Give me a "j," please!

Niranjana is really not that difficult of a name, frankly, compared with other Indian names — even with the other "Indian" names, like Sacajawea and Pocohontas. Sure, there is a minor pronunciation surprise with the neh-RIN-jin-ah, and few loved ones are still mastering this.

But learning to spell Niranjana shouldn't be THAT hard. Really, it's only five out of the 26 letters. And there are lots of children at our preschool with unique names. Ajia, Edy, Azat, Majia. I have blogged about this before.

So why is it that one mystery teacher/assistant consistently spells Niranjana's name wrong on her artwork: Nirigana.

Yesterday, this came home in the form of large letters in black paint on a half-sheet of paper. This is at least the third time this winter and I've mentioned it once to the main teacher. So this morning I pulled out a pen and wrote "Correct spelling: Niranjana," signed and dated it, then put it in the pocket for teacher notes.

I got it back tonight. "This was written by Niranjana while doing activities in the 1st and 2nd grade classroom — Miss C." (She was referring to a Renaissance Faire the older kids held a few weeks ago.)

Insert expletive here! There is no way on God's green earth that our daughter wrote her name this neatly and completely — regardless of the spelling. I watched her sign 32 valentine's cards with just an N, half of them looking like a Z or a squiggle. Sometimes we can get her to write an N and a P for her initials. No way she wrote this.

To top it off, one of the Valentine's Day crafts that was in her box to take home tonight had a teacher-written name in the corner: Nirangana. It clearly had been corrected at least once. And still wasn't corrected enough.

Our parent-teacher conference is Tuesday. This is on the list. Not a big item, in the grand scheme of things, but one of the small concerns that we need to nip in the bud.

Niranjana is her name. What's her nickname? "Niranjana." She has a lifetime of spelling and pronouncing her name, and the people who are helping her learn how to write it really should get it right.