What's in a name?

For some reason, people always get a little intimidated when they see the name LaPierre on paper and are trying to pronounce it. We had an art teacher that called us all "la perrier" (like the European bottled water, I found out later on my mission). I guess it does look a little tricky but as soon as you pronounced it for them, or broke it up into two parts- La & Pierre, it's pretty simple, right? Everyone knows how to say those 2 parts.... and usually after telling a new teacher or whatever once, they got it right after that.

So when I got married, I became a Lillrose. I thought that was a pretty straight forward name. Pronounced JUST like it's spelled, right? I assumed that the days of spelling out your name, giving a little pronunciation lesson, etc... were over. Boy, was I WRONG!! Holy cow, people are funny! I am getting a little bit of everything these days. Not only can people not pronounce it right away and ask, (which is of course fine), after I tell them once, it seems like every time I bump into them after that, they ask again how to say it or have interpreted it to be something else....especially when I work at the temple, which is where I wear a NAMETAG! ...& still this is where I get the most problems.

I tell them my name is Lillrose...for the next 4 months, I get Littlerose, Larose, and my favorite, Lillyrose, ALL the time. But I think that one's kind of cute. There's one woman, and whenever she walks into the room and sees me, she says "Lillyrose" (or lately, she has been calling me Lillrose), so I answer to see what she needs me for, and I always get the reply, "Oh nothing...I just like saying your name! Such a pretty name!" I think that's kind of cute, too. I was doing sealings the other day and EVERY time the sealer had to say my name, he managed to say something newly incorrect and all the other temple patrons would hurry & correct him by the end of the session.

Not only the initial mispronunciation or trouble, but it somehow has turned into ANYTHING that starts with an L. I was walking through the foyer of the temple and someone called out "Sister Lillywhite!" ....and somehow I knew he was talking to me.