It has just occurred to me that naming my website after my name may have been a short-sited mistake. Not because I dislike my name--on the contrary I like it very much--or because I want the oh-so-sweet delight of anonymity--the whole point of this site is to promote me as a writer after all. No, the reason why I may have chosen poorly is because now I wonder how many people out there will attempt to come here by writing: isaiachadwick.com, isaihchadwick.com, siaiahchadwick.com, or even (and I'm serious) isaacchadwick.com.
You see, while I have a very historically rich and unique name (pretty much the only time I ever have the feeling "are they talking to me?" is when I'm in church), I've also had a name that has strangely been very difficult to remember/pronounce/spell. Not that I can blame anyone, it's almost unfair with how many vowels I have (they outnumber consonants two-to-one!), so it's not to hard to figure out why it constantly happens. I'll prove it: quick, without looking, write down my name and see if you get it right... did you? If not, don't feel bad, you are by far not alone, if you did... Thank you! You have single-handedly restored my faith in humanity!
I want to say that maybe three of the countless times I've spoken with customer service have they said my name right before I told them how it was spelled. It's not just over the phone either, Isaiah is occasionally a hard name to remember. I've had times where I tell someone my name and almost immediately, they call me something else. Other times, long family friends slip and call me something else about half the time they talk to me. Not that I mind, I learned when I was quite young "Yeah, they're probably talking to me, I'll just answer." As a result, I've had a few very amusing moments in my life. Such as the one time when a coworker--who I had worked fairly closely with for several weeks--questioned my other coworkers: "Why do you keep calling Jeremiah 'Isaiah'?"
I've actually grown fond of all of my names--and if I ever need an alias, I have a plethora of material. I associate my name "Izzy" with the time I spent in Australia and New Zealand, even though "Zay" has almost always been my nickname. When I was working for the California Conservation Corps, I developed about 13 different names; many of them were a joke, but I still counted them. They even put most of them on a birthday cake once.
After saying all that, I'm interested to see how this whole website with my name thing pans out.
How about you? What is the most arbitrary name you've been called by and how did you react? Want to hear some more of the nicknames I had growing up? Respond in the comments!
Image Source: https://bellissimanh.wordpress.com/2014/06/27/hello-my-name-is/