I have one of the country's top 20 most popular last names. At some point when I was growing up, I decided that would change someday: I was going to marry someone with a unique last name.
K's last name is definitely unique. In fact, when I was verifying the popularity of my last name, I couldn't even find K's in the top 18,000 surnames in the country.
Not long after we started dating, I had to ask him how it was pronounced. I've told my family and close friends plenty of times what his last name is, but they have a hard time remembering it. When I called my mom after K proposed, she asked me again what my last name would be. "I know people will be asking me, so I'll have to make sure I'm saying it right," she said.
I said K's last name, and I spelled it out for her. K started spelling it phonetically, so I jumped ahead, since I knew what he was going to say. But I was wrong.
K's last name has a T in it that I'd always pronounced. It's silent. Whoops.
I guess it's better to find that out moments after you get engaged than it would be to find out moments after you'd signed the marriage license!
7 comments:
That's hilarious. It's definitely important to know how to say your soon to be last name! My maiden name is one that most people try to add an "s" onto, even though there isn't one. I got so tired of correcting people that I was so excited to have my husband's more unique last name. However, I've found that it's quite a pain to spell it out everytime. Probably would have been better to just let people put an s on my maiden name!
That? Is too funny.
Too bad we were never in the weird-last-name club at the same time. And friend, I don't miss it. But I guess it's better if you're marrying into it. At least you kind of had a choice to take the new weird last name. If, you know, you were the kind of gal who chooses her guy based on last name.
At any rate, I always took comfort in the fact that my old last name was the most popular last name in Germany, by far. It also meant governor of the county, or, in lay terms, king of the hill. That's what I told the kids in first grade when they called me Frankenbooger, anyway.
WAIT! WAIT!
Oh. My. Gosh. Damn those stupid caches. I bet I've visited your site a MILLION times since Hawaii, and I always thought you hadn't updated.
And then, I got a wild hair and hit "refresh". And then you were suddenly talking about your last name changing.
And I was all: Wha? DID HE PROPOSE?
And then I scrolled down to see what you had written. And guess what! HE PROPOSED!
wheeeeeee!
I'm sorry I'm such a moron. But I'm terribly excited for you!
Ohhh Jes, you are so far behind. You need a news aggrigator or add the feeds to My.yahoo.
But on the name ...
My last name is long and can be spelled a ton of ways. My wife learned quickly how hard it would be and not to get upset. She took her school picture after we married and they spelled her last name incorrectly in the annual. She was frustrated. I told her, "get used to it, it will happen a lot. Welcome to the family."
~Jef
I LEAVE FOR ONE WEEK AND ALL THiS FANTASTIC STUFF HAPPENS, GEEEEZ!!!! I'm sooooo excited and happy for you and k. i'm still catching up on all of the story, but i had to comment right away. so happy for you!
I am just ready to have a short last name. Haha
hee hee hee - too funny that you were pronouncing K's last name wrong this whole time. You'll look back on that in 30 years and totally giggle. :)
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