#GrowingUpWithMyName is for anyone with an unusual name

| Jun 30, 2016

Andrea is not a fancy name. It has six letters and two of them are the same. It should not cause difficulty.

And yet I've answered to André, Adrienne, Ondré and Adrianna on more occasions that I'd like to admit. Is it pronounced Andraya, Andria or Ondraya? At this point, I don't even know any more. I'm not even sure that I care. And Biology class was great craic the day we learned that anything beginning with 'andr' is male, deriving from the Greek root. It's no wonder that sometimes people expect to meet an Italian man and are confused when presented with my blonde and female noggin instead.

My closest friends call me Andi which is fine until you understand that my Dad's name is Andrew and he is often referred to as Andy. Yes, that i/y differentiation is handy when it's in written form but when the landline would ring and someone would ask for Andi/Andy, it was quite the game of matching the caller's voice to the owner of the name. I've spoken to the builder about fascia and soffit more than once, and my poor father probably had to endure some teenage shrieking until he realised he wasn't the required Andi/Andy.

#GrowingUpWithMyName has been trending on Twitter for the last few days and highlights why everyone should either be called Mary or John. And even then, there'd be issues in Starbucks.

Here are ten of the top tweets from people in nomenclature pain.

And if you have an unusual name, do share with us. It'd make André the Man Woman very happy indeed.

me: no. i do not have siblings named after the other 6 colors of the rainbow#GrowingUpWithMyName

— Blue (@vann_lim) June 29, 2016

#GrowingUpWithMyName the chances that you'll get hit by a car are higher than a barista at Starbucks writing it right

— Zojë (@isthatzoje) June 29, 2016

#GrowingUpWithMyName "is there a jasmine here? , just say my name?, Jerusalem?, jucinnamon? Jesse-man?

Me: we're all here. ?

— Jesimein (@Jesimein) June 29, 2016

Advertised

#GrowingUpWithMyName never finding my name on any of these pic.twitter.com/v1iavRRvBB

— i feel like (@heyifeellike) June 29, 2016

#GrowingUpWithMyName "So how's Shrek doing?"

— Fiona Teilborg (@FTeilborg) June 29, 2016

#GrowingUpWithMyName

"Haha hey Victoria.... What's your secret?"

— VRGB (@VictooriaRenee) June 29, 2016

#GrowingUpWithMyName "how do you say your last name?" pic.twitter.com/BtRCVfJjDQ

— Lance (@Lance_vongurben) June 29, 2016

#GrowingUpWithMyName "how do you say your name again" "Can I just call you something else" "Can I call you Shakira"

— Shakurry (@TheShakurry) June 29, 2016