In dispatch it is relatively rare that a name is provided on its own for official purposes. Generally it will either be spelled phonetically to ensure proper recording (‘Thomas’ is tango-hotel-ocean-mike-alpha-sierra, for instance), or simply followed by a confirmation that the common spelling is to be used.
This is done to help make sure that you don’t end up with the wrong spelling of ‘Alexander’ or ‘Lakesha’, since names are recorded just one way in the major databases, and you don’t want to arrest someone because they use some non-standard spelling and you didn’t know it.
Of course this isn’t a perfect system. I mean, is the common spelling ‘Marcus’ or ‘Markus’?
Anyway, on to the point. On Monday we had a little exchange that made me laugh. And I thought I’d share it with you.
Thomas
Archilles Amanachus.
What’s so difficult about that?
btw, I’m pretty sure Marcus is the common spelling.
I’m reading this as being pretty tongue-in-cheek, but…
I’m pretty sure that a) the name isn’t common enough to have a common spelling, and b) the last name has an ‘r’ in it, possibly ‘Armanockus’.
Also, I’d guess that, at least locally, ‘Marcus’ and ‘Markus’ are about equally common.
Thomas
Hilarious!
I guess it’s somewhat hard to tell when I’m joking with the dead-pan gaze from my icon directly above, but it was indeed pretty tongue-in-cheek.