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Frequently asked questions about my name

  • Artikkeli

Hi, my name is Evan Dodds. People seem to have an inordinate amount of difficulty with my name so I have put together this helpful primer. It seems kind of silly to me. It's only 9 letters long. Total.

Let's break it down:

Evan. That's E (eee) V (vee)  A (eh? )  N (enn). It's pronounced like "eh-vin". It's not "even", "yvonne", "ev-onn" or any of the other strange variations people seem to want to say or spell. I find this all particularly strange because although I am one of the few people I've met my age or older named Evan, there have been TONS of little kids named Evan in the last 20 years. It's actually become so common that I am no longer astonished to find keychains with my name from time to time, and I don't always perk up when some young mother shouts "get back over here Evan" as a rambunctious red-haired little boy goes running past me, etc.

Dodds. That's D (dee) O  (oh)  D  (dee)  D  (dee)  S (ess). It's prounced just like it looks. Not a single "B" (bee) in that name, so it can't possibly be "Dobbs". And in case there's any confusion, it's not missing an apostrophe, so it's not just "Dodd".

Bonus tip: If you want to refer to something of mine as a possessive and you want to also specify which (of the many possible) people named Evan you mean, you will want to refer to it as "Evan Dodds' <whatever>". This is because although some references consider a proper noun ending in "s" as a singular, I consider myself part of a plural family group -- the Dodds Family -- meaning it should follow the plural form of s-apostrophe. Here's an example showing both proper uses and emphasizing the use of the "s":

That Evan Dodds sure has a nice car. Evan Dodds' car is very nice. :)

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003

    &amp;nbsp;
    My name is Evan Dodds and I am a Program Manager in the Exchange Admin/SysMgmt team. I have...
  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    PingBack from http://blogs.technet.com/evand/articles/177514.aspx
  • Anonymous
    November 26, 2004
    Ha! I have the same problem - even people in my own family who attended my WEDDING send mail to "Jodi Dodd." Hang in there, Evan - we Doddses are a special breed and we can endure the ignorance of others. :)
  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2004
    Wow, I'll bet that was a spectacular wedding. You must have a very lucky husband. ;)