A woman named Samantha Hart has gone viral on TikTok, sharing how her unfortunate initials have caused her company’s HR department to avoid using her name in emails. When companies use the format of the first initial followed by the last name, her email becomes “shart.” Samantha humorously recounts, “I always have to have the tough conversation about how my name fits into a company email structure,” and admits to ‘dreading’ job switches due to this issue.

Other people with similar problems shared their stories too. Examples include Chris Littmann (Clittmann), Samantha Wallo (Swallo), and Patrick Ecker (Pecker). One person recalled, “Ours was first 5 of last + first initial. One guy was gonna be McA*** so they gave him a special one.”

Samantha mentioned that HR has reached out twice to address her naming issue. “They told me that my name doesn’t exactly fit the email structure and would I mind if they gave me a different structure for my email,” she said. To avoid such awkwardness, she now contacts HR proactively when starting a new job.