Usually, we hear stories from people with weird names about how hard it is to live with a name like theirs. But, apparently, people are getting so used to strange names that “normal” ones make them distraught. 

Today’s story is one of these cases. A woman with a common name angered a pharmacist who tried to spell it oddly. And, well, after being called out for having a normal name, the woman came to Reddit to vent. And she found out that this kind of occurrence isn’t so rare.

It seems that certain common names seem weird to some people nowadays

Image credits: Anna Shvets (not the actual photo)

A woman went to the pharmacy to get her prescription, and she gave her name and didn’t think there would be any trouble

Image credits: Tim Douglas (not the actual photo)

But then, the pharmacist decided to spell her name unusually and got mad at the woman that her name was spelled in a common way

Today’s OP told her story in the subreddit r/tragedeigh, which is, according to its description, meant to discuss names that have been deliberately misspelled or made to appear unique. Interestingly, this author’s story is about the exact opposite thing — a normally spelled name. Or being scolded for having one, to be more specific. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. 

One day, the author went to the pharmacy to pick up her prescription. Typically, when picking up prescriptions, people need to give certain details of the person who the medicine is for: name, date of birth, phone number, etc. 

So, the woman gave her name. She noted that hers is a very commonly used one and has a traditional spelling. As an example, she gave the name Chloe, even though it isn’t her real name. 

That’s where the pharmacist started to struggle. For about a minute, she fought with the checkout machine, likely trying to find a prescription under the name. But the search wasn’t successful, and she turned to the OP, asking her to spell the name. 

The woman told her how it was spelled, which caused the pharmacist to lash out. Apparently, she was trying to spell the name with a K instead of a C. So, as an example, instead of Chloe, which is a more common spelling, she tried to spell Khloe. So, she lost her cool because, apparently, it wasted so much of her time. Remember how we said she struggled for like a minute? Well, that’s a lot of time for her. 

We could say that this pharmacist fell victim to the weird name “epidemic.” As we mentioned in the beginning, there’s a whole subreddit dedicated to these kinds of names, but the situation is actually way bigger than that. 

Back in the day, parents were driven by tradition and conformity while naming their children, which resulted in many people having names like John, William, and other similar ones. In fact, in the 1600s, the top three names for boys and girls accounted for half of England’s population. 

Today, way fewer people feel the need to conform to traditions. In 1950, more than 30% of boys were given a top-10 name. Then, in 2007, less than 10% of boys were given a name from that list. Quite a drastic change, isn’t it? 

Yet, the drastic change is not only percentage-wise but also name-uniqueness-wise. Parents are way braver when it comes to baby names. We might say that, in some cases, they are too brave. For example, in 2015 in France, it was forbidden to name a kid Nutella. Yes, someone tried to name a baby after the chocolate and hazelnut dessert brand. 

Image credits: Karolina Kaboompics (not the actual photo)

The name was denied because the judge felt that it might result in the mockery of a child. Well, that’s a valid thought. After all, a name is one of the things that construct a person’s identity, both in their own mind and socially. 

People tend to make snap judgments about each other, and names are one of the things that can create that judgment. So, in a way, naming a kid with an overly unique name can have quite many negative repercussions. 

Another result of this “epidemic” is that people are getting used to weird names, which results in situations just like the one today’s OP experienced. Yet, it’s way harder to decide whether it’s a good or bad outcome. 

On the one hand, we could say that people are getting more tolerant of each other. After all, the world we live in is very diverse and that people are learning to tolerate this fact is surely a great thing. 

Yet, others, just like the pharmacist in today’s story, are getting too comfortable with these unique names. This results in traditionally named people getting basically bullied for no reason. And that’s an extreme we shouldn’t go to. 

That’s what people in the comments under the OP’s post thought, too. Many of them also revealed that the described situation was very relatable to them, as they also have a name that tends to get some unique spellings and cause trouble for them. 

This just proves that while this story isn’t the most joyous thing for a person to experience, it might be more common than we think. And what’s even more infuriating is that it can all be avoided by simply asking people how their names are spelled instead of trying some odd variations. After all, just like that cliche saying goes – communication is key, isn’t it?

So, the woman vented about it on Reddit, where many people shared that they had experienced similar scenarios

Image credits: energepic.com (not the actual photo)