I’ve gone through my life spelling my surname at least half a dozen times a day and dealing with various nicknames (Petits Filous, Petty Pettis etc) but much like Tigger, I was the only one and I really rather liked it. The only other Emma Pettis I’d ever found was a 39 year old woman, living in Kent at the time of the 1901 Census along with a number of other members of the Pettis clan. However, while Googling myself (we all do it, I really don’t believe you if you claim otherwise) I found out that I am not as unusual as I would like to believe, there is another Emma Pettis.
I know. It rocked my world too 🙂
She lives in Australia – Melbourne to be precise – and takes a rather nifty photograph. This is probably my favourite of her pics, but I’d encourage you to take a look at all of her website. I’ve dropped her an e-mail to say ‘hello’, hopefully I haven’t come across as a complete weirdo and I’ll let you know if I hear back from her.
Made by Paddy 
I’ve also gone through life having to spell my surname to people (and they still get it wrong, switching the A on the end to an IE. Why, people, why?!). It’s an unusual name, but there is another Sarah with the same surname living two towns away. She’s a couple of years younger, an awful lot drunker and rather explicit on her Bebo about what she and her boyfriend Peter get up to; I’ve wondered before whether I should note on my CV that THAT’S NOT ME, just in case my potential employers think to Google me…
Honestly people, privacy settings are a wonderful thing, use them!
I still come up top in the searches but it’s AudioBoos of my departure from newsreading, so I don’t mind anybody seeing (well, hearing) that.
Some of the spelling variations I have seen are just wonderful. My N.I accent means people sometimes hear the ‘t’ as ‘d’, so Peddis is a common one. I’m down to phonetic spelling now – papa, echo, tango, tango, india, sierra. Folk still get it wrong!
I come up top in mine, too, but it’s all work-related so nothing to be concerned about!
At least “Emma” is hard to get wrong. I’m constantly amazed by how many people don’t put the H on the end of Sarah – even when they’re replying to emails with my name all over them. Gaaaaah!