Nobody has ever called me Simon
Jul. 20th, 2009 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
threemonkeysI just got addressed as Paul today. It doesn't happen all that often, but when people get my first name wrong, it is pretty much always to call me Paul. I have nothing against the name, and getting called the wrong name doesn't worry me much, but it is just odd that it is usually the same name. I have a couple of theories.
One idea is that it is just one of those combinations that go together automatically - how else to explain all those David Thompsons or John Smiths. On the other hand, I have never actually met anybody with the name combination in question and I cant see any particular family history of it - lots of Richards, Peters and Grenvilles but no Pauls. Although our mother informed us that my sister would have been called Paul if she had turned up as a boy.
The other theory is that folk are remembering an old radio/tv series. In today's case, the person in question would have been born long after the series was well and truly over.
One idea is that it is just one of those combinations that go together automatically - how else to explain all those David Thompsons or John Smiths. On the other hand, I have never actually met anybody with the name combination in question and I cant see any particular family history of it - lots of Richards, Peters and Grenvilles but no Pauls. Although our mother informed us that my sister would have been called Paul if she had turned up as a boy.
The other theory is that folk are remembering an old radio/tv series. In today's case, the person in question would have been born long after the series was well and truly over.