My story is even funnier.
My given name (Wright) is normally a family name in English cultures. I have no middle name, it is only the initial H. My family name is Huntley. I also possess, but don't use, the suffix Junior.
How did this come about? It was because my grandmother's maiden family name was Hand. My father was born a year or two after the famous flight by the Wright Brothers. Her pediatrician had a bizarre sense of humor and suggested they call my father Wright Hand Huntley. My terminally anti-social grandparents actually took his stupid joke seriously, so that's what my father was named.
He despised it all his life, but agreed to name me the same, with one big change. The middle name would be dropped and only the initial letter H was to be on my birth certificate. He thought eliminating the joke was enough.
Little did he know that it would have no effect whatsoever on those folks that insist on reversing my first and last names. After a three year fight with the local college's computer, I still turned up, this spring, as Huntley Wright! It plays hell with my attempts to get academic pricing on Microsoft and Adobe software.
I hope this makes some of you folks with traditional Chinese names feel less alone when we western folks can't get your given and family names straight. It even happens to your bloviator emeritus (or is that emeritus bloviator?).
Wright
01 760 872-3995
805 Valley West Circle
Bishop, CA 93514 USA
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