Even worse to me is when people from other countries with long or “unusual” names will introduce themselves as “Mary” or “Bob”! I understand they must be frustrated having to repeat their name 20 times and dealing with numbnuts, but even with my ever-popular boring first name, I take pride in it and always introduce myself using my full first name. I remember meeting someone from India and pronouncing his name correctly. I took the 5 seconds to look at the letters in his name, said his name, and asked if I pronounced it correctly. He said “yes” and proceeded to tell me to call him “Bob”.

P.S. “Surya” is a great name!

A: I always knew how to pronounce your name.

B. I think Frankie Suits thinks you actually ARE a contestant on American Idol now

Too bad the guy couldn’t sing. I don’t personally watch the show but I guess if he was like the best guy on the show, that it wouldn’t be so bad. If people were comparing you with Shahrukh Khan, well , that may not be so bad, unless of course you took it as they were implying you were some happy-go-lucky actor type, and you wanted to cast yourself more as a serious and ambitious energetic business professional. Probably a Verghese Kurien comparison would be more flattering in that case.

On the first point, consider how many times I’ve had the following exchange (and my name is English/white-bred!):

Me: … and my last name is Pine. That’s P-I-N-E, like the tree.

The Moron: Klein? Jordan Klein?

Me: (in my head) Have you ever head of a [expletive deleted] Klein tree!

On the second point, I think people are generally disinterested when it comes to other cultures. You and I are different, being alumni of a certain diversity school. But most people, whatever their background, only care to know about their culture (if even) and just enough about other people’s cultures to get by. It’s like trying to explain to most people that there really is a difference between Japanese and Chinese people. Or getting them to understand that “Spanish” is not a catch-all description for people who speak Spanish; it really only applies to people from Spain.

Tying these two things together: When presented with something that requires some effort and thought, people’s lack of curiosity and intellectual laziness causes them to reach for whatever is mentally convenient and just go with that. As if getting just the first letter of your name right is somehow ‘close enough.’

When presented with this, you should do what I do: Nonchalantly and intentionally get the person’s name wrong in return.

Ron (aka The Moron): Well, nice meeting you Justin!

Me: You too, Rick!