A tale of two Martines

J-D added his voice to the chorus of francophones who have told me that I should by no means go by the French version of my name. He went on to say, "It's like 'Sophie' or 'Martine' or 'Sylvie'... old-fashioned secretary names."

"Hey," I said, "we have a secretary named 'Martine' in my department."

"See?" he said.

I was reminded of this conversation today because of an ad in the métro for travel packages to Morocco, showing just a woman's palm decorated with henna. The caption says: "En arrivant, vous vous appelez Martine. Quand vous partez, c'est Schéhérazade." ("When you arrive, your name is Martine. When you leave, it's Scheherazade.")