The recent trend of parents going out of their way to give their children unique names has brought up a lot of discussion on social media. Some of these names sound cute when a child is 5 years old. But will Caeleigh, Zoomer or Rhyedyr look like a serious adult on a job application in a few years?
A recent viral video on TikTok is a unique twist on the current discussion surrounding names. Samantha Hart has a name that doesn’t seem like it would draw any negative attention in professional circles. However, her parents didn’t consider email conventions when they named her back in the late ‘90s when email was new.
“My name is Samantha Hart,” the 27-year-old said. “Most companies use the email designation of first initial, last name, meaning my email would be shart.” For the uninitiated, a shart is an unintentional release when one thinks they only have gas.
The issue arose because Samantha has had two “professional” jobs in the past in which her name has been an issue. So, as she began a third job, she wondered how to approach the situation with a new employer.
@thesam_show sorry if i talk about this problem too much but it is HAPPENING AGAIN!!
“At every single workplace, I have received an email from HR the week before I start letting me know that my name does not exactly fit the company email structure as they would intend and [asked] would I mind if they gave me a different structure for my email,” Hart said.
So she asked her 30,000 followers on TikTok if she should just “reach out, right off the bat” to her employer and ask for “something else” or wait for HR to react to her email situation. But most of the responses were from people who have been in the same embarrassing situation as Samantha and wished their parents had thought twice before naming them.
“Clittmann has entered the chat. Have been dealing with this since college,” Chris.Littmann responded.
“As Swallo, I feel your pain,” Samantha Wallo replied.
“My name is Sue Hartlove so my work emails are always shartlove,” Sue added.
“I went to college w Tiffany Estes,” Abby1233213 wrote.
“Rkelley has entered the chat,” Rach commented.
“Worked with a guy named Sam Adcock,” Lori added.
“My last name is Hartstein, and my mom’s personal email is ‘shartstein.’ People literally call her shart-stein,” Lyss wrote.
“I used to work with a BAllsman,” JenniferKerastas added.
“I worked with a Patrick Ecker at a previous job…” NoName wrote.
“Our high school used last name, first two letters of first name. My friend’s email ended up being ‘mountme,'” Averageldeal commented.
Andy Marks won the comment section with: “Always best to initiate the shart convo… wait too long and it tends to come out at the least opportune moment.”
While the comments were dominated by people sharing their unfortunate email addresses, a few people in the IT field shared their advice for how Samantha should approach her new employer with her email issue. Most agreed that she should address the issue before it becomes a larger problem.
“As someone in IT—please reach out. When we have to rename a bunch of logins after someone starts it can cause headaches for everyone (inc you!),” Kelsey Lane wrote.