CHERYLL -- and a little shameless self-promotion

I know I promised you pie(charts) to go along with the coffee, but when I clicked chart wizard in my Excel spreadsheet, the data was actually a bit boring graphically. In the gender category, males and females were split evenly 50/50 in misspelling my name. There was one Starbucks and one non-Starbucks (McDonald's) HALF BINGO. The only correct spelling of my name was from a non-corporate joint (the company commissary). In the month of August, there were sixteen different incorrect versions of my name, and -- drum roll please -- Starbucks' clerks spelled my name correctly a whopping total of ZERO times (nil for thirteen).

Since you've been denied piecharts, here's a little extra credit reading for you:  my regular "Hollywood Notes" column in the UK literary publication, ONE Magazine.  (Click on the link to read -- and be sure to check out the other great articles and stories. If you live in the UK, you can pick up a free copy in finer establishments in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and surrounds.)

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming:

I really-really-really thought for sure today was going to be a HALF-BINGO. After all, this was the third day in a row I've ordered my Venti Americano with Sheryl Crow's soulful gaze staring up at me from her CD display in front of the register. When I told the cashier my name, he asked me a question I haven't heard in eons, "is that with a C or a S?" (Did I put this out into the universe when I noted this a couple of days ago with my SHERLY post?) Now technically, BINGOs only count without any kind of prompting, but as you can see, I didn't have to worry about dolling out the big guns today. Like CHERYLLE, this is another case of "should have stopped while they were ahead." 

CHERYLL

We've already had a variation on this spelling with the indefinite C/SHERYLL back in the early days of this month. Although he had a bit of help with the C or S part of my name, I'm going to begrudgingly award him a NO CIGAR award -- mostly because I want to see Dirk Benedict's handsome face again on this blog.

NO CIGAR FOR YOU!

Thanks for reading and I'll be back in a few days.

SHERILL

Again, as with SHERELL a couple of days ago, the cashier reached right over the Sheryl Crow "100 Miles from Memphis" display to hand me back my debit card.  (But don't shed a tear for Ms. Crow, it seems they've sold a few more since then.)

SHERILL

This misspelling is a little bit like fingernails on the blackboard, as it's only one letter from being SHRILL.  Many people can vouch for me.  I'm definitely not a Type A personality.  I'm not prone to screaming, and the timbre of my voice falls more into a mellow alto range than a squeaky soprano.

Tomorrow I have one more for you to wrap up the month of August. And what goes better with coffee than pie? How about a pie chart? Hold on to your Excel spreadsheets!

SHERLY

I'm surprised I hadn't gotten this variation of my name until now. If casual acquaintances or friends are going to misspell my name, they most often reverse the Y and the L (CHERLY) -- and for some reason this is the misspelling which irks me the most. SHERLY would be pronounced something akin to "Shirley." So even though the cashier spelled it incorrectly, I have to give props to the server who brought me my take-out. She yelled out "Sher-Lee," which is how it would be pronounced with this spelling. LY is a "lee" sound - like in unexpectedly, stupidly, lamely -- or a slew of other adverbs.  Customer service type people used to ask me if my name was "with a C or an S?"  Then they generally got the rest of it correct -- except for the occasional reversal of the last two letters.  

SHERLY

I thought for sure I would be getting a duplicate. Take special note. Notice the host's name. Luis took my order a couple of weeks ago and dubbed me SHARO.  I'm rewarding Luis plus two (+2) style points for a general improvement in spelling.

GUEST POST: The many sides of Deven

Here's a special shout out to my friend Deven for not one, but two -- count 'em two -- submissions.  (Be sure to check out his delicious food blog at hungrytigernyc.com -- and if you live in New York City, sign up for one of his Grub Crawls.)  Plus he also has taken the challenge into a whole new direction by sending me screen shots of text messages from his iPhone (how new millennium of him!)

DEVON

Since HALF-BINGOS are only for SHERYL, both of these entries technically fall into my category of being a NO CIGAR, that is they're only one letter off from being a correct spelling.

DEVIN

And here's a little gentle reminder to join the Cheryl Revolution and send me misspellings of your name or, if you're game, be bold and proudly tell them your name is Cheryl.  [Any guys confident enough to do this will receive plus ten (+10) style points.)

+ = two no cigar awards

And in case you don't get the visual reference for this award, it's Dirk Benedict as Lieutenant Starbuck (how appropriate for this blog, huh?) from the original "Battlestar Galactica."

SHERELL

I thought for sure today was going to be at the very least a HALF-BINGO kind of day.  You see, when I walked into Starbucks this morning for my ritual pre-commute java, this CD was sitting on the display right in front of the cash register:

However, as you can see below, the cashier must not be familiar with the merchandise stock available in the store.  The CD was less than two feet away from him, and he reached directly over it to give me my change.

SHERELL

I'm going to deduct three (-3) style points just for general inattentiveness and for the two non-matching E's.

SH@ROL

I was certain today's entry was a duplicate, but when I looked back over the archives, the closest was SHARROL -- what a difference one little R makes.  If I'm counting correctly, we're up to 11 different misspellings of my name now (plus a couple of Half-Bingos).  Can anyone else make that claim?

SH@ROL

I'm feeling a bit generous today because after margaritas with some pals last night, I needed an extreme caffeine jump start.  So here's plus two (+2) style points for the A that looks like an at sign (or asperand, more formally).  Or if I really wanted to stretch the imagination, it also looks a bit like SHGROL, but I have absolutely no idea how to pronounce that, unless it's Klingon or some other alien language.

Cherilyn Sarkisian, an honorary Cheryl

I got into Starbucks earlier than normal this morning, so there was no name-writing on my cup.  In the meantime, until my dear readers ante up with some submissions or I hit the 'Bucks at rush hour, here's a little change of pace for everyone --

Cherilyn Sarkisian is an honorary Cheryl. Of course, I'm talking about no other than the one-name musical/acting/media sensation, Cher. Throughout grade school, I was the lone Cheryl in my school -- which was good if you wanted to stand out, but bad if you desperately wanted to be invisible -- like I did.

You see, by the end of grade school, I was just shy of my current height of 6'-1/2" (yes, that's six foot and a half inch tall). Although Cher was/is only 5'7", she seemed like a giantess icon to me because she towered over her then-husband, Sonny Bono.  She just seemed to have this glamour factor that was unattainable for me.

Glamour, thy name is Cher

I know Cheryl doesn't exactly roll off the tongue.  In fact, my younger brother was unable to say my name as a toddler.  Rather than lisping through it, my nickname became Sissy.  To this day, my father occasionally calls me by my childhood moniker when he's feeling silly.

But if Cheryl isn't sexy, Sissy isn't much better.  When I made it to junior high and high school, there were a couple of other Cheryls, but -- in my mind -- it still wasn't one of those names that invoked steamy sexiness.  However, pin-up gals Cheryl Tiegs and Cheryl Ladd helped change that.  But they were more the good-girl-next-door types and I just didn't relate.  Despite my quiet nature, I was a rock & roll gal on the inside -- just like Cher.

The Name is Cher -- not Share

I wonder what name Cher gives when she goes to Starbucks or Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf?  I'd be willing to bet every last cent in my savings account that if I went into Starbucks tomorrow and said my name was Cher, they would write some form of Shar, Char or Share.

CHERYLLE - shoulda stopped while they were ahead

I walked into Starbucks on Saturday late afternoon/early evening, which is not my usual time for a coffee break, but if I was going to make it through a two-hour movie screening, I needed some liquid energy.  It was 90+ degrees in Los Angeles, so I switched over to a venti iced Americano. Since it was pretty slow at the corner Starbucks, I wasn't sure if the cashier was going to ask my name.  He was a quite a bit older than the typical hipster cashier (i.e., my age, give or take a couple of years).  I figured if anyone was going to get it right, it would be him.

CHERYLLE

As you can see, he started off on the right footing.  I was worried that I was going to have to try to make another BINGO sound interesting, but then I saw his wrist make two distinct downwards strokes.   Such anticipation!  When the barista handed me my tasty beverage, I was pleasantly surprised to find CHERYLLE written on the side.  This is a totally new spelling in my life-long experience of misspellings, so I'm going to give plus three (+3) style points for that factor alone, as well as for the fact that my correctly spelled name is contained within the misspelled mess.  

Interestingly, I used to always hope cashiers would spell my name correctly and would carefully spell it out for them, only to have them still mangle it.  Now, I'm visualizing unique and creative discombobulations.  (Take note:  other than than half-bingos for SHERYL, we haven't had a repeat on the misspellings yet.)

SHERAL rhymes with feral

You probably can't tell from the photo below, but this is some of the tiniest writing I've seen on the side of a Starbucks cup.  The cashier was really concentrating as he wrote my name and his poor little fist was balled up so tight around the blue Sharpie.  Happily for this blog, his hipster self didn't quite pull it off.   However, he did get a few things correct:  two syllables (check), H-E-R in their rightful order and place (check) and the L at the end (yep) -- and at least a passable phonetical spelling, unlike Churl from my Saturday post. Forget the S -- that errant A changes the name so much.

SHERAL

I identify as being a bit of a rebel, but I've never considered myself feral in any real way. In fact, you'd probably find me rather civilized.  Hence, I always hated when we played the Name Game in grade school.  "Cheryl Sheryl, bo-beryl, banana-fana, fo-feral, fee-fi-mo-meryl, Cheryl!"  It had nothing to do with being feral, but rather being compared to a barrel (Beryl), which wasn't much fun for an insecure, tall girl.

GUEST POST: The Evolution of Rion

If I learned anything in the short history of this blog, it's that my name isn't the only one that gets mangled, mauled and misspelled on a regular basis.  Here's the second submission from my good friend Rion.

The Evolution: RION--BRION- BRIAN??

I have a Left Field Award, but maybe I should also have a Right Field Award?  Or the "quit listening to your iPod at 11 and pay attention" award?  Although this submission isn't correct, I find the "A" intriguing.  It kinda looks like a backwards 6.  I also appreciate the slash/dotted I, which resembles Chinese calligraphy.  I'm feeling generous today (because I have two fantastic misspellings of my name coming up), so I'll give a half point each for the two fancy letters for a total of plus one (+1) style points.

CHURL -- am I a boor?

I've been waiting to document this spelling for awhile now.  I grew up in southern Indiana and heard people pronounce my name this way for the first two decades of my life.  Even though it's north of the Mason-Dixon line, southern Indiana still identifies as the south.  The imaginary Yankee border is about an hour and a half north from the Ohio River in Bloomington.  Indiana University is there and students and residents seem to identify more with Chicago and the accents prove it.  I can say this because I'm from there, but folks from the southern Indiana/northern Kentucky area are lazy speakers.  I can pick out the drawl from across a crowded bar.  


For example, the city right across the border from Louisville, Kentucky is New Albany.  However, when southie Hoosiers say it, they shorten it to three syllables and slur it all together, so it sounds something akin to "knobby knee" or "knaw bah-nee."  Even our state nickname for natives, Hoosiers, is supposedly a contraction/lazification (my invented word) of "who's ear?" -- from a rougher, less civilized time when people used to fight and bite each others ears off.  Hence, my name becomes one syllable with a hard R drawl on the end.  Listen to George Clooney speak.  He's from northern Kentucky and you can hear that sluggish accent slip out occasionally.

CHURL

From the movement of her wrist, I could tell that the cashier scribbled a C, then she paused (notice the break between the first and second letter.)  However, I didn't hear a tinge of southernness in her voice.  So she heard me say my name and her brain somehow twisted it into this Dixieland version.

I know it was only 8:00am when I walked into the Starbucks and my personality doesn't fully kick in until about 10:00am, but what are they trying to tell me with this spelling?

CHURL –noun

1. a rude, boorish, or surly person.

2. a peasant; rustic.

3. a miser: He was a churl in his affections.

4. English History: a freeman of the lowest rank.

Plus one style point (+1) because this could also be interpreted as C-Hurl, which may have to be my new rapper name.

Something you haven't seen yet --

Nearly three weeks of blogging here and this is the first time my name has been spelled 100% correctly.  Granted, I'm not at Starbucks or any other major chain, but I'm sticking to the rules of the quest.  Below you'll see my order slip for a delicious black bean burger and fries.  Not only is it spelled correctly, there's some nice penmanship going on; so I'm giving plus five (+5) style points for being readable and elegant (a true rarity, as my dear readers know).

BINGO!

Here I am with the lovely Priscilla, who works at the company commissary.  Before this encounter, we didn't know each other, so it wasn't as if I beat her over the head with a stick and made her memorize my name.  Of course, this rare Bingo happened on a day when I wasn't wearing any makeup and basically rolled out of bed, so please excuse my pale ginger-ness.

Cheryl (L) with Priscilla, the spelling bee champion!

Priscilla, you're the first BINGO AWARD winner on "The Name Is Cheryl" blog.  I'm sure your family and friends will be so proud...and happy Friday to everyone!

Jimmy Kimmel's Starbucks Stand-off

Just a funny little ditty for you:



I wonder if they spelled Jimmy correctly?

Two Halves Does Not Make a Whole --

-- at least when we're talking about the rules of this blog experiment.  As just a little reminder, although Sheryl is technically a correct spelling, it's only considered a HALF-BINGO, because it's not how I spell my name (Sorry, Sheryl Crow).

First, here's my own entry from my local Starbucks.  Though this isn't the best penmanship in Southern California, I do like the way the R and the Y are hooked together as one hybrid letter.  So I'm going to award this cashier plus one style point (+1) for creativity -- and I really needed my venti Americano this morning, so I'm feeling a little generous with the style points.

And here's the second part of this special two-parter, which is from my friend Tina who was visiting SoCal and her Aunt, who just happens to be named Cheryl.

They were in the weeds at McDonald's, so they took names and brought food out to the tables.  Although this is a HALF-BINGO, I'm going to have to deduct negative one (-1) style points on this one because of the decisive, heavy block letters -- they were just so sure of themselves.

In case I haven't schooled you enough today, here's some blog math for you:  two halves does not equal a whole; and (+1) style point + (-1) styles point = (0) {zero/nil/nada/zippo} style points overall.

+   = not a bingo

Coffee Quotes

Inspired by Fiona who shared the first quote below in the comments section of yesterday's post, as well as sending me a picture of her friend Florica's coffee, to follow are some of my own favorite coffee quotes:


"Coffee, which makes the politician wise/And see through all things with his half-shut eyes." -- Alexander Pope


Coffee falls into the stomach...ideas begin to move, things remembered arrive at full gallop...the shafts of wit start up like sharp-shooters, similes arise, the paper is covered with ink."
-- Honore de Balzac


"No one can understand the truth until he drinks of coffee's frothy goodness."
-- Sheik Abd al-Qadir


"Sleep is just a symptom of caffeine lack." - Herman Friele


And one of my all time favorites from Eddie Izzard:

SHERL

As I said back on Friday, Cherl is one of the most common misspellings of my name. Well, here it is in all its glory in the S-version.  I guess I get it phonetically:  Sher-L, but written this way it's one syllable and would be pronounced "Shurl," which, growing up in Southern Indiana, is also a spelling I've seen before.

SHERL

Stayed tuned in the next couple of days when I'll have two special guest posts:  one is another post from Rion, and the other is the first Cheryl guest post.  Please remember to send me photos of your own name mangling at cheryl@igivegoodword.com -- thanks!

CHEREL (with the 2nd E as an afterthought)

I stopped by a Starbucks which isn't on my usual route.  You might even call this an elite, fancy schmancy Starbucks -- smack dab in the middle of Beverly Hills 90210.  But no matter the zipcode, there's still an issue with spelling my name.  I gave the cashier my handle and she scribbled away.  She placed the cup in line with all the other ducks awaiting tasty beverage preparation, then she picked it back up and scribbled something else.  Quel intrigue!

CHEREL

My guess is that her initial spelling was Cherl, which is something I see quite often (and hope to document on this blog soon), but I suppose that second syllable sound just nagged at her and she went back and added another E between the R and L to make it CHEREL.

I'm going to give one style point (+1) for the R that sorta looks like a V -- just because that would make my name Chevel and that's pretty darn close to Chevelle, one of my favorite 60's muscle cars.

GUEST POST: It doesn't sound or look ANYTHING like that!

My friend Fiona jumped on my mistaken identity blog almost immediately.  However, she says the cashier's at her local Starbucks are on it, and although she has a moniker that could be a potential landmine,  (Feeohna, Feeona, Feaonah) they are well-trained in how to spell her name.  But lucky for me, it seems that courtesy doesn't extend to anyone else.  Fiona and her friend took a little java break together today.  You can see they got Fiona correct (abet with a very funky looking A), but when her friend picked up her skim venti latte, they were waaaaay off.  From the spellling LOREE, I would have guessed her bud was named LORI, but nooooo.....

LOREE???  Wha???

Her friend is named FLORICA!  I sympathize with the fact that Florica is a very unique name, but they're missing at least one syllable and the FL sound at the beginning!

This spelling prompts a new official award for this blog.  I'm going to call it the LEFT FIELD award, as in you're way out in left field.  In case you don't get the photographic reference below, it's Ted Williams, legendary left-fielder and Red Sox Baseball Hall of Famer.

LOREE -- first recipient of the LEFT FIELD award!

This also reminds me of an incident the other day at the 'bucks.  While I waited for my tasty beverage, the barista kept on shouting "Den!  Den!" -- but no one materialized to pick up their drink.   Every 30 seconds or so, they would again bellow "Den!  Den!"  Finally when they called my name, I saw what was CLEARLY written on the side of the cup:  DEAN, as in James Dean, Dean Cain, Howard Dean or Dean Martin.  Hope poor Dean's beverage wasn't too cold when he finally picked it up.

That's Not My Name

THE TING TINGS (the patron saints of mistaken identity) perform their battle call:

FYI, her name is KATIE (Kaytee, KT, Caytea in Starbucks speak) and he's JULES (or Jewels, Jools or Joules).

Roll call:  Charole, Sharo, C/Sheryll, Sharrol, Sharil and Shuyl, and a special guest post from Ryan/Rion...one week down and still no one who has spelled my name correctly without me spelling it out for them.

Your guess is as good as mine

I'm tempted to give this entry a half-bingo for a "Sheryl", but I'm going to refrain (my rules, remember?)  Plus I'm going to deduct negative three (-3) for handwriting style.  While feminine and loopy, it lacks a certain readability necessary for the course of this experiment.  While the S, H, Y and L are clear, the series of humps and bumps between the H and Y are questionable.  It could read SHUYL or SHUNYL or SHIRYL???  What do you think?

SHUYL?

I really don't have any right to criticize anyone's handwriting, as my has deteriorated so badly over the years with all the FLH (that's Fast Long Hand for the novices out there) I've taken   Other than the C, it might be difficult for anyone who didn't know me to decipher what I've written -- but then again, I don't work at Starbucks.

Stupid in Three Languages

From the movie "Role Models" -- one of my favorite commentaries on the Starbucks coffee culture:




Says who? Fellini? Priceless.

SHAIRIL?

Definite negative two (-2) on style points for the overlapping I and L at the end.  It almost makes it look a K -- SHAIRK -- which would be a really unique mangling of my name

SHAIRIL?

It wasn't very crowded when I went into my local 'Bucks, so the barista didn't even bother with trying to interpret this chicken scratch.  The only acknowledge I got that my Americano was ready was a hipster "yo, what's up?" upwards nod of the head.

First Guest Submission - RYAN/RION

This is a case of  poor attention to customer service and detail.   My dear friend spells his name RION, which I believe is a more traditional Irish spelling.  According to Name Voyager, Rion has never been ranked in the top 1,000 popular names for any given year.  However, Ryan has quickly increased in popularity since the 1930's and 40's and was the 12th most popular name in 2003.  I'm a little divided on the issue.  My uncle's name is Ryan and I went to college with Ryan Murphy, the creator of the TV show "Glee" (hey Ryan, if you're out there, I have some scripts I'd love for you to read!).  But whatever the spelling, my Rion is #1 in my rankings.

I'm going to rate this one on the same scale that I rate my own name.  This is an acceptable spelling, but just not the proper spelling for the person who actually ordered the tasty beverage.   RYAN is the first official recipient of the HALF-BINGO award.

Good enough for government work, you basterd.

Home brew and personalized items

After a couple of days of venti lattes and Americanos, I'm taking a break from Starbucks and making some coffee at home. I know it's completely old school, but Chock full o' Nuts is one of my favorite brands -- and for the price of two takeaway coffees, I can buy the giant canister.  We're talking pennies per cup!  Plus it's a lazy Saturday and I have no plans of getting out of my pajamas anytime soon.

Here's one of my favorite mugs, which my mother gave to me at least 15 or 20 years ago. Mom told me she named my brother David and I relatively common names so we would be able to get personalized souvenirs on vacation.  She said as a child she was always disappointed there were no keychains, pencils or coffee mugs with the name Norma on them.  I rarely see my name on such items anymore, but luckily I'm all good in the keychain department.  Stay tuned for the first guest entry on this blog later today.  

Join the Cheryl Revolution!

Do you have a relatively common or easy-to-spell name that gets mangled, or a more exotic name that is absolutely eviscerated every single time you order a coffee or take-out?  Snap a photo of your cup or receipt and email it to me at cheryl@igivegoodword.com and I'll post it here on this blog.

Or if you really want to get into the spirit, tell the barista or cashier your name is CHERYL and see what they come up with.

SHURL TEEGS

SHARROL

This Starbucks cashier was tall, pale, red-haired and freckled (i.e., he could be a distant cousin), so with all that waspy/Anglo-Saxon-ness coursing through his veins, he really doesn't have any excuses.

SHARROL.

This is one of the more common bastardizations of my name, along with Charrol.  While I do really appreciate the period after the name -- full stop, decisive and confident, I'm going to have to deduct one style point (-1) because of the double-R that also looks like an N.  It also seemed to confuse the barista.  She glanced at the cup and instead of announcing my name, just yelled, "Venti Americano with room!"  Perhaps she too was debating the Sharrol/Shanol paradox?

The Rules of This Quest

Now, dear readers, this seems a good place to explain the rules of this quest -- which, of course, are subject to change at my whim at any given time.  In order to be a BINGO, the subject must get the spelling EXACTLY right: Cheryl.  However, I will reluctantly consider Sheryl a HALF-BINGO, as it is a proper spelling of the name, but it's just not the way I spell it.  When -- or if I ever -- get a direct full-on Bingo without any prompting or support (i.e., they don't ask me how to spell my name), I will take a picture of me with that barista or clerk and post it on this blog.  To tell you the truth, I'm not so worried about that happening because I don't remember the last time someone actually spelled my name correctly.

It's a BINGO!

STYLE POINTS will be awarded purely at my discretion.  These can be doled out for any reason at all:  unique handwriting, interesting combo of syllables, a spelling that I've never seen or considered before, or just because I was in a good mood and my latte tasted extra yummy that day.

SPECIAL AWARDS will evolve as this blog does, but at this moment in time, I have three special awards:

- The CHARO, which will be given to anyone who has the balls to bring the cuchie cuchie.

- The CHERRELLE, as this is the nickname some of my dearest friends use with me, it deserves a special award.  I'll consider Cherrelle or Cherelle a direct hit with this award.

- The NO CIGAR, (as in close, but no cigar...) which will be given for a letter reversal or one wrong letter.

C/SHERYLL -- so close, but yet so far...

Another Starbucks attempt at spelling my name, and the first winner of the "No Cigar" award (as in close, but no cigar) on this blog.

C/Sheryll

She almost had it!  But alas, the double L is a deal breaker.  Maybe she did it this way because Cheryl loosely rhymes with Darnell?  But she got the Y -- and the order of YL correct -- which seems to be one of the most difficult components for the below-average speller.  However, I will give her +1 style points for the cleverly crafted first letter.  Look how she eloquently covered her bases by putting a little curly twist on the end of the C, so it could also be interpreted as an S.  Way to play both sides of the fence -- Impressive!

Cherrelle Didn't Mean to Turn You On

Although it's the obvious nickname, no one has ever really called me Cher.  Oh, occasionally someone is lazy or in a carb coma and can't say the second syllable of my name.  I've often thought it would be sweet if a boyfriend would call me Chére, as in ma chére, but alas, I've never had a French boyfriend.  The only nickname that's ever really stuck with me, other than my childhood pet name, Sissy, is Cherrelle (pronounced Shar-RELLE, with the emphasis on the last syllable).

For those of you who may not be familiar, Cherrelle was a late 80's R&B/dance performer.  She had a couple of hits with "Where Do I Run to?" and "Saturday Love".  But the favorite of my little group of party people was "I Didn't Mean to Turn You On," which Robert Palmer later covered.  This was a favorite pre-disco song.  That is, we would dance in our various apartments to this while we got pre-drunk for going out to get more drunk and to dance some more.  Ah, the 80's...

And while we're tossing around "80's R&B for $800, Alex," an interesting fact about Cherrelle is that her cousin is Pebbles of "Girlfriend" fame.  I would be absolutely thrilled if a barista spelled my name Cherrelle or Cherelle, but alas no one has been that creative yet.

SHARO

This receipt was hanging around the bottom of my purse from the weekend.  Yes, I was feeling hormonal and sorry for myself, so I went to Fatburger, The Last Great Hamburger Stand (what of it?), where the burgers are delicious and the cashiers don't know how to spell.

What really gets me about Sharo is that they're missing the "L" sound at the end. Granted, the cashier's name was Luis, so maybe he's 1st generation American, which makes sense because...

...This permutation gets me one step closer to blond bombshell bustiness that is María Rosario Pilar Martínez Molina Gutiérrez de los Perales Santa Ana Romanguera y de la Hinojosa Rasten, known to most of the world as simply Charo.

Cuchie cuchie!

What's your coffee name?

NPR did a funny little story about the fake names people give when they place orders.

What's your coffee name?

CHAROLE

Starbucks:  One of the worst offenders out there as far as misspelling names.  A couple of years ago I got so sick of it, that I decided to switch coffee names and give them an alias.  My middle name is Ellette, which I wouldn't expect anyone to know how to spell or even pronounce unless they had taken a couple of years of high school French.  I decided to tell the barista my name was "Elle".  After all, this was the era of Legally Blonde and Reese Witherspoon.  Surely everyone knew how to spell the heroine's name?  Nope.  When I picked up my venti soy latte, there was just one thing written on the cup:  a single letter L.  So much for trying to make it easy.

Anyway, adding to the Starbucks Dumbass Hall of Fame, here is today's entry on The Name is Cheryl.  I give them +2 style points for combining musical luminaries "Charo" (as in Cuchie cuchie) with "Carole" (as in King).  Or is it Char-Olé!?  Or Sha-ROHL-ay?

CHAROLE

As a side note, after the barista made my drink, he was puzzled/undecided on how to pronounce my newly mangled name, so he just called out, "venti soy latte!"

Why is it so difficult?

My name is not exotic. Granted, the name Cheryl hit its peak in the 1950's and was the 19th most popular name of the decade. It has not-so-slowly slid down the popularity scale. It was the 28th most popular girl’s name in the 60’s, then falling all the way to 706th in the 90’s, and not even ranked in the new millennium. However, there are plenty of Cheryls in popular culture:

- Cheryl Tiegs - American supermodel
- Cheryl Ladd - American actress and singer, most noted for the role of Kris Munroe on Charlie's Angels
- Cheryl Burke - a professional dancer best known for being the first two-time champion of the American version of Dancing with the Stars
- Cheryl Cole - British singer and member of Girls Aloud
- Cheryl Hines - American actress most famous for her role as Larry David's wife on HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm

And although a less popular spelling, Sheryl is also acceptable as in:

- Sheryl Crow, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter and musician
- Sheryl Swoopes, basketball player and member of the WNBA

I'm starting this blog because I'm alternately amused/annoyed/surprised and appalled at the various incorrect spellings of Cheryl I get whenever I order coffee or takeout. I hope you'll be amused too.

Enjoy!