lets throw the whole thing out? NO!

My name is Kristin. Not Kristen, Kristan, Kirsten, Kristyn (really?!) or most recently Kristian.

I have investigated the reasoning behind this “constant incorrectly spelling Kristin wrong” Phenomenon for about 23 years, and I have come up with the following solution: Kristin is stuck in between mainstream and unique.

Explain? Surely.

Mary, Alex and Annie are mainstream names (and beautiful names at that!) I have never seen Mary spelled any other way besides the traditional m.a.r.y. When an individual named Mary introduces herself to people, or signs an email as “Mary,” the other parties involved automatically know how to spell her name, simply because there is truly only one way to spell it, and it is a common, simple word to spell. Conclusion: People named Mary, Alex, or Annie never received cards, emails, or any other love notes with their names spelled incorrectly.

Siobhan, Esther, and Sequoia are unique names, meaning that others take note of their original and uncommon names. Usually when an individual has a unique name such as Siobhan, others take particular interest in spelling their names correctly in daily, common communication. There are two reasons behind my “people take more notice at unique names” theory: the first is that people do so to be polite, and show the Sequoia that while her name is unique, they have taken the time to learn the proper spelling behind their interesting name. The second is that they truly don’t know how to spell it correctly, so in an effort to avoid the awkward “Hi There” email introduction, they have taken the time to either copy/paste Sequoia’s name from her signature, or double check that they have spelled it correctly. Conclusion: people named Siobhan, Esther, and Sequoia never received cards, emails, or any other love notes with their names spelled incorrectly.

Us Kristins are a rare breed, but not rare enough for others to take notice. I throw Kristin in with other tweeners such as K[C]atheri[y]ne, Al[l]i[y]son, Bri[y]an, and other not too common, but variously spelled names. Our names are commonly misspelled because they are recognizable in the signature of emails, however, not unrecognizable enough for a closer, second look. Other people are confident they are able to spell our names correctly, solely because they have seen them before, but fail to think about subtle spelling variations that completely change our name. These various spellings are lost in transition during typical daily communication, and while they may be retained when reading an email, small variations are lost in transition from the signature to new salutation. Same goes for posting on various social networking websites.

Once you misspell Kristin, you might as well call me Gertrude, as it is just as different as Kristen is. Tomato, tomahto? Not in this case.

My name is Kristin.