13 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Welp this is great isn't it? / s
I have a similar experience My legal name (from birth because my bio-mom was cool like that) is gender neutral.
In school, me and the person in front of me at roll call both had the same last name and gender-neutral first names, and it caused us to get each others' handouts a lot. It didn't help that, at the time, there was an actress and a football player who both had my first name. I've had people assume they were speaking to someone who looks *very* different over text vs. who they meet in person.
Pronouns are actually really useful when you have a neutral name like that and primarily communicate over text.
Comment by reijasunshine at 01/02/2025 at 03:44 UTC
4 upvotes, 0 direct replies
When I was in the sales department, I worked with two different clients named Shannon. One was male and one was female. I noted it in their files so I could answer correctly.
Another two clients were Davon and Devonne, pronounced the same way. When a call from one of them would be transferred to me, I'd always ask the receptionist "Is it he or she?"
You cannot assume based on a name at all!
Comment by Arktikos02 at 01/02/2025 at 02:33 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Not only that but it's also helpful for international people as well. And no, this doesn't just refer to immigrants. If you work in any kind of business that is global you will probably end up in some kind of zoom or group call with international people. That's just how the world works now.
For example I was in a discord server and there was a person whose name was Karol. That was a guy. He was polish and that is a Polish name that is masculine in Poland.
Apparently Karen is also a name in German that is masculine. I'm sure that he is also waiting to call the manager.
Andrea sounds very feminine but is actually masculine in places like Germany. There's even a politician named Andrea. And I don't think he would be very happy being mistaken for a guy considering he is very conservative.
We all know that Ashley used to be a guy name and it still is in many other parts of the world such as in Europe.
But of course we know that Republicans also hate foreigners so this is totally on track.