Family Tree Research: They got my name wrong!

I don't know if it's because there is a baby on the way, or because a new series of 'Who do you think you are' has just started airing on the BBC, but I've suddenly developed the urge to look into my roots more deeply.

I've signed up to a free trial of Ancestry.com and started digging around. The best way to start is to begin a family tree with your own details and start filling in as you go.

So far all I've found are these quarterly birth certificate reports. These are not your individual birth certificate which you use all your life when you need to prove your identity, apply for a passport and so on, but a big index of names of people born in a particular region during a three month period. They just list your first name, surname and your mothers maiden name. These reports are submitted to central government once a quarter and have been since approximately 1916.

I found mine.

They got my name wrong.

Literally totally wrong. My first name has been totally changed by the first two letters. I know it's my record because it's the correct date, has my somewhat unusual surname and my mothers maiden name.  It has to be me.

This leaves me with one of two possibilities. My mother has lied to me my whole life about my name. When I was born she gave me this 'other' name, but decided once the post labour pain killers had worn off that it didn't fit me. So she somehow she went back in time and had my individual birth certificate altered so that it displays my 'current name' and the shameful secret of my 'other' name has been confined only to this quarterly record.

Or somewhere a civil servant fell pray to the curse of my 'current name'. I'm thinking this is the more likely option because I've experienced the curse before. My 'current name' is rather unusual. There are currently less then 2000 people in the UK with my first name. It's a simple name in my opinion but for some reason in it's written form it renders people completely incapable of the previous simple task of copying one word from one document and onto another.

I have lost track of the number of times someone has read aloud from a register or list something that vaguely sounds like my name, but actually isn't. The hotel reservations I have almost lost because technically they are in someone else's name altogether. The emails I have received in response to emails which I myself have written which, despite the fact that my name is clearly spelt in big clear letters in my signature, the author of the reply has decided to spell my name completely differently.

I want to know what goes through peoples minds when the curse hits. Do they look at how I, the owner and user of my name, have spelt it and think to themselves 'nah, she can't possibly have meant that's how her name is spelt, what she actually must have meant is ______'. Not even just odd spellings, but actually changing the first few letters so that the sound of the name is totally different too. I just can't understand the thought process. OK, OK my name is unusual. I get it that you might not spell it right the first time if you hear it over the phone. But why the heck can't you copy it down correctly when it is written in front of you!

It is now late and I should go to bed. I will ponder this mystery in my dreams and in the morning quiz my mother to see if she has actually been telling the truth all these years.