They call me Lucy
Lucy isn’t my name. It’s not my middle name either. My best friend from high school and I loved Bram Stoker’s Dracula (with Gary Oldman) and during one of our many viewings she became Mina and I became Lucy. Since I already answer to it in real life, it became a natural online handle. Lucy does me very well in online chats, ordering coffee and reserving tables. Everyone knows how to spell it and how to pronounce it whereas Majken fails both of these tests about as hard as a name could fail.
However, I feel a little awkward asking professional contacts to call me Lucy. There’s an odd feeling of deceit to it because it’s not obviously a nickname and the story of how I came to be Lucy is a story best told over drinks, not business. Given my involvement with Mozilla, and my continuing leadership in the Reps program, I feel I’ve come to the point that everyone else does where I need to drop the old gaming/message board nick and start using my real name. Except that won’t work.
They call me Madge-ken
Majken is hard enough to pronounce in real life, let alone to figure out online. Turns out even I was saying it a little wrong. It wasn’t until the early 2000’s when some Swedish friends drunk dialed me that I finally heard my name pronounced correctly. Turns out a Swedish accent is the difference between love and hate (Google’s new Swedish voice incorrectly blends the jk if you don’t include the space). If I start using Majken, I will be forever Madge-ken. This will not do. I can’t stand it, though I don’t blame anyone who calls me that, it’s not your fault!
Funny story, my first GP called me Madge-ken for 12 years. We gave up trying to correct him when I was little and he was a very nice man so I didn’t mind. On my very last appointment with him before we moved away he finally noticed how my grandmother pronounced my name. Needless to say he was mortified, and to this day I feel bad for him.
They call me ???
I need a nickname that’s obviously derived from my real name but is EN readable, but Lucy is the only nickname that has ever stuck. In that sense Majken was a bit of a blessing, try making fun of it! “Bikin’ Majken” was the best the boys in Gr 4 could do. In Gr 7 our class clown was very talented and managed to get to “My Chicken” and “Magic Johnson.” Not very insulting for me, or satisfying for them, so they inevitably moved on to names easier to manipulate. Thankfully any play on Mike is out of the question since mconnor has the Mike Connor market cornered.
Maybe Kensie!
But wait! My name has two syllables! Thanks to the surge of Mackenzies in the world there are some very cute nicknames rooting from “Ken” and I’m going to blatantly appropriate one for myself. As awkward as it is to pick your own nickname, I need one, and Kensie Connor is just way too awesome a name to pass up! I already use Majken for twitter, facebook and my email address, so the transition shouldn’t be too rough. I just wanted to put a background out there and give people a heads up to make it as smooth as possible.
September 3rd, 2012 at 8:15 pm
It should probably also be noted that Kensie has already more or less started to stick… unless I’m being lazy and tab completing on IRC I have started using Kensie. Its a good fit I think, and an awesome name to top it off…
Anyhow… Kensie, start using it on IRC as soon as this hits planet!
September 3rd, 2012 at 9:43 pm
So what is the correct pronunciation of “Majken”?
September 3rd, 2012 at 11:09 pm
But you didn’t once mention how Majken is supposed to be pronounced. The internets being what they are, I had to look it up. These are the first couple of hits which have simple audio players of the name being pronounced:
http://www.forvo.com/word/majken/
http://www.hearnames.com/pronunciations/swedish-names/swedish-girl-names/majken.html
September 3rd, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Click the linked text – “a swedish accent” and then click the listen button under the left box where it says Maj Ken. The links Jim dug up are good as well.
September 4th, 2012 at 5:28 am
I’m glad I’m not alone in having my name… cause confusion, let’s say. I just blame my parents. I’ve tried using the English equivalents (Gilbert) but it’s such an uncommon (and really: silly) name that it hasn’t really worked for me either. So I have simply resigned myself to sometimes having to spend the first 5 minutes of introductions to new people talking about my name.
In general, though, do you object to people calling you Majken if they pronounce it correctly? 🙂
September 4th, 2012 at 10:06 am
I fully understand your concerns about the pronunciation (I have some issues with my last name, although it’s not an alien name in my own country).
And I admit, I had some problems linking Lucy = Majken. At the beginning, I thought they were 2 different persons (I was not very smart, I reckon)…
So, now that it is Kenzie = Majken, it will be much easier for me!
September 4th, 2012 at 12:03 pm
Gijs – your name is pronounced sort of like the french Guy, correct? Those conversations are another reason I go by Lucy and not Majken. At least you and your name are from the same place. After I finish explaining how to say it and spell it, I then have another conversation about how I got the name.
I don’t mind people calling me Majken if they can pronounce it now. It does cause confusion with people who know me by Lucy so that’s another benefit to the switch.
Flore – Glad it’s easier! That means it’s working 🙂
September 4th, 2012 at 5:55 pm
So THAT’S how it’s pronounced! Consider me part of the Madgeken group up to this point 🙁
Gijs – I still remember getting linked to an audio of your name before and never would have guessed that.