Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Scrabblicious

I recently purchased an adorable Scrabble Tile necklace from Etsy. Actually, I purchased two--one in the classic natural wood tile and one in the Special Anniversary Edition tiles, which are black with silver letters, for special occasions. Here's a photo:
I love it and have worn it every day since it arrived. Criss, while complimenting me on my necklace, said, "I'm sorry you're only worth one point, though. I think C is worth 3." This got me thinking, so I looked up the values of all the letters according to Scrabble. My whole name--first, middle, last--is only worth 18 points. MY WHOLE NAME!! And why? Because my entire name, save the first letter of my last name, is made up of what I like to call "the Wheel of Fortune letters"--R, S, T, L, N and the vowels A, E, I, O, U.--which just happen to be all the 1 point letters in Scrabble. Even if we throw my Confirmation name in there, it only adds 4 points. It's also entirely made up of 1 point letters. The six-letter word "quiver" has as many points as my entire name.

Now, I don't want to equate my self worth with my Scrabble worth, but it's hard to feel special when your name is so ridiculously common. I might as well be Jane Smith (with all due respect to the Jane Smiths of the world). Actually, Jane Smith=21 points.

And what about Criss? Her entire name is 33 points, and that is without any bonus squares, my friends. What's your name worth? Here's the breakdown.
1 point: A, E, I, O, U, N, R, T, L, S
2 points: D, G
3 points: B, C, M, P
4 points: F, H, V, W, Y
5 points: K
8 points: J, X
10 points: Q, Z

7 comments:

MonkeyGurrrrrl said...

Sheeyat. With all 4 names, I'm only at 29. Which is just another reason why I kept my "maiden" name (snarf!) - it alone is worth 12!

Natalie said...

Cute necklace.

First = 7
Middle = 12
Last = 17

Grand Total: 36

Anne-Marie said...

Mine is only 17 :( What do I get for a hyphen?

HelenaHandbag said...

For my real name:
first = 12
middle = 15
last = 14
I guess that makes 41 but I'm still just plain ol' me.

Anonymous said...

45 here, but I would gladly trade in some points for a more manageable name!

mamamouseiam said...

What a fun topic ~ and a fun necklace, too! Don't feel bad, Laurie, there are plenty of us with common-lettered names. I should have hyphenated my last name when we married 31 years ago; that was the thing to do at the time, but I was (and am) an ol' fashioned girl. ;-) Who knew it'd come to this?

Frank said...

12 in my first name, 15 with the WHOLE first name.

10 in my middle name.

12 in my last name.