I have a name that could apply to either gender. Got some junk mail addressed to Ms. NoStacheOhio yesterday.
Nope, nobody in this house. Also, probably nobody anywhere, since my last name is unique to my family (in the world, for real).
This is a pet hate of my mum.
If she and my dad were Mr Barney and Mrs Betty Rubble, she would open mail addressed to Mrs Betty Rubble, Mr Barney and Mrs Betty Rubble, or Mr and Mrs Rubble. But her mother-in-law used to send her birthday cards, etc, addressed to Mrs Barney Rubble and she said it may as well have been addressed to my dad.
My grandmother does this from time to time. Addresses stuff to Mrs Husbandsname Oursurname. I don't know why it bothers be so much, but it drives me absolutely insane. I am not called Husbandsname Oursurname. I am called Myname Oursurname or Myname Maidenname (I'm easy about that). Sticking a "Mrs" in front doesn't make Husbandsname into my name. INEXPLICABLE RAGE.
As someone whose mom kept her maiden name and who plans to do the same, I don't love it, but I do know it's an old-timey tradition. From back when your identity of a married woman was completely dependent on that of her husband. And as such, Mrs. Ronald Biddleton (or whatever) was a totally legit descriptor of who you were, I guess (I'm no linguist, I don't actually know the history of the custom). Like I said, don't love it, and it would put me off from a business, etc mailing that I would expect to be more contemporary, but I would understand it from grandma...I'll probably do similarly uncouth old-timey things when I'm grandma-aged, thinking the newfangled way is just society slipping slowly over the precipice into the next dark ages.
Kind of makes me think of when we went to India and no one would talk to me, just my bf. I was like a ghost. Then I mentioned to a friend and she explained it was the polite thing to do there; locals would take it amiss if a man were to speak directly to a woman in the company of a man. The feminist part of me was still a bit ragey but more at the cultural attitude toward women, rather than the individuals (who are just behaving as politely/appropriately as they know how). As a barbaric westerner, though, I refused to STFU even knowing this.