What's in a Name?

Mine has eight letters, two repeats. It looks like it should have three syllables but when you say it, it's just two. I've never considered it to be very difficult to spell, say or hear. But since moving here... well, maybe they just do things differently.

Take, for instance, the spelling of my name.  M A R G A R E T. Not hard, right? Wrong. People here get it wrong quite a lot. Margret. Magret. Margrette (which is kind of elegant). But my favorite, and the one that prompted this post, happened this weekend while checking in with a hostess for lunch with the boyfriend. "Name?" she asks. "Margaret" I say. Because that is my name. She looks at me in confusion and I sigh (softly) and spell it for her. "MARGARET." I glance down to see if she's gotten it right and what do I see? "M A R G A R E T T E." Really lady? Like I don't know how to spell my own name? That doesn't even look like it would be pronounced the same as my name! (Side note: My name is pronounced like one of its common misspellings: Mar-Gret.) Mar-gar-et. Too many syllables lady. But, instead of correcting her, I gracefully said, "thank you" and took my little pager thingy. 

But maybe people in Texas aren't named Margaret very often. Because they don't seem to understand what I'm saying. Like the hostess above (also, why do I have the most trouble with hostesses??), she was totally confused about what I was saying. And another hostess when the BF and I were checking in for a delicious breakfast (but I don't go there anymore because of this situation and also because people wear pajamas there. Pajamas are for bed, y'all. Get it together.), asked for my name and when I replied "Margaret," she looked at me and incredulously, and very loudly, asked, "MARKER?!" No lady. My name is NOT Marker. It's Margaret. So then most of the lobby is looking at me and probably thinking the same thing as the hostess, "who names their child Marker?!" While markers are a fun and colorful writing implement, it's not my name. 


Anyways, my boyfriend rescued the situation (i.e. stopped me from loudly telling her that she should listen up and do her job because it's not that hard, all you have to do is listen for names and what does that say about you that you can't even get my simple name right, etc.) by calmly giving his name instead. The pancakes and coffee were good but between the pajamas and my new name, I'd written it off.