I phoned the Canadian Consulate in Dallas a few days ago about renewing my Canadian passport in the US. Specifically, I require certain papers because I do not have a 'guarantor' that has known me for 2yrs in the US. Anyway, the woman rushed me through and when it came to my name I spelled it out for her -- as I always do as people always get my given name wrong. Over the phone she had problems with my last name, which is a very common surname in North America. When I received the papers today my surname was spelled correctly, but my given name was spelled incorrectly. In fact, I've never seen it spelled that way...it's not even the common way of spelling it. Guess I was blown away because the most common/accepted first letter of my name is 'C', and the person put a 'K' instead. Plus she got the last three letters wrong, which is a common mistake. I'm just ticked off because I spelled my name for her and asked if I should repeat it, and she said "no, I've got it." Just had to vent about it.

PS: Those crazy barristas at Starbuck's always spell my name in wacky ways. The most bizarre spelling was in San Francisco...they spelled my name as a mountain range and inserted a 'K' at the beginning...