[sp332]

This is an important topic, but the article is needlessly sexist. It pretty much assumes that men don't have hyphens or spaces in their names, even though her husband does. Women might have (a lot) more trouble with this than men, but jumping to the conclusion that there must not be any women on the Comicon website team is unwarranted. Also she explicitly calls "single capitalized word" names "heteronormative" which doesn't make any sense at all.

[tarahmarie]

So you read the first sixteen or so words, I'm guessing.

[sp332]

Well I read down to the heteronormative bit. But this part: I am going to go to the About Us page, and I am going to see that the database engineer’s name is Ms. Destinnee Chang-O’Driscoll. Then, I am going to paste a giant grin on my face, take a selfie, email it to that woman, and thank her for kicking ass at SQL. I'm not saying that won't happen, but it seems that you think only a woman with a similar problem will make a website that works. Maybe you meant something different.

[tarahmarie]

"This isn’t just a female problem; people with apostrophes and commas in their names all have this problem." I understand that I focused on my problem. It's my blog, after all. However, I did marry a guy with a space and two capital letters in his name. My friend has a ", Jr." to contend with. Try that on for size. Two different punctuation marks, a space, and a capitalized letter. There's a reason I said this isn't just a female issue.

[dubfan]

But you waited until the 7th paragraph to mention that. By that point you had already framed the argument as being a female issue. Not only that but you dismiss it by saying "this isn’t something that often happens to men." It's not something that often happens to women either. Most people in English speaking countries do not have hyphens or spaces in their names.

Your point is totally valid and important but it would have been much more effective if you framed it in a gender-neutral way.

[sp332]

"More effective"? It's a post on a personal blog, not a manifesto.

[someagin]

There's no reason to be flippant.

'This isn’t something that often happens to men.'

I can look past the fact that it's completely unsubstantiated, but is it even necessary in a post about names? Do you think the name of the actress was truncated because of her gender?

When people shorten my name, it's familiar and it's a relief because I don't have to smile through their awkward pronunciation.

I feel embarrassingly over-sensitive, but reading statements like these in tech articles is unnerving.

[sp332]

When people shorten my name, it's familiar and it's a relief because I don't have to smile through their awkward pronunciation.

The point is, it should be your choice what you are called. Having someone else "take your name away" is just as demeaning as the article says. And yeah, I think actresses' names are shortened a lot more often than male actors'.

[someagin]

I was referenced in 4 different ways by 15 different people in a meeting today. My name is still intact and I am whole.

I think we should be careful with our words; there are people that have had their names (and more) literally taken from them. Using such an evocative phrase in this manner is irresponsible.