I and My Difficult Name

Yes, my official name is "Benny Ardi Pandowo", which is quite long. So if I were to spell out my name, it would take about 1 minute to do so.

"Benny. B for Bangkok - E - N for Norway - N for Norway.. Yes, I mean TWO Norways! - Y"

"Then space. Ardi. A - R for Riyadh - Oh you don't know? Hmm.. let me think.. R for Rotterdam? - Still don't know? Gosh.. you watch football? R for Real Madrid, yes. - D for Denmark - I"

"Space. My family name is Pandowo.. P for Poland - A - N for Norway - D for Denmark - O - W - O.. So, it's Benny Ardi Pandowo. Got it?"



You see? It's not very easy. Maybe only Greg Uttsada Panichkul can emphatize with me on how difficult it is to spell out a name.. although the later has decided to cut down the unnecessary trouble by allowing people to call him "Utt", yes that MTV VJ.



It's easy for Utt.. Even if he insists to use his name.. or even if his name is Gregwerqjghyk Uttsadawakakakaka Panichkulosis, girls will make some effort to remember.. But for someone like me who is not blessed with physical beauty like that, we don't have that luxury.


Second reason..

When I started to introduce my name as "Benny", especially when I am catching cold, people started to ask..


"Sorry, Debbie?"

"Eh.. Hebbie?"

"Beppie?"

"Baby?"


For goodness sake, I never find a man named Debbie unless he is undergoing a major sex-change surgery.

Hebbie and Beppie are not even proper names according to the majority's standard.

I know I have a baby-face, but to use "baby" to call a mature 22-year-old man for the first meeting sounds more disgusting than to call a 90-year-old woman "my lovely sweety pie"



SO... Usually I proceed by saying.. "No, Benny... You know Ben.. Yes that Ben, Benny"

Most people with IQ at least 110 will get it. But the rest with IQ a bit below average will ask..

"So, your name is Ben or Benny?"

-_-"




And then at one point of time I started to realize, hey, BEN sounds not bad. We have Ben Affleck. We have Benjamin Franklin.. We have Benny Ardi Pandowo.

Why not I change my name, at least my nickname to "Ben"?


People do it all the time..


Nicholas prefers to be called "Nick"

Raymond prefers to be called "Ray"

Christopher prefers to be called "Chris"

Alexandre prefers to be called "Alex"

for girl, Jennifer prefers to be called "Jen"


The list goes on and on..

So, what stops me from choosing the name "Ben" over "Benny" for my name, or for the time being, for my nick name?


I have nothing against my so-called official name. That's the most beautiful name on earth given by my parents and my elder brother. BUT. We are talking about business here, and in business, for most of the time, the simpler, the better.



"Hi my name is Ben. Ben Pandowo."

Or maybe.. "Hi, my name is Benny Pandowo. Just call me Ben."

It sounds much better.



I totally disagree with the saying.. "What's in a name?" by William Shakessphere.. Eh, Sheaks-pere... I mean... forget it. You tell me, William SEX - WHO???