Lynn R

I saw a news item last night about a man from the poorest state in India who has just won $1M on their version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire - shades of Slumdog Millionaire!

Have any of you had events in your life which have mirrored the plot of a film or book?

I've been called Shirley Valentine more times than I care to remember because I met my OH on a tiny Greek island, co-incidentally in the same year the film came out.

Lorna at Vicenza

I've been stupidly called Lorna Doone several times because of the book title, but not by anybody who has actually read it.

fionamw

Not that I can think of right now, but I almost always, when saying my name to someone for the first time, trot out "Fiona -como la princesa en Shrek!" .... usually gets a laugh, breaks the ice and they know my name from that point on!

Lorna at Vicenza

I've had allsorts.

Lorna - oh is that Lorena?
No
I am not a Lorraine

What's your name? Norma?
No. It's Lorna .... elle-oh-rrr-enne- eh


What's your name? Gorna ???? ha ha ha ha ha - from people who know. Gorna means a bloody drainpipe in Italian but it's also a nickname for one who likes to drink much.

One old guy even asked me if my name was nonna - the Italian for Grandma.


Italians also like their diminuitives like casa/casetta .... macchina/macchinetta ...... piccola/piccolina.

I'm slim so some Italian friends have taken my name and Italinised it to Lornina or Lornetta.

Rosemary

You would think that my name would be easy but one of my friends sends text messages with it spelt Ros Meri and no matter how many I send her signed with the correct spelling it does not changed. One of my elderly neighbours spent ages with Graham one day trying to teach him how to say my name correctly because of course we do not say all of the vowels and not in the same way and also have different emphasis. Great fun to watch, especially because she was getting frustrated with him getting it wrong and he could not see why he was wrong.

Rosemary

Lorna at Vicenza

Ros Meri

Reminds me of the Italians who call cold roast beef .... ros bif

evamar

After almost 11 years living in the UK I still have friends -not even getting at people I just meet- calling me "iva" or "eiva" instead of Eva. I try to say like Emma but with a B, eba.

... Nothing works... only 3 people here call me by my real name... Of course they could call me worse things, most of them true...