Failed The Name Game, Part 13

This story reminded me of a name tag mishap of my own. When I was in college, I worked in a grocery store, usually at self-checkouts. To log into a self-checkout machine, we had to scan a barcode on the back of our name tag and punch in a short passcode.

One morning, I realized that I had accidentally left my name tag at home, so my manager gave me hers to use for the day. Her name was very normal for a woman her age, but very weird for someone my age; let’s say it was Barbara. I honestly wasn’t expecting anyone to notice; I’ve swapped name tags with a male coworker before, and no comments were made about it.

A few hours later, I helped a male customer who saw “Barbara” on my name tag.

Customer: “Your name is Barbara? You don’t see that name much anymore. That was my sister’s name, you know. She died about five years ago now. Seeing someone with her name, it almost feels like she’s still here.”

I remained rooted to the spot and made appropriate sympathetic noises as this guy extolled the virtues of his dead sister, which he clearly needed if he was trauma-dumping on a random worker, but I also felt bad about inadvertently reminding this guy of something so painful when Barbara WASN’T EVEN MY NAME.

Customer: “If you don’t mind me asking, why did your parents decide to name you Barbara?”

Me: *Panicking.* “Um… They didn’t. My name is actually [Completely Different Name]. I’m borrowing my manager’s name tag today. Her name is Barbara. She’s at the service desk if you’d like to see her. And I’m very sorry about your sister.”

This poor man looked absolutely CRUSHED, mumbled an apology, and quickly paid and left. And I started triple-checking that I had my name tag before going to work to avoid that EVER happening again.

Related:
Failed The Name Game, Part 12
Failed The Name Game, Part 11
Failed The Name Game, Part 10
Failed The Name Game, Part 9
Failed The Name Game, Part 8