ptalk > Little Boxes

Little Boxes

I sent a friend my vCard, and he wondered if I knew that I could have separate first and middle names. (My vCard lists my first name as P T, not because I have pointy-haired boss or oil baron aspirations, but because…)

I know I can have a middle name, but I found that if I moved the T to my middle name (even if I spelled out Tucker), then I showed up in lots of places as just P Withington, who I am not. This situation happens in most web forms, computer databases, etc., not just vCards.

I refuse to be fit into a little box, so since I cannot tell computers that I prefer my middle name, I have decided to call myself P T Withington, using P T as my first or given name. It's shorter and more convenient. I have had only one website so brain-dead as to tell me that P T was not a valid name (verizonwireless.com, who seem to be completely clueless: I have spent a month trying to use their site, and each time I get one page further and then have to report a bug because their stupid ASP is so broken).

I've had only one person who misunderstood me when I said I was P T Withington — I got a letter from them addressed to Petey Withington ;-).