I think everyone hates having their name misspelled. People have given up on Starbucks where even spelling Bob becomes an adventure. Strangers are going to make mistakes, in particular, if your name is spelt slightly different than what you commonly see, such as Karyn, Caryn or Caron. Some names have more than one common version, such Steven and Stephen. I realize that’s the case with Willie and Willy. But once you get to know a person, shouldn’t you learn to spell their name correctly?

I know I’m up against two well known literary characters – Willy Wonka in Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Willy Loman in Arthur Miller’s 1949 award winning play Death of a Salesman. It’s frustrating when you send an email from the account “williehandler@gmail.com” and sign off with Willie only to get a response that starts off with “Hi Willy”. The last person I corrected just continued using Willy so I gave up correcting people.

But I’m neither Willy Loman or Willy Wonka. Just Willie Handler. 🙂