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Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Why Claireyhewitt is ClaireyHewitt.


Attending some blogging shin digs in recent weeks I seem to have confused people with my name.

While some organizers decided my first name was now Clairey, as do most PRs that write to me, some others got it all wrong and used Clair (no 'e').

I just fix my name tags and off I go.

But then a couple of bloggers asked what my name was too and why Clairey?

So here is the story.

Back last century I was backpacking through Ireland with a uni friend, the wonderful Lizzy Dee. We had time to spare in Dublin and we wandered into a very high tech store...an Internet cafe. Being such cool cats we opened yahoo email accounts to make it easier to keep in contact with those few people who had emails at home.

Can you believe that Clairehewitt was already gone. My name is apparently quite common.

As my uni friends and travel mates had been calling me Clairey, that was what I used.

Years later I don't see my uni friends much at all and my work mates have never called me Clairey. The friends I see most, my groupies, they call me Claire.

When I started this blog I had no idea what I was really doing. I used the claireyhewitt URL because once again Clairehewitt.blogspot was gone. But at that time this blog was called Babble On.

Then I hit twitter...shock horror again, Clairehewitt was taken, but Claireyhewitt was mine all mine, it is my back up, what I use when I need a log in to remember.

And then people started to read this blog and the different URL and name was confusing.

So I had my redesign done and just went with Clairey Hewitt.

But my name is Claire.

You can call me Clairey, but if we don't know each other it is kind of weird, like meeting a Louise and calling them Lou Lou, or a David and calling him Davo.

Bloggers are calling me Clairey. Maybe that is ok, maybe they read my stuff and kind of 'know' me so thus the familiar is ok. But what if they never comment and I don't know them.

I'm not sure.

But that's the story of how the name Clairey Hewitt came to be.


21 comments:

  1. LOL, I was wondering if it was Claire or Clairey! I had a friend when I first started working as a journo called sandra. her last name began with a c. I still think of her as sandrac, as it would flash up so regularly on my screen at work when we chatted instead of working!

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  2. Funny how names stick isn't it. NomiePT is my twitter name, and for a while I commented with it on blogs too... now people call me Nomie, which I am used to as 25 kinder kids do it most years. But not usually adults.

    I was going to change my twitter name to NaomiPT, but then the blog conference came and I had cards made.. and Nomie it is.

    As for Clairey... I assumed y was perhaps the initial of your middle name... shows how much I know !

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  3. I'm kind of glad you cleared that up, actually. In my head, you're Claire. But I wondered if it was supposed to be "Clairey", but I feel wierd calling someone I"ve never met a name that I assumed was a family endearment, if you know what I mean.

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  4. To me you will always be Gwynneth x

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  5. Thanks Melissa,

    I wasn't sure how to write this one, or if needed, but you have confirmed it was.

    Mrs Woog, you can call me Gwynnie.

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  6. Funnily enough I'd always wondered this! Thanks for clearing up :) Am very uncomfortable with calling people by nicknames when only just met - however a few beverages later and its another story!

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  7. I must admit that when I think of you I think of you as Clairey, even though I know the story and I know that's not your name. I kind of like it. I think it suits you :) Claire seems such a straight name, with the 'y' added on, it makes it fun - like you.

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  8. Ahh, was wondering if I got your name write when I emailed you as Claire! Thank goodness I was. :) But good to know why you're called Claireyhewitt! ;)

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  9. Well Clairey, uh, I mean Claire. I think I thought your name was Claire. Yay for me.
    I call my hubby Shane-y. LOL

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  10. I've always thought of you as Claire. Probably because of that endless ride through Sydney in a minibus. I knew your blog was Babble On, so no confusion for me.

    Btw, Naomi, I always think of you as Nomie, too.

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  11. Well, in my head you are Clairey so if I start calling you Claire now - it would just seem too formal. Like, a business arrangement.

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  12. Oh i just arrived & you've sorted out one question i would have wondered already, hello Claire, pleased to meet you. I'm Jennie but go by Posie as it's my business name, so i get people calling me both, doesn't bother me. I sign off as Posie as it's an alter ego from . . . last century when i started my business while a new mummy & being a designer after collecting 2 science degrees didn't make sense to me either, so i thought i'd play pretendies instead. Yay, now i'm off to click on your follow button, love Posie

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  13. You'll always be Clairey to me. Just like I'm Kymmie to you. But my name is Kym, not Kymmie.

    So, what to do now?

    So glad you covered this, because I did wonder if your initial was Y for a while (when your blog was Babble On)...

    xx

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  14. Having a unique handle online is a definite asset as you already found out. I am glad to be the only GrowMap anywhere I look (at least so far) and it makes it a lot easier to find me everywhere.

    Clairey beats strangers calling you "honey" in the comments.

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  15. My sister is a Claire who has always been called Clairie by family.

    My best school friend was a Clare who I called Clarey since 1980.

    Clairey is nice.

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  16. I totally get this. My family call me Kammy because when my little brother, who is 9 years younger than me, started to talk he couldn't say 'Karen' but used to say 'Kamen'. Kamen turned into Kam which morphed into Kammy and it's stuck. I have an email address with kammycollum and I think of myself as Kammy, but I'm really reluctant to let anyone who doesn't love me dearly use it! I had a lecturer at uni once call me Kammy and it was just wrong. It's my special name that is reserved for special people. Thanks for sharing :)

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  17. I'm just reading this again, but wanted to say how much I like your new "About Me" section.

    Liking even more that I feel like I know you better.

    Almost enough to call you Clairey, not Claire. xx

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  18. I found this link in my stats as some lovely person must have clicked over to me from here. I've always thought of you as Clairey. It was nice to learn how it came about and I can't promise that I won't call you that next time we have the opportunity to meet up :)

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