Saturday, November 12, 2011

F as in Frank

I have one of those last names where spelling it over the phone is almost impossible if you want it spelled correctly because the letters sound similar to other letters. So, I've adopted my own phonetic alphabet. Here is how you spell my last name: F as in Frank, O, R, S as is Sam, B as in Boy, E, R, G. Most people can get that right. But it got me curious about the military phonetic alphabet. Here is how you would spell my name. Foxtrot Oscar Romeo Sierra Bravo Echo Romeo Golf. And then, of course, I was looking at all the other letters and some of them just seem odd. Hotel. India. Kilo. Lima. November. Uniform. Whiskey. I kind of wish I could have been a fly on the wall for the discussion when they came up with which words to use for each letter! If there were women involved, it probably took weeks. If there were men involved, it was probably just the first word they associated with each letter. Either way, some of the choices are just...interesting.

1 comment:

Ann said...

I thought when my name switched from Steinhofer to Forsberg that it would be easier for everyone to spell. Notsomuch, for the exact reason you mentioned!