People find many ways to be unique, including in their choice of names and how they are written. Common names may be written in any number of ways (Zachery, Zaccari, Zachery, Zakarey and so) and in any number of forms (Za’Korey, zaKori). This variation, and the importance that the customer attaches to it, reinforces the importance of first time right when collecting information about a person’s name.
I was reminded recently that this rule applies also to company names when reviewing a directory containing Croatian companies. The directoryshowed a great variation in words that at first glance would seem ideal candidates for correction and standardization. For example, many companies contained strings like these:
Commerc, Comerce, Comerc, Kommerce, Kommerc, Komerce, Komerc
There are many other examples which had me scratching my head: Compani, Konsulting, Konzalting, Konsalting and so on.
Why the variance is spelling? Are these companies with the English word commerce in their names where that word has been typed as heard by call centre workers with a limited knowledge of English? Are they typos of a valid Croatian word? Are they accurate representations of a valid Croatian word as rendered in different dialects? Is it a mixture of all these factors?
