It's Mad-off, not Made-off, and no, we're not related

Hannah Madoff may be the only twentysomething in the country with a disclaimer on her résumé:

*I'm not related to Bernie Madoff.

"It's in size-4 font, which is really tiny," said Madoff, 21, a Minneapolis native who now lives and works in Washington, D.C. "It's just so that it's on there. It seems silly, but I don't want to take the risk."

Who could blame her? Bernie the Reviled is off to his new prison home, but it likely will be years before Hannah and her younger brother, Noah, can try to pay for something with a credit card and not get a funny look.

By the way, their name is pronounced Mad-off, not Made-off, like Bernie.

"It helps a lot if I pronounce it," Hannah said.

People with unusual family names understand the challenges and occasional thrills that come with them. I'm not related to a single Rosenblum in the Twin Cities, but I'm aware of all of them, having been asked so many times over the years if we are kin. On the other hand, I remain bullish that the genealogists are flat wrong and that I am, in fact, heir to the Rosenblum Cellars vineyard in Northern California.

For now, there seems to be only a downside for the Minnesota Madoff clan, though it's one that Hannah and Noah handle with good cheer.

The siblings grew up in south Minneapolis and attended Southwest High School. Noah, who turns 19 on Monday, brought fame, not shame, to the family through his years in theater performances there. He now attends a little post-secondary school on the East Coast called Harvard.

Hannah went off to the University of Michigan, where she was involved in student government and graduated with a bachelor's degree in political science. She's working this summer for a political strategy firm in D.C.

About a year ago, a friend studying accounting asked Hannah if she was related to a financial fellow named Bernard Madoff. "He was just curious," Hannah said. "I told him no, but that I had heard the name, knew Madoff was in New York. That was the first time I was asked."

And now?

"Not an hour goes by without someone mentioning it," said Hannah, who is becoming more proactive in her approach. "I just signed a lease on an apartment and I felt the need to mention it for the credit check. And I make a lot of phone calls for work and don't give out my last name anymore. I used to say, 'This is Hannah Madoff.' Now I just say Hannah."

Friends and coworkers rib her, too. "It's all in good fun," she said. "My life would be pretty miserable if I were to be offended every time someone asked."

Still, she wonders when, or whether, the frenzy will end.

"The news cycle is almost done, but he's going into history textbooks, so that makes me a little unsure about how soon it will die down. It's terrible and has had such a huge impact," she said.

Noah, too, takes a light-hearted approach, helped by the fact that he's a philosophy major.

"I get two questions," said Noah: Are you related? and Do people give you a hard time?

"The first time it was just funny," said Noah, who has one friend who has taken to calling him The Ponz, as in Ponzi.

"But, all of a sudden, all these things I read every day, the blogs, with my name all over the place. It was a little bizarre."

He's heard from Facebook acquaintances, too, asking about his blood lines. "It's more or less a minor inconvenience," he said.

It helps that there's some experience with this sort of thing in the extended family: an uncle's last name is Oswald. "We have a good collection of names," Noah said.

His biggest concern at the moment is finding a summer job in Minneapolis. I'd hire him for my vineyard if he were 21. And if it were my vineyard.

So employers out there, listen up:

He's not related.

Gail Rosenblum • 612-673-7350 gail.rosenblum@startribune.com