I myself am no stranger to the misspelled and misprounced. My mother, a Filipina, named me Cassie Margarita Delinda Yoder.

My father is an American of Mennonite/Amish Swiss-German descent. Hence the last name, YODER. MARGARITA is fairly straight forward; easily pronounced and a saint’s name to boot. DELINDA my mom probably made up in the florid way Filipinos have with names.

And CASSIE? Easy, right? But wait! Not everything is as it seems—CASSIE is not pronounced CASSIE, but CASEY!!

WHY??? WHY WHY WHY? I understand English was not my mother’s first language, but why did my dad let her put CASSIE on the birth certificate for CASEY???????? He has no reasonable explanation for me, probably because there isn’t one. I’ve suffered through 21 years of misspelled and misprounced, and I’m sick of it. I didn’t grow up with my mother in my life, so it seems silly for me to grin and bear it namewise for a woman I barely know.

Suffice it to say that when I marry in June I will be doing a major name overhaul. I will become Casey Yoder (fiance’s last name.)

Yours in namedom,
Cassie/Casey/KC/Kacie/Casie/Casee/Kasey/Kassee/etc