Is your surname holding you back?
Having a surname that starts at with a letter toward the end of the alphabet hasn't been a problem for the Windsors. But does alphabet discrimination exist? Are you more likely to be successful if your surname starts with A, B or C?
Sheila Wicks' grandson came home from primary school and said his turn to read to the teacher would be Friday. Sheila's heart sank. She writes:
"I've noticed that my children and grandchildren have often 'drawn the short straw' because their surname comes at the end of the alphabet. This ranges from
* reading to the teacher at infant school and almost any other activity in school
* being interview for whatever reason at the end of a long day
* being at the end of any allocation list such as having the worst room in the college hall
* clubs, etc. already being full before they come to your name
* last on the list of business placement agencies"
She also sent this article in the Daily Telegraph (2007).
Sound familiar? Always finding yourself at the back of the queue? Or has your surname helped you? Are you a teacher or agency worker who works alphabetically down the register or spreadsheet list of names? Perhaps you've done research in this area?
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- "There have been no comments made here yet."
Just to note that blockquote doesn't work in these "new look" blogs, but that there is an alternative way to offset quoted material:To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion! "
It involves invoking a list element:
<ul><li><i>
"placing the quoted material
and closing the list element:"
</i></li></ul>
helpful hints
;-)
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If this really is a problem, perhaps Microsft should introduce a 'randomise' tool in Excel's 'Sort' options to the alphabetical ascending/descending choices..
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I found this to be true. In fact I felt so strongly about this I married up from W to A. But our son complains - he is always called first at school. oh well.
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Friend who worked in publishing said, if you are an author, it is far better to have a surname at the beginning of the alphabet because when people browse for a book in a bookshop, they inevitably start at 'A'.
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I have double-barrelled surname. When I was young, some things were under my full name (like the doctors) but I was signed up to school with a shortened version of the surname. This caused some confusion with the tax people when I entered the wunnerful world of work, and I was still shortening my name as an adult. So when I was 18, I decided to 'come out' fully as a double-barrelled surname holder. It is what is on my birth certificate and rather than have to explain this away every time, and try to remember which name was being used, I went for the name I could prove I had actually had.
There has been no particular advantage or disadvantage with this surname, except for people obviously thinking I'm going to come from a posh background. This idea is contradicted as soon as I open my gob :-)
Sometimes it's a bit wearisome having to spell out the whole long name, when using a credit card over the phone, or some such. And I still use the short version when booking a table for dinner or booking a taxi, when it's just a throwaway-identifier.
Since I'm female, I could choose to marry out of this lumbering name, if so worried, however, my long term partner also has a double-barrelled name!
Whilst doing some family history, it has become apparent that both our double-barrelled names only actually came with a hyphen on our fathers' birth certificates in the 1930s. My partner's double-barrelled name is something that can easily be strung together all in one word, so that seems to be how they were known before the 1930s. Indeed some branches of his family still use it strung together into one word. Whereas with mine, the first name in the string was used as a middle name, for both men and women. The last name was the name by which many of them were known in the census. Things only become clear as to family membership when the names get strung together from the 1930s.
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I can quite understand Mrs Wick's frustration for her children.
I am a Brit. living in Italy but I think the problem is a global one.
I remember one of my sons waiting all day long for exam results at university but when they finally appeared they only took in the first part of the alphabet. Being an 'R' he had to return the following day to wait for the remaining names.
My other son tells me that when he was at school they had quite a good method for resolving the alphabetical interrogatory problem. Letters of the alphabet were written on scraps of paper and put into a cardboard box from which only one would be drawn. The interrogations would then evolve from there. For example, if a 'P' were to be drawn it would be 'P' to 'Z' and then 'A' to 'O'.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
I couldn't agree more! Why do you think people choose to call their company "AAA taxis", rather than "Zebra cars"? Because they know most of us don't bother to look through the whole list of names in the phone book. I think the topic deserves some proper research: after all, we take sex discrimination and racial discrimination seriously, why not alphabeticalism?
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I'm glad I'm not the only one who see's this, while in the bottom 5 of the alphabetical order, its always been a challenge for me to find out why I was getting the short straw.
When I asked if it was done on an alphabetical system people would always say, no of course not, but would be unable to tell me how they did go through the selection process.
I think it happens allot and people don't want to readily admit it!
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I totally agree that having a name which starts with a letter at the end of the alphabet is a real pain. I was so glad when I married and changed to a J from a W. I was nearly always last to be called when I was at school, which sometimes meant that I was stuck out in the cold playground while eveyone else went in before me.
It has been brilliant being J as I get to go near the middle. A definite case of discrimination!
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I used to have a quirky surname - Crump. Mail would arrive addressed to Mrs.Crimp, Cramp, Grump, Grunt and even Crunt. When giving my name over the phone, it wasn't unusual to hear muffled laughter in the background. And the gentlemen of the postroom in the large organization where I worked would carefully add "et" to envelopes which arrived for me, thus making my name into "Crumpet". Did it hold me back? No, I don't think so, in fact I think it was an advantage because although people thought the name was funny, they remembered it, and it never hindered promotion. However, I was most relieved to relinquish the name when I divorced!
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I agree with Mrs Wicks
I was a W until I married and became a G and it does make a difference. At school I was always 'last' in the line for everything from being last on the register to last on any lists put up, always in alphabetic order. It left me with a feeling that I was not 'worthy' to be 'top of the list'!!
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I might have been able to count myself lucky living in Italy as a married women having the possibility of using either my married or maiden name indiscriminatly. Unfortunately my maiden name begins with 'S' and my married name begins with 'R' so there is no appreciable diversity.
Being towards the end of a list can build up tension. If you are taking part in a musical or poetry contest you will probably be able to hear how the others are performing. If you consider them to be perhaps better than you are it might not help you psychologically to be able to do your best when it eventually becomes your turn.
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