ garden and the Parks garden is the Parks’ garden. It’s the Joneses – why not Jones’ – that’s confusing me! See, poor Allan – he’s never forgotten that teacher – people get scarred for life when you get their name wrong! Several times people have gotten my name wrong – not in the spelling though – they all called me Brigitte instead.

  9. Jon Gales says:

    To the last poster, I believe “allan”, I’m sorry but your comment was accidently deleted. I got 40 or so spam comments and deleted two pages. I saw AS the comments were being deleted that yours wasn’t spam. My fault. Please post again if you read this.

  10. Lynn P says:

    I doubt you see this Ingrid but “Jones'” is actually “Joneses'” when written because it must be plural to be possesive by more than one person.

  11. Ingrid says:

    Thanks Lynn, you’re right, I don’t get the rule. Here’s another example of why. Going by what’s been said here: Bill Gates’ family would be referred to as the Gateses. And George Bush’s family would be the Bushs’….But the Bushs’ looks wrong to me. But maybe it’s right. So to solve this problem – I’ll just continue avoiding writing names in the plural 🙂

  12. swimp says:

    I completely understand. It must be irritating like damn!

  13. QuestJon says:

    I too am a Jonathan, and often get mispelled. John, Johnathan, Johnathon, and on one occasion (although my poor handwriting played a part) Miss Johonathan.

  14. Andrew says:

    …lighten up Francis

  15. Gerard Sam says:

    Great information here. Just what I needed to complete my essay. Thanks. In my opinion the internet is the key to success!

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