Hi! My name is.. (what?) My name is.. (who?) My name is.. [scratches] Slim Shady Lilly Hi! My name is.. (huh?) My name is.. (what?) My name is.. [scratches] Slim Shady Lilly

Ahem.. excuse me! Can I have the attention of the class for one second?

Eminem lyrics aside, I do have to make this statement, and I hate making it.

My name is Lilly.

It’s not spelled Lily.

Why?

The name Lilly is derived from an old character name (Lilliana) that I used in an MMORPG game. I was frequently called Lilli for short, but in the aspect of visual appeal I changed the ‘i’ to a ‘y’ for blogging. Since the flower, lily, is the more common spelling of the name I get a lot of people who incorrectly spell my name that way (despite Lilly being part of my domain name).

So – it’s Lilly, 3 ‘L’s, a nickname for Lilliana. Now you know!

I hate to admit, but it does bother me when people misspell my name, especially over and over again. In my signature for my blog email address, I use my name. “Lilly” is part of my email address and my domain name. It’s all over the blog, in fact! The way I see it, when people don’t care to take the 3 seconds to note the spelling of my name, I feel it’s a sign of disrespect in a way. In a text-based world where our on-screen writing is so much of who we are….it’s really an issue of identity to have your name spelled correctly. No, Lilly isn’t my real (birth) name. But it IS my online name, it is what I answer to in so many facets now…..that I feel I need to correct. I feel I shouldn’t need to correct, given that if they are spelling my name right in typing in my email address/blog address/twitter name, they should therefore spell just “Lilly” correct if they give half a crap.

Strangers, the first time they misspell, fine. That’s ok. But for people I interact with weekly via Twitter and blog comments? It’s becoming unacceptable. For the first and only time and place for many of us, we have gotten to choose our name. I chose it. Won’t you take the time to notice and spell it properly?

Am I wrong for being bothered? I’ve actually gone so far as to turn down form-letter requests for a link exchange solely because they couldn’t get my name right. But yet….if it’s someone I “know”, I won’t outright correct them. I don’t know why I haven’t. But I think I will, from here on out. Gently, nicely, at least the first time ;)