Calling your child by your pet's name

When I was little, my Mom would sometimes call me by my brother's name. It usually happened when she was distracted, or when she was in a hurry. I never thought about it much, since she usually corrected herself quickly.

Mom really knows which one is which.

Misnaming people is quite common - many of us accidentally slip up and call people by the wrong name. Science finally looked into this (thanks, science!) and determined that when we do call people by the wrong name, we tend to swap in a name from a similar social group. This explains why sibling names tend to get swapped, or why we switch names for our coworkers. The study found that the swaps have very little to do with physical appearance.

This explains all those times that you may have had someone call you by the family pet's name. It's not because you look like the dog or cat, it is because your parent considers the family pet part of the family group.

When's the last time you had your name accidentally swapped out with someone else's? Tell me in the comments.