A London-born woman has to spend every day correcting people about her name. Honestly, it's stories like this one that make me realize people are way too nosy. I can't imagine the nightmare of starting every conversation with a stranger the same exact way. There has to be something else people can focus on when meeting her.
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Woman Named After Popular City
The woman in question is 36-year-old L.A. Cartier. She has spent most of her life correcting people on both the pronunciation and the spelling of her incredibly unique first name, per the New York Post.
The story behind it actually has nothing to do with the city in California. Her mother simply wanted to combine two different surnames for either side of her family.
What was extra unique about her name is that it makes use of full stops. A grammatical tool for names that has since been made illegal. The law was changed soon after she was born. To her knowledge, in fact, she is the only L.A. that exists. At least, the only one that she's found. The closest being someone named KC with no full stops in their name.
Conversations Are A Nightmare
L.A. talks about needing to produce her driver's license every time she has a conversation with people. "People think I don't want to give them my real name," she has stated. They think that she's giving them a stage name or that her name is actually spelled Ellay.
This is where I seem to differ from other people. Let's say someone started a conversation with me. If, as the conversation started, she said her name was L.A. I don't think there'd be a single follow-up. I'd maybe just assume it was spelled Ellay, and then ask if she was named after the city. It shocks me to my core that people press her over her name.
She also talks about signing up for things online, "Anything I sign up for online, I don't put the dots in as none of the systems will accept it." She went on to say that, "People call me and say is this 'La' and I correct them and they still don't know what it is."
Recently, L.A. requested a copy of her birth certificate from the General Register's Office and they sent it to her with her name spelled La. Then refused to send her one spelled any differently unless she changed it.
Hopefully, people will stop telling her how to write and pronounce her name soon. Seems like she should know.
