yo so is your name actually "Ef"?

short for Efrem, yeah

I always figured you had a name that started with 'F' like Frank or Fred and were spelling out the initial

haha - i would prefer a simple name like Fred - Texans mangled the hell out of my name as a kid

heh, I can sympathize. Growing up with Zemeczov as a last name in suburban Boston wasn't easy either.