What’s in a Name?

Arati Sharma Arati Sharma @aratisharma
Community, Fun, Projects 15 Comments

This week marks my six months with Jet Cooper.

Changing your career path and entering a new industry can be difficult. I come from a non-profit and political background, which meant that adjusting to the open, collaborative, and loving culture of Jet Cooper took some time. It was a shock that all it took to try out my new ideas was to mention them. Seriously?!

Along with adjusting to a new workplace culture, I’ve had the pleasure of immersing myself in Toronto’s tech community. Cue challenge number two when changing your career path: introducing yourself to a completely new network. This becomes even more difficult when you have a name that isn’t pronounced the way it’s spelt.

Now, I’ve spent my entire life explaining to people how to pronounce my name. Every September still brings back awful memories from the first day of class. Picture a little girl raising her hand and timidly saying, “Excuse me Mrs. Williams, it’s pronounced ‘R-Thi’… but you can say ‘R-T’ if you like.”

So this video is for everyone who has ever struggled with my name, for those who eventually will, and especially for those those who think they pronounce it correctly. Sorry, the grace period to correct you has long since ended

Thanks to Eighteen Eighty for partnering with us to bring this story to life. We all want to go where everybody knows our name… and these guys, plus my Jet Cooper family, made that possible.

  • http://www.getdateideas.com Will

    Hehe.. thank goodness for taking the time to ask you how you spell your name. I pronounced your name right from the get go.. or at least I think so anyway :/

  • http://www.jonlim.ca Jon Lim

    “There’s a brown H in there.”

    Win.

  • http://www.EighteenEighty.com Vinny Verma

    So glad you did this Arati and it shows tons of character.

    Sincerely,
    Vinny

  • http://www.pillaidesign.com Aloke

    Great video! This pretty much sums up the story of my life haha

    Keep em coming, guys! Episode No. 2 with Satish? lol

  • http://twitter.com/aratisharma/ Arati

    Will – You’re a wise man, thanks for taking the time up front :).

    Jon – We may be patenting the “brown H”.

    Vinny – It was a pleasure working with your team. Creative geniuses.

    Aloke – Thanks! Glad so many people can relate. Request for the next video to be about Satish…hmm.

  • http://twitter.com/skanwar Satish

    Aloke – I’ll push hard for it ;).

  • http://twitter.com/nav_een Naveen

    The Brown H.
    (That needs to be made into a t-shirt or something)

    Finally, a way to explain it – I will share this with my sis Preeti (which includes a silent Brown H)

    I’ve spent a lot of time also teaching others to pronounce my name and have resorted to telling them it’s “Naveen, like Avril LAVIGNE.”

  • http://twitter.com/aratisharma/ Arati

    “The Brown H.” – the creation of Verne Ho!

    Glad you can relate Naveen, you feel my pain!

  • Sunaina

    Great video. I feel the pain of people completely destroying the pronunciation of a name. Here’s the typical conversation that I’ve succumb to:

    “Hi, I’m Sunaina. Nice to meet you.”
    “Hi. I’m John. Ummm….what did you say your name was?”
    “I’m Sunaina. Just remember, it rhymes with banana”
    “Oh…that’s awesome. That makes things easier.”

    Meanwhile, I hate bananas yet I’ve been forever unified with this fruit that (according to my Asian friends) symbolizes fertility.

  • http://akeeso@loosebutton.com Abigail

    This is awesome! Thanks for a laugh.

    We have the same problem here at Loose Button with our COO – Aditya. We’ve also resorted to simplified two letter approach of AD. Thank GOD.

  • http://twg.ca Dom

    HAA.. So it’s not just me!

    I screwed it up badly for a couple days (and I also mumbled it, hoping nobody would notice).

    Great video.

  • http://nickheise.com/ Nick Heise

    Guys, I really loved this!

    Growing up with a last name like Heise (‘High-zee’) I can totally relate to having to correct others about name pronunciation.

    I really hope you find a way to continue this in some way.

  • http://www.antvibes.com Vigen

    Hi Aarti,
    Love the video! Very funny.
    I have the same problem so much so that decided to do something about it and created the Audible Name Tag (ANT). Check our company web site http://www.antvibes.com. You may want to get your own ANT.

  • http://www.antvibes.com Vigen

    Oops! See I did it too. Apologies Arati. I misspelled your name. Soooo Sorry.

  • http://twitter.com/amitcha Amit Bajracharya

    Creative People! Creative Presentation!
    This video might not related to the business, but this video gives a feel that everyone in “Jet Cooper” really enjoy “Jet Cooper”.You guys inspired me to make a video of this kind.