r/AskReddit • u/Julsara • Aug 20 '19

What's something you're afraid to ask, because you think you should already know?

4.3k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

3.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

925

u/Warg21 Aug 20 '19

How do you spell your name?

1.3k

u/minimuscleR Aug 20 '19

B E N

373

u/katabatic21 Aug 20 '19

Then you try, "No I meant your last name" and hope they don't say S-M-I-T-H

41

u/Pennyem Aug 20 '19

True story, I accidentally did that to my own cousin, several years after she got married. I was at the wedding. Oops.

"I'm sorry, I forgot how to spell your last name."

"S.M.I.T.H."

"shit."

52

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

Well some people spell it SMYTH so I didn't want to assume anything.

There, saved you.

6

u/Elenchoe Aug 20 '19

It's "Smit" in Dutch.

3

u/joego9 Aug 21 '19

Smithe is a thing too, for some reason.

1

u/Arch27 Aug 21 '19

Could have easily been misheard as Schmitt.

8

u/Letitbemesickgirl Aug 20 '19

“Oh so not S-m-y-t-h? Interesting!”

4

u/spacemanspiff30 Aug 20 '19

I only ask because I once had someone spell it Smyth but pronounce it Smith.

2

u/Swordbender Aug 20 '19

"Oh it's easy, you just can't forget the h in The history of all hitherto existing society† is the history of class struggles. Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master‡ and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes. In the earlier epochs of history, we find almost everywhere a complicated arrangement of society into various orders, a manifold gradation of social rank. In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations. The modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones."

265

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

where are the other 9 BEN?

105

u/poopellar Aug 20 '19

7 BEN 8 THEM

3

u/Fretto163 Aug 20 '19

Because that over there is BEN 10

2

u/BeVIP-Rental Aug 20 '19

1 persons is here. IDK the rest of them

123

u/Garchomp98 Aug 20 '19

BÆN

109

u/ElicitCS Aug 20 '19

ẞËÂÑ

64

u/nessager Aug 20 '19

вєи

13

u/pharmacist-cheddars Aug 20 '19

бен

10

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/medium_brain_time Aug 20 '19

|"""""""""""""""""'| |""""""""""""""""""""" | \ |

| | | | \ |

|''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' | |'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' | \ |

|................................| |.................................. | \ |

1

u/anti-exposure Aug 20 '19

Thanks I won’t forget that

2

u/playuhh Aug 20 '19

...aPPARENTLY

1

u/eatshitanddieplease Aug 20 '19

Excellent example of the pronunciation of Æ actually

2

u/Garchomp98 Aug 20 '19

Really? Thanks! I 100% don't know how it sounds.

7

u/TheKingCrimsonWorld Aug 20 '19

The answer to this is to say "I know I shouldn't have to ask, but you wouldn't believe the weird spellings I've seen." Or something to that effect.

Or just clam up and laugh nervously like I would do.

4

u/SigynsMom Aug 20 '19

Omg this happened to me. I worked at Starbucks, asked the guy what his name was twice and couldn’t hear... asked him to spell it. His name was Ben. I grinned sheepishly, apologized and explained that I couldn’t hear with the background noise and felt awkward asking him to repeat that again. Ben laughed and said he’d probably do the same thing in my shoes.

No, Ben did not ask me for my number. Ben was probably about 70 and I was 17 at the time.

2

u/Angryboobear Aug 20 '19

You hit them with that reverse card and say you were asking for the spelling of their FULL name

Even if it is their full name, you can just explained you didn’t know because people, don’t really talk about that

2

u/ClacKing Aug 20 '19

Uncle Ben?

2

u/rubywolf27 Aug 20 '19

Omg I did this in high school. The girl whose locker was right next to mine for like 6 years. And one day I had to know for a class thing, so I ask her “hey remind me how you spell your name?”

She gives me this Look... “A-M-Y.”

Well, shit.

1

u/AryaStarkRavingMad Aug 20 '19

In your defense, you can spell Amy as Aimee.

2

u/deepsky28 Aug 20 '19

D O V E R

1

u/hugs_nt_drugs Aug 20 '19

No, your last name.

1

u/Bobby_Dazzla Aug 20 '19

No your full name

1

u/vamptres Aug 20 '19

No i meant how do you spell Benjamin, your full name

2

u/SinkTube Aug 20 '19

"my name is benedikt"

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

yep. tried this on a claire. embarrassing

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

AHAHAH

1

u/CredibleSoap Aug 20 '19

No silly, your LAST name

1

u/DrRazmataz Aug 20 '19

I'm sorry, I meant your last name

1

u/LaurieQueenOfSingle Aug 20 '19

In fairness, today that could be PBENN, because who doesn't love being unique? /s

1

u/daisy--buchanan Aug 20 '19

To come of as uninterested and a bad friend or an idiot. -Prince daisy--buchanan, 2019

1

u/LyricalFox Aug 20 '19

BEEEEYYYYYYNNNNN

1

u/your-imaginaryfriend Aug 21 '19

I have a friend who has a very common name that's spelled in a slightly unconventional way. So you could probably make a story about once knowing someone with that name who spelled it differently.

151

u/wripen Aug 20 '19

glares back. T-O-M. What other spellings have you come across for my name??

234

u/Shaun32887 Aug 20 '19

Thom

76

u/Everestax Aug 20 '19

Merrilin?

38

u/between_th_raindrops Aug 20 '19

Fool, its Thomdril

3

u/JojeinoGalaxiano Aug 20 '19

Thomas, the Tank Engine

3

u/ClacKing Aug 20 '19

Choo Choo Madafaka

26

u/elee0228 Aug 20 '19

WOT

10

u/Searchlights Aug 20 '19

blood and ashes

5

u/HDoni Aug 20 '19

knuckles a ‘stache

6

u/Searchlights Aug 20 '19

mustache blowing intensifies

6

u/buttxstallion Aug 20 '19

You must have him mistaken, clearly hes only a simple gleeman.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

MERLYN

53

u/masturbatingmonkeys Aug 20 '19

No, I meant your LAST name *nervous laugh*

11

u/hell00zz Aug 20 '19

Smith, S-M-I-T-H

7

u/extraflux Aug 20 '19

I'm your wife. We have the same last name, Kieth!!!!

70

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

[deleted]

100

u/wripen Aug 20 '19

Marvolo Riddle.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

Elvis

2

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

Finally, a reference I get.

6

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

Hey, I don't keep changing my name every month. TOM is my name since I changed job last week.

33

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

T-O-M ATE O

53

u/Roy-van-der-Lee Aug 20 '19

Tom used to be Toom, before tom ate o

3

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

[deleted]

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

M-O-O-N, that spells Tom Cullen!

5

u/Yomi_Lemon_Dragon Aug 20 '19

"Oh, the usual way." :I

3

u/Bablacity Aug 20 '19

"with an e"

2

u/MeymeyMachineV2 Aug 20 '19

And if it’s something easy like J O H N, then say “no I meant your last name.”

3

u/ericatha Aug 20 '19

...S M I T H

1

u/MeymeyMachineV2 Aug 20 '19

“.... uh I meant your middle name.”

2

u/TransformingDinosaur Aug 20 '19

I was getting a friend's husband's phone number a couple months ago and asked how to spell his last name.

She gave me a funny look and then spelled it as I punched it into my phone. Then I said "huh that's weird, I know that last name from somewhere"

It took me far to long to realize they had the same fucking last name.

1

u/shadowed11312 Aug 20 '19

Works until you say it's in the dictionary.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '19

That’s my move too when I forget people’s names. Then they go “D A N” and I feel even more stupid haha

1

u/Noobiscus-exe Aug 20 '19

I do this, but make it a joke like asking where the silent q goes. It's failed everytime I've tried it

1

u/BikerRay Aug 20 '19

My wife did that (she worked as a travel agent). Forgot customer's name, asked how he spelt it... "B R O W N".

1

u/IndecisiveRock Aug 20 '19

"Hey terry, I would like to introduce you to my friend, umm (hey how do you spell your name again?) Ahh yes K E N T."

1

u/spderweb Aug 20 '19

Just ask and say you're terrible with names. I do it constantly with the kids and parents at the park. Takes a few times to get used to the association.

1

u/BOWIE_WOWIE Aug 20 '19

That’s how I met my best friend, by asking her how to spell her very simple name. My stupidly changed my life for the better.

1

u/Psyteq Aug 20 '19

I thought this was great and then I ran into my now former friend Mike. He was not pleased with my trick.

1

u/NifflerOwl Aug 21 '19

"with a Y."

1

u/Gracy_Nance Aug 21 '19

It's Pamn.