Etta Kaner: Hello. My name is Etta Kaner. I was named after my grandmother. When I was a kid, many of my classmates complained about their names, but I was always happy with mine because it was different. In fact, I had never heard of another Etta until I was introduced to the music of that amazing singer, Etta James. Unfortunately, we might have the same first name, but definitely not the same musical talent. Believe it or not, while both my first and last names are short, people have trouble pronouncing them. They ask, is my first name Ee-tta or Eh-tta, and so I patiently explain that it's Eh-tta because there are two T's, which makes the letter E short. Then they ask, "Is it Kah-ner or Kay-ner?" Then I explained that it's Kay-ner because the single N makes the A long or say its own name. Good thing my name isn't any longer.