Why is your name pronounced 'K'?

When we were young we all pretty much had nicknames. Some good, some bad and some definitely ugly. And I, unfortunately, fit into the last category.

I won't go into it. But let’s just say it was the late ‘70s and early ‘80s in the UK.

When I grew older and left school, I didn’t encounter the ‘ugly’. However, my name is pretty hard to say for most, so I had different names.

This is how the evolution of my name began.

One day I went to the bank with my stepmother to open an account. I had to come up with a signature. What? Now? I thought.

I created a signature with the first three letters of my name ‘Kia’ and last name ‘Kamgar’ under it. With the second ‘K’ merging into the ‘i’ from my first name. I know it’s stupid, but hey I was like 12. Give me a break.

So ‘Kia’ it was until I started working at my first ‘real job’ in a bank. However, they had problems pronouncing my name, so I came up with ‘Tony’, which was my best friend's name at the time. I was ‘Tony’ for about 4 years.

After my banking role, I had various jobs and one was as a receptionist. There, I had to sign off on documents quite regularly. And it was then when I reverted back to ‘Kia’. After some time my signature got shortened to just ‘K’ as it was easier to sign. And that's how the name 'K' was born.

So why is ‘Kia’ pronounced ‘K'?

Well, I write it as ‘Kia’ because a one-letter name is not a great thing to write in a professional setting, but whenever I’m asked how to pronounce it, I just simply say… K

Now you know.