Kyle Mailman, a letter carrier USPS honored last month for alerting a homeowner to a gas leak, has another interesting tale to tell: his last name.
“My last name gets a lot of attention, but it’s fun,” said Mailman, who works in Wichita, KS. “I get a lot of ‘So, what do you do for a living?’ jokes.”
The attention started even before he joined USPS more than two years ago, after deciding to make a career change and become a letter carrier.
Mailman said his father told him that when their ancestors arrived at Ellis Island in New York during World War I, their last name was originally Mehlman. However, records reflect that the family changed it to Mailman “to make it more Americanized and easier to pronounce,” he said.
Mailman is not the only employee with a postal-themed name.
Mountain City, TN, City Carrier Assistant Matthew Postal’s last name reflects his line of work — and he has a postal family history: His grandfather was a postmaster in Dana Point, CA.
“The name gets noticed by co-workers,” said Postal, who has worked for USPS for more than a year.
Another employee, Letter Carrier Jake Postal of the Duluth Post Office in Minnesota, said the connection of his line of work and last name gets noticed “almost daily, especially when I’m in uniform.”
The carrier, who has worked for USPS six years, said his last name made becoming a Postal Service employee feel like it “just kind of had to happen.”
He added that many of the business customers along his route notice his last name. “I guess it’s kind of my calling,” he said.
Ben Franklin, a retail associate at the Omak Post Office in Omak, WA, bears the same name as the nation’s first postmaster general.
“I made the connection during my interview with USPS. It was pointed out to me by the interviewer,” said Franklin, who has worked for the organization for three years and is proud to have a name that is a reminder of postal history.
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