NEW ORLEANS (AP) - You too can be on a first-name basis with a freshman congressman from New Orleans - because people can't seem to get his last name right.

Republican Anh "Joseph" Cao (gow) won election last December. Since then, he has heard his name mispronounced - usually as "cow" or "chow" - by newscasters and public officials, including President Barack Obama.

And he's noticed debates about the pronunciation on Internet blogs. So he issued a tongue-in-cheek open letter over the weekend, humorously trying to set the record straight.

To pronounce it correctly, start with a hard "G" sound, as in go or grass, and then make it rhyme with "pow" or "how."

But in the end, Cao seems resigned to his last name being botched. "On second thought, never mind," he advises. "Just call me Joseph."

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.) AP-NY-10-19-09 1457EDT