Did I get your name right?

I finished writing my message in the card, and realized that I had misspelled

The name of the addressee-phonetically this spelling worked equally well

But that was not “her” name- therefore a change was required

Many people from my culture spell my name incorrectly, therefore I have acquired

A special sensitivity for wrongly spelled or pronounced names

Proper nouns deserve proper attention, even when they sound the same

That is what I believe, and yet I had not checked to see

The correct spelling of her name, of making assumptions, I too was guilty

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Most of us expect to face some difficulty

In pronouncing or spelling certain names, but we all have the ability

To slow down. read the name carefully, hear someone enunciate their name

That the name is too complicated, we should not automatically claim

I know first hand how heartwarming it is to see

Someone making a genuine effort to pronounce and spell your name correctly

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Shakespeare was not right when he wrote what’s in a name

Names carry meaning, they reflect the identities we claim