When the students at Middletown Area High School in Pennsylvania picked up their yearbooks, they were in for a surprise. On four of the yearbook’s 176 pages, last names of students were changed to creative new monikers:

• Max Zupanovic became “Max Supernova”
• Kathy Carbaugh became “Kathy Airbag”
• William Givler became “William Giver”
• Cameron Bendgen became “Cameron Bandage”
• Kayla Hrobak became “Kayla Throwback”
• Allesandra Ippolito became “Alexandria Impolite”

As a former high school yearbook adviser, my first inclination was to assume that some sneaky yearbook staff members played a practical joke. Not so. Turns out it was Taylor Publishing Company’s fault.

Apparently, an automated spell-checker at the yearbook publishing giant ran amok, randomly changing unfamiliar last names to names its built-in dictionary recognized.

Misspelling names in any document is the kiss of death. If you apply for a job and misspell the hiring manager’s name on your cover letter, you can forget about landing that job. One author I know discovered that his name had been misspelled on the cover of his first book. Ouch!

My co-blogger, Jim Rubart, has been referred to as “Jim Rhubarb” more than once. My maiden name (Hutchison) and my married name (Christianson) are routinely misspelled. When people carelessly turn “Hutchison” into “Hutchinson” or “Christianson” into “Christensen,” “Christian,” “Christenson,” or myriad other permutations, it makes me lose a bit of respect for the speller, whom I suspect didn’t care enough to do a simple double-check.

In the case of the yearbook “spell checker gone wild,” human intervention would have (hopefully) rectified the error before the yearbooks went to press.

The lesson here is: Spell-check your spell checker.

Don’t assume that your computer has all the answers. Double- and triple-check the spelling of all names…after your computer’s had a crack at them.

Readers: In what creative ways does your name get mangled…either by humans or computers?

Tags: HeBlogsSheBlogs.com, spelling, Writing