Born into an Italian/Greek family, I was bound to end up with a name like "Alessandra Dickos."
I soon began to go by "Saun-drah" in order to give others a break from pronouncing my birth-given name.
However, even if people make it past the initial hurdle of saying my first name correctly, there's really no stopping their facial expressions when they attempt my surname...
And after 25 years of seeing the faces and the (sometimes) stifled laughs, I figured I'd just play up the joke.
After all, life's all about having a sense of humor.