Pretentious, moi?

[BradNaylor]

I took an order for a bookcase a while ago from a young lady who lived in a smart flat on the posh side of town. She said that she worked in the fashion industry - she was all 'Donatella this' and 'Stella that'.

She paid me a small deposit in cash and gave her surname as 'Balami'. At least that's how I wrote it down because she rhymed it with 'salami'. I took it to be an Italian name.

A few weeks later I delivered the bookcase and she paid me the balance with a cheque. It was only when I was paying it in the bank later that I noticed her name.

Bellamy. :lol:


The spirit of Hyacinth Bucket lives on!

Dan

 

[Steve Maskery]

I've had my name spelled loads of different ways:

Maskery, Maskrey, Maskerry, Mascurry, Mascurrie, Maskelly, Masquerie...


... but my favourite is my "real" ancestral name. There is a direct line from me back to 1285 when Henri de Masacrier is recorded as selling meat in Nottingham Castle.

So we've not moved very far at all in 700-odd years!

Cheers
Steve

 

[maltrout512]

Nice one Dan. Steve all these years you kept your age secret, and now it's out of the bag. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[mailee]

WOW! Steve, you are wearing well then. :lol:
I think some people get a little embarrassed when they try to say my name as a lot of them pronounce it Whiley instead of Willey.

 

[Karl]

Nice one Dan.

A few years ago me n the missus used to live in Knutsford. I placed an order with some mail order company, and gave my post code and house number for delivery. Confirming my address, the lady on the phone said "Ok, so that's 1 John Street, Kuntsford........... Oh dear, I can't believe I just said that". I nearly wet myself laughing :lol:

Cheers

Karl

 

[filsgreen]

You should try having Greenough for a surname, so many interpretations and ways people spell it. Sometimes I wish I had taken my wife's maiden name Jones when we were married

Phil

 

[BradNaylor]

Nice one Dan.

A few years ago me n the missus used to live in Knutsford. I placed an order with some mail order company, and gave my post code and house number for delivery. Confirming my address, the lady on the phone said "Ok, so that's 1 John Street, Kuntsford........... Oh dear, I can't believe I just said that". I nearly wet myself laughing :lol:

Cheers

Karl

Nice place, Knutsford; although one or two of its residents that I have encountered suggest that the lady on the phone might have had a point!

:lol:

Dan

 

[RogerS]

I gave my name over the telephone to a company and when asked for my initial said 'It's R for Roger'.

Yup...the letter came duly addressed to Arthur Roger.........

 

[PowerTool]

At work a couple of years ago,we had someone who always opened his phone calls with "Hello,I'm calling from United Transport.." - on more than one occassion,I've had people ring back and ask to speak to Colin.. :lol:

Andrew

 

[woodbloke]

Funny name threads come up from time to time and are always good. The best one I heard was one of my daughter's school mates was named Lyndsey Death...her mother was a medical GP....

Dr Death 8-[ - Rob

 

[Steve Maskery]

I bet she pronounced it de'Ath.

I would.
S

 

[Smudger]

At school we had prefects called De'Ath, O'Nions and Chin. True...

 

[BradNaylor]

I think I've mentioned before my old mate at college **** Balls.


And no, he didn't have a sister called Ophelia!

Dan

 

[Steve Maskery]

Who remembers Minder? If you don't, you probably remember the name Arthur Daley. In one of the stories, Arthur walks past an undertakers'. The company name? You guessed it, de'Ath. Oh how we laughed.

I've never understood how Ferneyhough can be pronounced Fanshaw.

 

[RogerS]

Couple more stories.

The German company Siemens had a company policy of answering the telephone with the company and its' location. As in Siemens Dusseldorf, Siemens Manchester. The receptionist at their office in Staines refused to follow company policy.

Years ago, at the BBC Training department near Evesham, as it was spread over a very large site there was a tannoy system for contacting people whenever there was an incoming telephone call for them. The standard announcement went along the lines of 'Calling Mr Smith...Mr R Smith'. Whenever a new girl joined the reception staff, we'd ring in to the training department and ask to speak to Peter Niss. :lol:

 

[Steve Maskery]

I used to work (well, yes, I used to work) for a computer company. It was in an old country manor house and the company provided lunch as the nearest shops were miles away. We had visitors from all over the world, and the MD didn't like the tannoy message going out "Lunch is ready, come and get it". So we had a code: "John Brookes, contact reception please, John Brookes".

And so the inevitable happened. We had a service engineer called John Brookes.

As for winding up reception staff, we would sometimes have many overseas visitors at the same time, particularly when we had International Agents courses. The place was overrun by strangers talking in funny accents, and some non-Americans too.

One day the Germans (who said they don't have a sense of humour?) asked for one of their colleagues to be paged. Then another. And another. The receptionist duly obliged. It was lost on me, but most of the other guys were falling about laughing as she was paging the complete German World Cup football squad.

And finally, one of the very popular ladies in the company went off to have a baby, and a few weeks later she brought him in to show off. We knew she was coming, and so she was greeted by a tannoy message "David Smith contact reception please David Smith". and a round of applause. David was a month old and I think Liz was in tears before she'd seen anyone!

S

 

[BradNaylor]

Years ago, at the BBC Training department near Evesham, as it was spread over a very large site there was a tannoy system for contacting people whenever there was an incoming telephone call for them. The standard announcement went along the lines of 'Calling Mr Smith...Mr R Smith'. Whenever a new girl joined the reception staff, we'd ring in to the training department and ask to speak to Peter Niss. :lol:

We got a new girl to make the tannoy announcement;

'Message for Don Kiddick. Mike Hunt is ready and waiting for you in reception.'

:lol:

Dan

 

[Digit]

Never had name trouble but a supplier once asked me where Wales was!

Roy.

 

[brianhabby]

You can call me what you like, as long as you don't call me too early in the morning

regards

Brian

 

[filsgreen]

When I left school I worked in a bread factory and was amazed at how popular "Judy Fitter" was; she was always being paged. Well you can guess who they were really paging #-o

Phil