Say my name, say my name…
Andrea wrote in comments: …this is the dumbest question ever, but how do you pronounce your last name? mode-sit or mo-de-sit? Sorry.
It’s not the dumbest question ever! It’s a really hard name to pronouce if you haven’t heard it before, and the anglicization of it doesn’t help!
MOD-uh-set
Originally in french it was probably Modiste (MO-deest) but my family first went to the British Isles, then to America to escape religious persecution, and en route the name was changed.
There’s a branch of the family that settled in Indiana that spells it Modisett (which is probably closer to the original) My own branch of the family settled in Maryland/Virginia and every Modesitt you meet in the US is somehow related to me from that branch. Pretty cool. When I go “home” to West Virginia it’s fun to open up the telephone book and see dozens of Modesitts – a name I seldom see up here in NJ!