It's B-R-I-T-T-A-N-Y

Does anyone else have a name that is constantly misspelled or flat-out massacred?  Rarely does anyone spell my name correctly anymore, and mine is the original spelling—not some made-up version of the province in France.  Brittany was established in 1532 as a province in France, and it is one of the 6 Celtic nations.  It is supposed to be a beautiful place, and it isn’t called Britney, Brittney, Brittnay, BrittKNEE, or my favorite, B-R-I-D-N-E-Y?  Bridney?  There is no D.  Since when is there a D?  That’s disgusting.  I don't even care if someone spells it wrong as long as it resembles my name, but inventing new sounds within the name?  Blughhhhhhh.  For example, I know a woman who spells my name "Brittney" over and over, and after two years of emailing her and signing my name on forms, she still spells it incorrectly and I don't even care because I don't revere myself enough.  It's not like I think I'm important enough for anyone to care, I just mainly hate what my name has become and that's what I am griping about. 

 

I am actually old for being named Brittany, and a result of that is that I was the only Brittany in my class, even my school when I was a little girl. It was sort of an unusual name back then, in the old days.  Ha ha. Actually, I remember when the Chipettes were popular; I was so excited and loved Brittany (the chipmunk) because I never saw anyone with my name—but it wasn’t spelled B-R-I-D-N-E-Y.  Lindsey’s friend’s mom is maybe 10 years older than me and she once said “I can’t believe that I have a friend named Brittany” and laughed.  I told her that I was old for a Brittany, she agreed.  Anyway, it’s sort of a young, goofy, cocktail-waitressy name now, and I find myself wishing that my mom would’ve given me my middle name as my first, Elizabeth. 

It doesn’t really matter though; no one calls me by my name anyway,  no one ever really has.  It’s either “Mommy”, “Baby” or “Brit” these days and I am perfectly fine with that.  My mom is one of the few people who actually call me Brittany and it’s only when she’s mad at me.  She says “Brit-t-a-ny Eliz-a-beth…..”  pronouncing every syllable, and she calls me "Britty" when she likes me.  Actually, now that I think about it, the only time that Don calls me Brittany is when he's angry with me.  That's sort of funny.  I’m "Brit" to all of my friends, "Britter Critter" to my grandpa, "Beetle" to my dad, and "Bert" to my step-dad.  I thought it was funny, in college, even my professors called me "Brit" unless they were calling roll. 

Here are some pictures of Brittany, France.  It is so pretty!  Can you imagine living somewhere so picturesque? 

Speaking of names, why do girls steal boy names for their little girls?  Carson is a boy name, and yet there are a lot of little girls being given that name.  And Dylan?  What about Dylan McKay from 90210?  Didn't he pretty much seal that as a DUDE name?  But that's been stolen as well.  I had a friend say that she was going to name her little girl (in the future) Dylan, when Dylan was about two weeks old.  It irritated me.  Names are important and they change with time, which is why it's scary to name your kid!