What's in a name?

I have one of those surnames that people can't pronounce. They sort of slur through it and race to the end in the hope that I won't notice that they have no idea how to say it. And they needn't bother. I really don't mind. It's a tricky name. And the reason that it's tricky is becasue it's uncommon. Gallagher should be a tricky name to pronounce but Gallaghers are two-a-penny so everyone can.

My first name is not particularly tricky. Most people know a Lorraine or are at least familiar with the name. Although there are a variety of spellings for it. Mine is the traditional version but I've seen 'Laurraine', 'Loraine' and 'Lauraine' used. And in the case of NZ Immigration, who are generally speaking a bunch of morons, I've seen my own name spelled Lorriane. Despite the fact that they had every single piece of documentation in the entire world that had ever had my name written on it ever.

Anyway, it's not a super common name but I have met significantly more 'Lorraines' than I have met 'Brehenys' (or at least Brehenys who are not related to me).

Anyway the point is that my name is not a 'John Smith' kind of name.

So I was reasonably surprised to start getting emails to my hotmail account for someone with the same name but who wasn't me. There was one over Xmas then one early in the new year. But I logged on to Hotmail on Thursday to find a heap of 'reply all' emails about a netball game this week in England somewhere. So I sent them all this email:

Hi folks,

There are two Lorraine Brehenys in the world - what are the chances?!?

This particular Lorraine Breheny, writing to you from this particular hotmail address, enjoys keeping fit; but prefers individual to team sports.

Also I currently live in New Zealand.

So thanks for your invites to play in your team but it's not terribly practical. And think of the carbon footprint! I don't have the email address for the Lorraine Breheny I think you are probably trying to write to. It seems that quite a few of her friends and family have recently acquired mine though!

Best of luck finding an umpire.

Cheers

Lorraine Breheny (well obviously)

Understandably I got a slew of new emails form them apologising and declaring themselves stunned to hear from a second Lorraine Breheny. More surprisingly, a couple of them went on to invite me to come and have a drink with them should I ever be in the UK. One person would even like to become a pen pall or, as she put it, 'email buddy'. Based on my name and a couple of sentences (which in retrospect could be read as being a bit caustic), these people would like to be friends with a second Lorraine Breheny. It seems that one is not enough.

I can understand that.