Armenian writer Nareg Seferian has decided to go by “Joe” in restaurants:
I was at a coffee shop with an Armenian friend of mine, and the person who took our order asked for a name to go along with it. I immediately said to myself, “No way am I about to spend half an hour going through ‘Nareg’ with this white American,” and then I looked at my friend. His name is “Shant.” I sighed and said, “Joe.” It was a coffee place, after all, and so “Joe” came naturally. Ever since, Joe has been my “restaurant name” in the States. A friend with a name even harder to pronounce for the average English-speaker had a similar story, but his included the restaurant at the time showing the film “I am Sam,” and so he went with “Sam.”
Do any of you use a restaurant name? If so, why?
(I don’t, but my husband does. His name is hard to pronounce, so he usually just uses “Nancy” in restaurants.)
Source: Seferian, Nareg. “What’s in an Armenian Name?” Armenian Weekly 27 Jan. 2011.
I don’t use one, but I have thought about it as a way to test out potential baby names. I have read multiple times that this is a good exercise to see how it will fair in the real world, but I have always been too shy. It feels like lying! And I get irrationally frightened I will get found out, which is ridiculous, but I still fell it! :)
My dad is Jeroen, a Dutch name that is pronounced totally differently to how it’s spelt. He uses the name Jeremy as a restaurant name.
I have several friends that have restaurant names. They mostly use their middle names or Anglicized nicknames.
My name’s Adrianna, which isn’t terribly unusual or difficult considering it’s in the top 200. But I feel like in a restaurant/cafe, a short one or two syllable name will suffice so I go by my middle name June. (June has also come in handy while abroad since it’s easier to say in more languages than Adrianna)
“My Pinkberry and Starbucks name is Lisa. It’s the name I dreamed of having when I was in primary school. I detested being Lateefah.”
Source: Should We Pick A Name With Pizazz Or One That Won’t Tempt The Bullies?