A sign on U.S. 41 was replaced multiple times because Fort Myers and Cyclery were misspelled. (Photo: Melissa Montoya)
Is it that hard? Apparently so. The Southwest Florida city’s name is often misspelled. Most recently, an egregious misspelling has made its way onto a directional sign for the Fort Myers Cyclery – or the Ft. Meyer’s Cyclery – on U.S. 41.
By Friday morning, Fort Myers Cyclery owner Diane Holm said the sign was finally correct. “The first sign had the incorrect name,” Holm said. “The second sign had it spelled incorrectly. The third sign has it spelled incorrectly.” And so on and so forth, she said. Holm said she wasn’t sure if this was the fourth or fifth sign.
“It’s been fun,” Holm said. “We had Fort Myer up there for a long time, no ‘s’ at all.”
Click through to read the whole article, including a quote from the ANS’s own Cleve Evens:
History aside, when it comes to spelling names, people are going to spell it with what they’re familiar with, said Cleveland Evans, a past president and current member of the executive board of the American Name Society.
As for the errant apostrophe, Evans said: “It’s a common mistake, but it’s somebody that doesn’t remember how to use it correctly and should not be employed by your state government as a sign maker, obviously.”