Ever since we were small, our family name (Tenefrancia) was always misspelled by people. The most common misspelling was Peñafrancia (after Our Lady of Peñafrancia) and it became a family pet peeve of sorts that we constantly had to spell out our name….until my Mom discovered a better way to deal with the situation.
She decided to take up a collection of all possible variations of our family name — misspelled — and turned it into a hobby.
By last count, I think she has assembled several hundred variations, including, would you believe…TONY FRANCIA!!!! And whenever she did an enumeration of new findings, we got such good laughs out of them. Believe it or not, she’s still going at it up to today.
Well, my married name now (Uymatiao) isn’t exactly the easiest or the shortest either. Once again, I am spelling and spelling and spelling. There are days when it does get to you and I just say to people especially in stores: “It’s JANE UY!!!” Now THAT they spell correctly immediately!
One day, years ago, I got an envelope from my Mom. She had sorted out used envelopes I had passed on to her for recycling and she painstakingly cut out all those which were misspelled. I remembered all the kicks we got out of her odd hobby so when I got those cut-out envelope labels with my own misspelled married name, I simply continued from where she left off. So here goes my list as of now. PLDT takes the cake for being the WORST speller!
1. Mrs. Jane E. Uymetiao (envelope from IRRI)
2. Ms. Mary Jane Uymatias (letter from a childhood friend)
3. G. Ugmatiao (name tag-ugggh!!!)
4. Mr. Jeffrey Uymachiao
5. Mr. & Mrs. Geoffrey Uy-matiao (nope, NO HYPHEN please!)
6. Oy matiaw (receipt from Savory Restaurant- HELLOOOO! Who would name their kid Oy!)
7. G. Diumateo (PLDT bill-ha?)
8. G Uymatel (PLDT bill – maybe they thought of Bayantel, no?)
9. E. Uymateo (PLDT bill)
10. G Matiao (PLDT bill)
11. J Yumatiao (PLDT bill)
12. G Uy Matias (PLDT bill)
13. U Ymatiao (PLDT bill)
14. J Uymapiao (PLDT bill)
15. Y Tiao (PLDT bill – come again????)
16. R Uy Matiao (PLDT bill – not 2 words; one word!)
17. J Yumadiao (PLDT bill)
18. J Tuimaeio (PLDT bill – grabe, pinahirapan pa niya!)
19. G Uy Matao (PLDT bill)
20. G Imacho (PLDT bill- sus!)
21. G Oymatiao (PLDT bill)
22. G Uymachao (PLDT bill)
23. G Alimachao (PLDT bill- *sigh*)
24. Jane T. Uymattad (from a stamp club)
25. Mr. & Mrs. Geoffray L. Uymatio (Catholic daily digest)
26. Mr. & Mrs. Geoffrey Uy Matiao (again….just one word please!)
27. Ms. Mary Jane T. Uymatyao (letter from a relative in the USA)
28. Mr. Geoffrey Mymatiao (letter from friend- ok lang, friends parin kami)
29. Ms. Jane Uymatia (hey, who dropped the last letter???)
30. Geoffrey L. Uymariao
31. Jane Uymattiao (from a friend – 1 too many T’s, my friend!)
32. Jane Uy Madiao (Reader’s Digest label)
So there! My own oddball collection of our misspelled name. Ha ha.
Have you ever had your name terribly misspelled? Be thankful if your last name is Go, Dy, Ong, Tan, Lim or something like that.
Abangan ang mga updates….kung meron pa…
(Updates)
1. Machao (on a bottled water receipt) – April 2008