Wait a minute man – You mispronounced my name

My name gets mispronounced a lot. I don’t even want to think of the number of times I’ve had to correct people. Growing up. In school. Previous jobs. No one says it right. It’s Kirsten. Yes, like the American Girl. Like Kirsten Dunst. Who incidently also pronounces it like I pronounce my name – despite what you’ve read, seen or heard elsewhere. She was on Leno one time and had the discussion on how people were forever getting her name wrong too.

It’s Scandinavian. I’m not. My Mom just liked the name. But people mispronounce it all the time. I get called Kristen. I get called Kursten. I always tell people – It’s KIR like BEER.

I work in the marketing department. Have since I’ve taken this job. It’s small department. I work pretty closely with everyone in (and some people out of) the department. My big boss (VP of Marketing) is no exception. He’s a nice guy. And bless his heart, he knows that it irks me when people can’t say my name right. However, he is one of those people. He calls me KURsten. Always has. Every day for the past 8 years (well you know what I mean). The funniest part, however, is when he corrects people saying it right. I once heard him correct one of the other VP’s who called me Kirsten .. pronounced it correctly and everything. He corrected her, and told her – No, it’s KURsten. She didn’t say anything to him, but later asked me if maybe she had been saying it wrong all that time. I assured her that no, it wasn’t her that was saying it wrong, that it was him. But he’s trying to do good. He wants people to say it right … if only he knew what the right way was.