What is my name???

My name – Mathew
Two big issues happened on my name – Mathew

Single ‘t’ vs Double ‘t’
I didn’t know that my name is Mathew instead of Matthew. Before I took UPSR, I always thought that my name was having double ‘t’s. Details confirmation or double checking needed to be carried out before sending out my registration details by my school. During the confirmation of my details, I was 100% sure that my name was having 2 ‘t’s instead of 1. So, I told my teacher there was an error on my name in front of the whole class. However, one of the students who helped my teacher to do the checking insisted that he/she was certain about the spelling was correct because careful checking was being carried out based on my IC. But this was my name, how could anybody know my name better that I do. I became even more confident when lots of classmates were backing me too. Perhaps they thought that I knew my name better than everybody else as well. In order to prove that I was ‘innocent’, I checked again on the spelling of my name. Since then, I started to realise that my name is having single ‘t’ when I was 12.

Pronunciation of ‘tew’ vs ‘thew’
I never ever thought that I will encounter another ‘unknown’ for my name after the first incident. This was a much greater amazement for me. I discovered this when I came to the UK. When I introduced or pronounced my name to others, most of the time they will either ask me to repeat my name or to spell it for them especially for those who are non-Malaysians. I felt very weird because how could they not familiar with the spelling of such a common name. In addition, isn’t this name supposed to be a name which is regularly used in the UK? I was not sure whether it was fortunate or unfortunate that I came to know about the problem from a Chinese friend. Basically, there was no difference when I pronounced the words with ‘t’ or ‘th’ (I think many Malaysians are having the same problem too). The pronunciations of ‘tree’=‘three’, ‘tin’=‘thin’, so the way that I pronounced ‘Mathew’ was as though ‘Matew’. It was 22 when I came to know about this.

Having two surprises for my name help me to become a more open minded person because who knows whether there will be any more unexpected on my name in the years to come!