Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Show weird names some love

Over the years, I have often been frustrated, annoyed, and downright embarrassed with my name.  "Vahagn" is a difficult name to pronounce for nearly everyone I have met in a variety of settings.  Even fellow Armenians have had difficulty pronouncing my name.  Individuals from other cultures have an even harder time with it and I often have to correct them a few times before they get it right.  But, even after they get it right initially, they sometimes mess it up yet again if they have to pronounce it again at a later time.  As a result of such experiences, I often use alternate names such as "Victor" or "David" (or my personal favorite, Dante) when I am speaking to people over the phone or giving my name at restaurants.  I had also developed some bitterness against my mother for giving me this name and making my social interactions somewhat difficult.

BUT, all this is in the past and I have finally learned to love my name for one very simple reason: it's memorable.  In the past, I had never realized the importance of being remembered because I wasn't actively looking for work or attempting to network.  I would LIKE to think that people remember me because I come off as intelligent and charismatic but let's face it, I can't deny the fact that a lot of times people have remembered me because they have struggled with my name.  This phenomena is actually related to a previous post I made about eliciting an emotional response (such as surprise or confusion or mental struggling) from your audience as a method for being persuasive and having your ideas be memorable.

Consider the perspective of the people you meet when you have a difficult name.  You are clearly breaking a pattern when you give your name to a person who is used to "easy" and more common names such as John, Brian, Kate, David, and so on.  By breaking a pattern, you are introducing an unexpected element into their day and as a result, you are creating a memorable experience.  I could certainly be reading too deeply into this but I've often had people remember me simply because they struggled with my name or we had a humorous exchange where I had to correct them several times when they pronounced my name incorrectly.  Not only did I break a pattern but I also elicited laughter, which is an additional emotional response.

Here are examples of some comments people have made when I contacted them after my initial interaction: "Oh yes! I remember you now, I had trouble with your name!", "I apologize for messing up your name," and "Yes, I remember meeting you. As I recall, I was having difficulties pronouncing your name."  These people actually admitted the reason for remembering me.  I imagine that others might have remembered me for similar reasons as well but never admitted it.

Until very recently, I had never realized the obvious: my name isn't a hindrance and it shouldn't be a source of frustration, it's a blessing in disguise.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Hark Triton, hark! Bellow, bid our father the Sea King rise from the depths full foul in his fury! Black waves teeming with salt foam to smother this young mouth with pungent slime, to choke ye, engorging your organs til' ye turn blue and bloated with bilge and brine and can scream no more - only when he, crowned in cockle shells with slitherin' tentacle tail and steaming beard take up his fell be-finned arm, his coral-tine trident screeches banshee-like in the tempest and plunges right through yer gullet, bursting ye - a bulging bladder no more, but a blasted bloody film now and nothing for the harpies and the souls of dead sailors to peck and claw and feed upon only to be lapped up and swallowed by the infinite waters of the Dread Emperor himself - forgotten to any man, to any time, forgotten to any god or devil, forgotten even to the sea, for any stuff for part of Winslow, even any scantling of your soul is Winslow no more, but is now itself the sea!

About Me

My photo
The beginning is perhaps more difficult than anything else, but keep heart, it will turn out all right. -Vincent van Gogh