Inside My House of Horrors.......

The story goes that my mother saw the name LeAnn on a Miss America pageant and decided that was going to be my name.  This was back in the day when no one had an unusual name.  And for certain there were still rules about spelling it strangely.  It just wasn't done.  But my mom was a renegade you know.  She walked on the wild side.  She gave me a name that would make me tough.  Like a boy named Sue, right....

I mean why would you do that to your kid?  I thought long and hard when I named mine. My main concern was that they could always go to an amusement park and buy a mug with their name on it.  Spelled correctly, of course.

Not me.  I never got one.  I always looked.  I was always disappointed.  I still look.  

Professionally it has been a problem too.  Computers always try to point out that it is not spelled correctly until I wrestle them into submission by over riding that auto correction.  People have a hard time pronouncing it.  I often get 'Lean'.  Like lean meat.  Or I am gonna go lean on that corner over there.  You got my money, bro?  I'm a gonna lean on you hard, man.  Lean.  What the heck?   Sometimes I also get Leon.   Many times people are confused about my gender.  One time at work someone insisted on speaking with the man she had spoken to earlier on the phone.  Leon.   I tried to explain she had spoken to me.  She wasn't having it.  I finally put her on hold and then came back on the line.  Leon.

Finally LeAnn Rimes came along and, frankly, her parents made my life a whole lot easier.  Finally some validation that I had an acceptable name.  Finally I could point out that I was allowed to have a name that was spelled just that same weird way. Because if a celebrity did it, it made it okay!   Yes, you CAN have a capital letter in the middle of your name. Yes you CAN pronounce it 'Lee' even though there is only one 'E'

Recently I had evidence that the fight is not over:

This magazine could not figure out what to do with her name.  

It hurts, bro....    It hurts.......