It's a Stacey Thing

There's this mom at gymnastics who has the same name as me. At the end of 2007, in two consecutive weeks, we found out two major things we have in common. The first being that we are both pregnant and due the same week (actually this was the second thing, with the name thing preceding that but the lesser interesting of the two). The other thing we found out, is obviously that we are both Stacey.

I overheard her on her cell phone canceling an appointment for which she had to give her name. Here's how the conversation went:

"I didn't mean to overhear, but did you just say you are Stacey?"
"Yeah."
"I'm a Stacey too."
"Oh, funny!"
"Are you with an E, or just the Y?"
"Actually, I'm IE."
"Oh! I always wanted to spell my name IE. That's my favorite version!"
"What's your middle name?"
"Leigh. How about you?"
"I'm Lynn."
"Of course, it had to be one of the two..."
etc, etc, etc.

And this is how it goes every single time I meet a Stacey. If you were to ask anybody other than the actual Stacey how that Stacey spells her name, they would look at you confused. But ask the Stacey herself and the conversation takes on a natural flow because we have all been having the same conversation all our lives. I don't know why it's important, but the spelling of Stacey is something all other Stacey's are always concerned about. And I will forever remember which Stacey spells her name which way and what her middle name is. It's that important.

I've also constantly had my name misspelled my whole life, as well as my last name mispronounced, so I am extremely concerned with spelling anyone's name the correct way, as well as pronouncing names correctly. And for the record, with one exception, I don't believe I have ever met a Stacey whose middle name is not either Leigh (or a spelling variation of) or Lynn - and even the exception's middle name still begins with an L. I went to school with a Stacey Lynn and a Stacy Lee and that is how I think of them, the picture of them I have in my head. I don't know if other names have this...but I bet with all the funky spelling variations that parents are using for their kids these days, it will become a much bigger topic of conversation in the population at large.