And speaking of names…

I think I have a pretty straight forward name, and a fairly common one. My married name is German, but there’s nothing foreign to the American tongue, and there isn’t any tricky vowel groupings or that rouge “j” that you occasionally see. And as a northern mid-westerner I have a pretty standard American accent. Yeah, I have the long O thing going, but people who grow up in the Twin Cities don’t have it as bad as an Iron Ranger.

My last name has a “Z” in it, but my maiden name has that hissing S to it, so I hope that I have learned to enunciate properly. Granted, when I read out loud from a book, I make some pretty bad bloopers, but I’m dyslexic, so that’s understandable.

As part of my job, I talk on the phone a lot. Usually, I speak to fellow mid-westerners. So, we generally speak the same. There is something about answering machines that does not like my voice. To aid in my enunciation, I offer my formal name, “Elizabeth,” to give an extra syllable between the hard Zs. When I speak to someone from a larger company with a sophisticated answering service, my name comes out clearly. However, when I am talking to a business that is family operated and I leave a message on the home machine, people return calls to anything but Elizabeth. I have been Edith Kowolski, Evie Kozer, and a variety of other names.

I guess its more Fox in Sox for me.