Is Kelly O’Brien a woman or a man?
I need to make a professional correspondence with this person and would like to use Mr. or Ms. to address them. I've never met or spoken on the phone with them; so how would you "address" this situation?
TIA
Radar
I've had the same scenario recently. One of my client's auditing/ comptroller department head is named "Terry". I was told to forward cc of everything to Terry.
Soooo...all my correspondence to them started with "Terry"...
He later called to clarify some things.
PS - you might try FB or LinkedIn for some insight...;-)
> PS - you might try FB or LinkedIn for some insight...;-)
You would of thought.......
I guess there isn't anything wrong with Hi Kelly, bla bla bla......
Many years ago I addressed a letter to an individual in a position where 99 percent of those holding such positions were male. I addressed it to Mr. Whatever. My response came from Ms. Whatever. How was I to know LaRue was female? The street, right?
At one time I knew three men with the first name, June. Who would do that to their baby boy intentionally?
Today, I went with Mrs. Cow for her first visit with a medical specialist. His first name was Anderson. Again, who would do that to their baby boy intentionally? You know he is going to end up wearing a mask at work or work in D.C. where they should be required to wear masks.
Dugger ...Googling "Kelly O’Brien a woman or a man" and you get an overwhelming female response so go with the odds!
....Err and if wrong then you can have a laugh later with Kelly by telling him that you took the advice of a bloody OZ... LOL!
RADU
“I need to make a professional correspondence with this person and would like to use Mr. or Ms. to address them”
I would use this: Dear Kelly O’Brien,
JMHO B-)
Thank you; you are wise beyond your years.
My first name is sometimes confusing to people. I don't get offended. If someone gets it wrong, they will never forget you afterwards. One of my best clients' first name is Lynn. Why his parents named him that I don't know. Was it Johnny Cash that had the song "A Boy Named Sue"?
There were two kids named Lynn in a class about four years behind me in school. One boy, one girl.
I'm familiar with a family where all six kids had names that could have gone either way or could have done so with minor alteration. I really think the parents were prepared for whichever gender showed up. There was Max (Maxine), Lynn (a female), Gayle (a female), Donna (Donald), Ann (Andrew) and Terry (a male). One of the females had a middle name of Dale, after Dale Evans (Mrs. Roy Rogers).
:good:
Did you ever see the movie: "It's Pat"?
[flash width=560 height=315]//www.youtube.com/v/rTtmddry2cg?version=3&hl=en_US[/flash]
He/she had a regular skit on Saturday Night Live that was normally pretty funny.
One name that confuses me is Marian/Marion. The first one has the letters m,a, and n but is almost always a female.
My Grandfather and my Mother
were named Vivian.
I think ambiguity in gender of names is increasing, along with the tendency to make up new spellings.
But the most unusual old one I know of was one of the GLO deputy surveyors in mid-1800's Iowa named Jenifer Sprigg. I haven't researched it, but I think we'd have heard if this was a woman. I think he worked earlier in Arkansas and Missouri.
From http://history.cosl.org/surveyors.htm
Jennifer T. Sprigg
He was a resident of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the first surveyor to document the landscape of the New Madrid area following the earthquakes of 1812. The Sprigg Journals are still widely used by both historians and surveyors. He later served as Captain of the Home Guards in the Blackhawk Wars in Illinois from 1831-1832.
I always do as much due diligence as possible on FB, Linkedin, Spokeo, Zabasearch, google, company websites, calling admin assistants, etc. and if still in doubt just use their Full name.
