OK I agree. I have a long name. Divya Ramasubramanian. 21 characters including the space in between my first and second names. This name has amused some, confused some, gave a few a chance to giggle and even scared some. Some love to butcher it, some make their own versions.

Here goes the aliases of 'Divya Ramasubramanian' given by different people in the order of who gave it and the alias itself.
( Note: This does not include my pet names and love-names

1) Who - ME! Until I was 3years old
Name - Ziya papa
(Translated - Ziya baby - Divya is quite complex to pronounce you know...)

2) Who - Every 5th person I meet
Name - Vidya
(Tempts me to believe that every 5th person I come across could be dyslexic!)

3) Who - Vicchu mama - Neighbour in Chennai
Name - Deepika
(He claimed its easier to remember and say, I had to remind him its not even close)

4)Who - Primary school
Name - R Divya
(I quite liked this short and sweet version)

5) Who - Guys in my building when I was a teenager
Name - matchis ki Dibya
(Furious, had a fight, stopped talking to them)

6) Who - High school teacher and hence a few teasing friends
Name - Davia Rama-Subra-Manian
(That was said by counting fingers)

7) Who - Junior high friends
Name - Divaiyya
(Ragged with the song 'Divaiyya vasta vaiyya...aaargh)

8) Who - Engg friends
Name - DR
(I quite liked it, but many 'non-welcome' people tried to hit on me pronouncing DR as 'dear')

9) Who - many
Name - Divya Subramanyam
(Conveniently forgot 'Rama' part - not too bad, can live with it)

10) Who - Friends
Name - Divs, Divi, Di, Diya, Diva, DP(abbr of Divya Pagal)
(Happily OK)

11) Who - Naughty Friends
Name - Ramu
(Now why drag my dad into this!)

12) Who - Family, when they want a favour from me
Name - Dibu/ Dibuma
(I retort with 'What do you want this time?')

13) Who - British Uni professor
Name -
(He preferred not saying my name at all. Once he was writing it down, asked me to spell it for him
Me: D-I-V-Y-A
Him: Is there really a Y after a V?)

14) Who - National Railway on my ID card
Name - Mr D R Bramanian
(How humiliating! I hate producing it to the ticketing officers - never meet their gaze :P)

On a similar note..

15) Who - My gym
Name - Divya R Banian
(I had entered Divya R Manian)

16) Who - A Bangladeshi salesman
Name - Dibba (on the verge of fainting, trying to read my second name, he skipped it)
(He did apologise for not being able to pronounce my name)

17) Who - European telephone banking guy
Name - Miss Ramas - ubarum....can I call you Miss Divya if u don't mind?
(I would give you a tenner for saying my full name, even if you pronounced it wrong!)

18) Who - My hairdresser
Name - Nivea
(Seriously, what were you thinking???)

This one's cool -
19)Who - ex-boss
Name - Divya Supermario
(One day my ex-manager bet him to spell my name correctly, ex-boss lost £5, though I gained nothing, sigh)

My best friend's name is Divya too. If you are reading this girl, you are more than welcome to add to the list :)