Who are you? Who wants to know?

We’ve been talking about names, how it can be important to get one’s name correct (a vital rule for journalists, by the way) and how it can be permissible, maybe fun, maybe even a compliment to not use the correct name.

Take for instance nicknames. A well-chosen nickname can be a lifelong note of admiration or respect.

But I’ve taken note the past few decades of one particular headache.

My name is Steve. That’s all I’ve ever gone by. But … my name is actually Stephen.

I vaguely remember asking when I was young why they chose the name Stephen. It wasn’t a family name or a friend’s name. I believe my mother said they simply liked it. That was a good enough answer for me then and remains so today. I’ve always liked my middle name because it belonged to my father and to his father.

The problem has grown out of the advent of computers, it seems. One place knows me as Steve and another as Stephen. For the most part, official entries – driver’s license, voter registration, deeds and titles – are listed under Stephen. All of my writing has been done under Steve, as well as my social media. Some businesses meet me in the middle. The hospital and its associated labs and doctors all have formally listed me as Stephen but have Steve entered as my preferred name.

It comes to a head when a computer says it does not have a Steve Martaindale in the system because it doesn’t recognize me as Stephen. That could happen in the paper and file folder days, but at least then you had a human brain involved in the search.

To be honest, though, they are getting better. Surely, AI will continue to improve that aspect.

But I still think at times that I wish my parents had chosen one name and stuck with it. If allowed to choose, I would go with Steve because it’s less formal, like me, and there’s really only one way to spell it, unlike Steven / Stephen. However, had they consistently called me Stephen and that’s what my first-grade teacher called me, I’d be totally happy with it.

When our grandson was born, they named him Charles. My daughter made it clear that would be his name, “Not Charlie and certainly not Chuck,” she said. Of course, she knew she would have no control over what his classmates called him. It seems Charles has stuck all the way into college.

Let’s hear from you, especially if you go by a name that’s not your official name – Mel instead of Melanie, Don instead of Donald, etc. Have you ever wished you had a name that covered everything? Do you really enjoy separating your life by which name you use for what category? I’m I just crazy even dwelling on it?

Here’s another question: Are you happy with the name or names you were given or would you totally like a do-over and pick out a new name?

One more thing

I was looking for something online and was distracted (surprise!) by a YouTube video that sounded promising. I clicked and the page came up, but the video would not load and run. There were others promoted on the page; I clicked and got the same result.

Not finding anything that fixed it, I googled about not being able to get YouTube videos to run.

The AI-generated answer came back, featuring four links that might help. All four connected to YouTube videos.

So, while I’m still holding out hope for AI, not all the bugs have been worked out yet.

PS – I solved the problem myself.