As stupid as it sounds I do get frustrated when people get my name wrong. It is Seif Lotfy (here is a wikipedia link for the meaning and pronunciation of Seif).
I hear and read some mispronunciations and misspellings of SEIF like:
- Sief
- Siev
- Safe
- Save
- Seiv
- Sif
Also my last name LOTFY keeps being misread, thus resulting to:
- Lofty
- Lofti
- Lotfi
- Loufty
Now I can not blame people for misreading and mispronouncing it. It is an Arabic name but sounds like taken from a Star Trek character. I had some funny encounters when trying to introduce myself. Here are some reactions I get:
- Ah is this your real name?
- OK this is your IRC name what is your real name?
- Oh seif as in SAFE... (stupid examples varying from safebox to safe sex)
- Bless you! (I swear that happened at UDS)
- WTF?
- HAHAHAHA you cant even pronounce your last name (stupid drunk barkeeper)
So to end these occurrences i decided to adopt a new alternative “hacker name”…
STEVE LOFTY
So for anyone who has issues with my name please refer to the the alternative. I will work on reacting to it. You can now even contact me under:
- steve.lofty<at>googlemail.com
- http://twitter.com/stevelofty
Thanks for your tolerance…
Steve Lofty (Seif Lotfy)