Igmar Bergman
August 31st, 2008
Okay, English speakers. It’s time we had a little chat.
Now. I know you’re used to names the likes of Bill, Ted, Chad, John, and the like. You know, very familiar, English names that roll off of both the tongue and the fingers easily. You’ll almost never have to worry about misspelling those names just because they’re so regular to you.
That said, every now and then you ARE going to have to spell names of people from different countries. It’s an inevitability; and though it’s not that big of a deal when it just comes to searching for that person online, if you were to, say, write a paper on them, you’d want to make sure you get the name right every time.
‘Igmar Bergman’, given the nature of this blog, is a perfect example. ‘Igmar’, as far as we know, is not a name. It’s just a typo. The guy’s name is ‘Ingmar’. Ingmar Bergman. If you want to pay proper homage to these people then you really need to get their names right. Yet thousands don’t every day and, in their haste to get the results they want, end up with a fictional person born from a typo, and little else.
Do the right thing. Spell the name correctly. You’ll be a better person for it, at least in my eyes. (And don’t worry, there’s lots of Ingmar Bergman stuff for you on this blog. You’ve been saved.)