The leader of a cabal of prescriptive grammarians from the Princeton Center for Aptitude is ordering English speakers to stop uttering the nonsensical phrase “my name is” during introductions, particularly when more than one name is given. Doing this, he says, makes you appear dimwitted, and is tantamount to saying codswallop like, “Ain’t got the foggiest.”
The new rule is based on the discovery that most people have two names, and in some cases three or four.
“You can say ‘my name is James’ and you’re in the clear,” said Patrick Kinster, a language expert whose book “Grammar Rulz” is distributed to more than half a million students every year. “You can even get away with ‘my name is Bond’ because a last name is still a singular name.”
“But who in his right mind says, ‘my name is James Bond?’” Kinster said. “That’s absurd. Has everyone forgotten how to count?”
Kinster and other prescriptive grammarians are suggesting English speakers immediately recognize the mistake and change their habits accordingly.
“It may sound clunky now, but soon everyone will be saying it,” Kinster added. “The correct form is, ‘My names are James and Bond.’”
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