What's In a Name?
I've sometimes found my last name misspelled, and I tended to assume that this was party because it isn't really a common one. Well, I went to http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last and discovered that BURSTEIN is actually the 20,352nd most common surname in the USA. Here's what else I found:
BERNSTEIN is the 2,098th most common US surname
BURSTEIN is the 20,352nd most common US surname
BERSTEIN is the 38,576th most common US surname
BURNSTEIN is the 65,237th most common US surname
So I can understand why people might, on hearing my last name, spell it as BERNSTEIN...but why is it that people who see my name on the Internet tend to retype it as BURNSTEIN? That's far less common!
BERNSTEIN is the 2,098th most common US surname
BURSTEIN is the 20,352nd most common US surname
BERSTEIN is the 38,576th most common US surname
BURNSTEIN is the 65,237th most common US surname
So I can understand why people might, on hearing my last name, spell it as BERNSTEIN...but why is it that people who see my name on the Internet tend to retype it as BURNSTEIN? That's far less common!
It makes perfect sense...
The place where the "U" is comes earlier than the place where the "N" isn't, and a positive is easier to remember than a negative.
Also, hotel reservations are often amusing. Evidently the only time someone gives the name Smith when reserving hotel rooms is when they are using a false name to cover an affair.
Standing next to you, I feel so common . . . .
Edited at 2010-03-12 05:22 pm (UTC)
Not too shabby.