What's In A Name?

I don’t normally use real names in this blog, but in this instance they are relevant.

I have always used my maiden name (Boyd), as a woman changing her surname on marriage is an English convention not law. Although school and other receptionists always assume a mother has the same surname as a child; I've given up correcting them as a pointless exercise.

From Facebook Archives.

25 October 2013 at 11:15 

Letter this morning from Adult Social Care with my surname spelled incorrectly; which makes a change as it's usually Eyre that gets misspelled.

My old boss Alan Twelftree (who kept a file of misspellings of his surname) will understand - 

and remember the time I received a media-pack addressed to Glenda Boyle.

His response was "I'm not sure I'd have given you the job if you were called Glenda Boyle"

If I ever write a bodice-ripper it's going to be my nom-de-plume.

Ayre, Aire, Air

Despite it being part of the title of one of the most important novels of the nineteenth century few people spell it correctly.

“Eyre, as in Jane” I will say to blank looks from doctors’ and schools’ receptionists.

“Eyre with an Ee” sometimes works, only in the North East E and A frequently sound the same.

I’ve taken to saying “Echo Yankee Romeo Echo” in the hope they recognise the Nato phonetic alphabet.

As to my forename (Brenda) I’ve had Barbara since childhood, Wendy and, memorably twice in as many weeks, Beryl.