“Jacque.” How do you say that?
When I was an infant, my brother called me “Jwack” because he couldn’t pronounce it. My mom thought this was so hysterical she called me that for years until I was old enough to fight back. In college, friends called me “JQ” because of how I spelled it. (I still tag script comments with “-- jq” and I have to remember to change the initials if anyone else is going to see it.) Lots and lots of people call me “Jack” for short, which I don’t mind, though really it’s pronounced “Jackie”. People who have only seen me in print call me “Jacques”, the French way, which is a lot prettier. My son calls me “mama.” The US Post Office calls me “Resident”.
When I first got a modem and started calling local BBSs, I signed myself “Jacque Gay” and everyone thought I was a guy, which was natural since there were virtually no women online at the time. I let them think it for almost a year until I dropped a reference to “my husband”. That caused such a stir, especially with a last name like “Gay”, that I started signing myself as “Jacqueline” just to keep from embarrassing anyone I corresponded with.
My husband Jack, on the other hand, was called “Jackie” for his entire childhood. When one of our mothers says “Jack” we both respond. As a matter of fact, when one of our mothers says “Jackie” we also both respond. When we get mail for “J. Gay” we never know who should open it. When we have to sign for a package, we both sign “J Gay” because it’s faster to write. Both our middle names start with “S” too, so I dropped my middle name and started using my maiden name in the middle instead—having two “J.S. Gay”s in the house was a mess. When we answer the phone and someone unfamiliar asks for “Jack” we toss a coin.
Our friends just avoid the whole issue and refer to us in the plural as “Da Jax.”
For professional info about me, see Who We Are on my commercial site.
