Minor Vent/PSA

[Truscifi]

Ds is named Jonathon (on, not an) which apparently gives people a lot of trouble. :001_huh: We don't worry about it though.

 

I actually was going to name him Jonathan, but then my mother pointed out that her name is Jo, and dh is Nathan, so it was just their names put together. For some reason (pregnancy hormones I think) this totally weirded me out, so I had to change it. :tongue_smilie:

 

Also, my name is Audra. Not Audrey. Not Andrea. Not Aubrey. Certainly not Andrew. I used to get mad when people messed it up, but it happened so often I ran out of energy to be mad.

[stephanier.1765]

I have a good friend whose dd is named Nicola which is actually a common name in the country where she was born. The poor child is called Nicole or it is pronounced rhyming with "cola" all the time. (pronounced nic uh luh) Forget finding any of the neat things kids love with their name on it. Thankfully she has a great sense of humor and laughs off us crazy Americans. :D

[Mom in High Heels]

My given name is not only unusual, but also spelled weird. I thank my parents for that every.freaking.time. I have to pronounce or spell it for someone. I really like my name, but they could have at least spelled it so that it looks like it sounds. I've spent my entire life explaining my name.:svengo:

 

Indy and baby-on-the-way both have uncommon first names, but they're at least spelled in a way that won't make people go "ummmm..." which is what they always do when they see MY name.

 

If you're going to spell your child's names weird, don't get all bent out of shape if someone mispronounces or misspells it. :chillpill:

[Alphabetika]

This is totally unrelated to the thread, but I can't resist this opportunity to tell my favorite story about my grandfather.

 

He was a professor in the mining engineering department at Penn State. At that time, it was their practice to write to every boy who was the valedictorian of a Pennsylvania high school and offer him a scholarship to study mining engineering. One year it was my grandfather's turn to send the letters. He had never heard of the Francis=boy, Frances=girl rule, so he sent the scholarship offer to a girl... who accepted it.

 

The rest of his department thought he ought to rescind the offer, but he refused. It had never occurred to him before that a young woman might want to study mining engineering, but if she did, he was all for it. That young woman was the first female graduate in mining engineering from Penn State, and my grandfather went on to mentor many more women during his career.

 

Okay, now everyone can go back to ridiculing stupid names. ;)

 

 

Fantastic story! Thank you for sharing it!

[Alphabetika]

All I want to know is what happened to the older beautiful spelling of Michaela? Every Michaela I've seen in the last 15 years is spelled Mikayla.

 

My spell checker recognizes Michaela, but puts a red line under Mikayla.

 

 

We have a friend named Michaela, and, fortunate girl, her middle name is Justine! Talk about two cool names, dude!

[DarlaS]

Also, my name is Audra. Not Audrey. Not Andrea. Not Aubrey. Certainly not Andrew. I used to get mad when people messed it up, but it happened so often I ran out of energy to be mad.

 

I knew an Audra once! She had dozens of teddy bears. It's funny the things you remember about people...

[silliness7]

 

One of my twins is Lillian, but we call her Lily. I decided on Lily with one L because I figured that was how most people would spell it

 

I have a Lilly. She is named after my grandmother who cannot decide whether to spell her name Lily or Lillie. We've seen both, most notably on Christmas packages. And it's not like one year she's Lily and the next Lillie...no, no. She's both in one year.

 

Anyway we would have spelled dd's name like gma but still had a choice. :tongue_smilie: So we compromised. But my smart aleck husband was spelling her name for someone a while back and they asked if that was Lilly with 2 L's. He said "No, 3 L's."

 

Sorry for the hijack...I don't like invented spellings either. :001_smile:

[Kebo]

I have a Lilly. She is named after my grandmother who cannot decide whether to spell her name Lily or Lillie. We've seen both, most notably on Christmas packages. And it's not like one year she's Lily and the next Lillie...no, no. She's both in one year.

 

This makes me laugh. I have a cat named Lily/Lilly. Since she has no birth certificate, I didn't worry about spelling it when I named her. She's 15 now, and when I have occasion to write her name, I just put down whichever spelling I feel like that day :tongue_smilie:

 

But, you know, she's a cat. I put a LOT more thought into my children's names. And none of them have odd or troublesome spellings.

[Murmer]

I get the totally crazy invented spelling thing but my dd's name is a combination of a spanish variation of a popular name and an american popular name (she is part hispanic part African American) and yet people still can't say her name correctly or spell it...my ds's name is also the spanish variation of a very american name. We plan to name a child Emily but spell it Emilie because that is the way my great great grandmother had her name spelled from Germany. So sometimes spelling is not about invention but rather tradition or heritage...still means no one can spell it correctly and that is a pain.

[WyoSylvia]

My husband's name is constantly mispelled in crazy ways. It never seemed hard to me... Our last name though is a doozy I guess. I've spelled it our for people S.L.O.W.L.Y, always pausing after the N and enunciating "A" and they still spell and pronounce it incorrectly.

 

 

My name is Sylvia... I've had Sylivia, and Slyvia, not typos, handwritten Slyvia, repeatedly in one note!!

Edited December 23, 2010 by WyoSylvia
Wisdom

[sarawatsonim]

I have a very common name but people always choose the more popular way to spell it. It drives me nuts. It's Sara without H and when I say it to people for paperwork or documentation situations, I always say Sara without an H so they fill it out properly. Nine times out of ten they will still put an H on it. :glare:

[JFSinIL]

I named our youngest Jaclyn - think Jaclyn Smith - shorter and easier to spell (so I thought) than Jacqueline ...so one aunt has spelled it every which way possible except the correct way for the last 14 years. Sigh.

[cin]

When I see Dystyny I think of dystenary, for some reason.

 

Piper's name is unique, but pretty basic spelling. Occasionally I'll get Pipper, which, following the grammar rules, would be pronounced with a short i.

 

Zoie, poor kid. There are 3 legitimate spellings of that name. DH thought Zoe looked like it would rhyme with Toe. So we went with Zoie. At least people know how to pronounce it. ;)

 

My name is Cindy, and I'm surprised how many times people think it's Sydney. Oh well, no matter WHAT the name, SOMEBODY's gonna have an issue with it.

[Haiku]

As someone with a relatively well-known name spelled very strangely, I have two rules for naming the kids - the average person needs to be able to pronounce the name when they see it written down, and 'creative spelling' is officially outlawed. ;)

 

I'm in the same boat. My name is relatively common, but my dad switched two vowels around. I married a man with an Eastern-European surname that includes three consonants as the first three letters. When you combine his first name and his last name, it's the name of a food (and a grody one at that). I swore I would not mess up my kids' names. The one child we actually named, well, people consistently mispronounce it even though there really are only two accepted spellings and we chose one of them. My other two kids came to us with names already. Both are names that are relatively well-known but are in the version of their home country. Both are constantly slaughtered. And people don't even attempt to pronounce our last name.

 

I totally failed my kids.

 

I have seen the following:

 

Thailer (Tyler)

Danycka (which to me looks like Dan-yicka)

Cydne (Sidney)

 

Tara

[Mejane]

Could ppl please can it with the weird spellings?

 

 

 

 

:iagree:Hate, hate, hate "creative" spelling or when people just make up names.

 

Here's another story: my bil was at a doctor's office and the nurse called for "Shady-nasty". A woman jumped up and started yelling that she hoped the nurse was NOT referring to her as her name was "Sha-dynasty"! Okaaaaay...

[Laura Corin]

For the record my name is pronounced "KOR in" not kor IN"

 

 

It's a family name that I use online, not my surname. I pronounce it more like 'KOH-rin' though (short 'o').

 

Laura

[colleenebeans]

My name is common but not hugely popular. Its Colleen. Everyone spells it with an i, a, y... I find it funny and it is usually a good ice breaker and an opening to conversation. Growing up and still till this day my father pronounces it "Ko-leen" and my mom "Call-een" LOL.

 

I am all about uniqueness and creativity. I love seeing unique names.

 

However, with that said...if you choose to name your child some funky, weird spelling name, you HAVE to accept the outcome of your decision. You WILL be explaining the name/spelling/pronunciation, you totally ask for it. I dont think its the spelling or the unusual names as the problem, perhaps its the attitude of the people who chose the name when asked to clarify.

 

Ive only come across one really really upset person when I didnt pronounce her daughters name correctly.

 

How would you pronounce this? You are going to be shocked!

 

La-a

[Tap]

I would say my biggest issue with invented/uncommon spellings is when people don't tell you about it. I work in pharmacy and when people come to pick up a prescription, and have an unusual spelling....it would be nice to know. Just this week I had someone that we were looking for a prescription that was filed in the computer (they didn't want it filled yet when they dropped it off). 2 people searching in 2 different computers, 5 minutes later, I asked them to spell their common name....it was J*** LLoid (not Lloyd-the way I expected). Seriously.....he couldn't have said, "by the way, my last name is spelled LLOID just in case you are looking under Lloyd". It makes me want to thump people when they do that!!!!!

 

 

Ds has a name that was very uncommon when we named him. We spelled in in the second most common way, but since it was uncommon, we figured it didn't matter anyways. FFWD to now, and it is a Very, common boy name! When I tell someone his name in an official capacity, I always tell them his name is ***** spelled *****. I don't let them try to guess or let them work at finding him in a computer or on a list with the common spelling. I just wish people would give us the same courtesy.

 

An other huge pet peeve is when people don't tell us about spaces or hyphens in names. Again, my last name has a space.....I TELL people. DD4 (has a different last name than we do) that is hyphenated, and I tell people her last name is hyphenated "*** hyphen ***". When someone just rattles off 3 names like 'my name is John Adam Smith'. I don't know where to look for the prescription unless you tell me Adam-Smith is the last name. NO, it is not obvious (people give us their middle names all the time as a way to identify common names in the community, ie John A Smith vs John B Smith-so a third name is not automatic thought of as part of the last name)! NO, I don't want to look and then ask if I can't find it. YES, just tell me, so I can do my job and not waste 5 minutes of effort over something as basic as the spelling of a common name!!!!!!!

[Whereneverever]

My name is common but not hugely popular. Its Colleen. Everyone spells it with an i, a, y... I find it funny and it is usually a good ice breaker and an opening to conversation. Growing up and still till this day my father pronounces it "Ko-leen" and my mom "Call-een" LOL.

 

I am all about uniqueness and creativity. I love seeing unique names.

 

However, with that said...if you choose to name your child some funky, weird spelling name, you HAVE to accept the outcome of your decision. You WILL be explaining the name/spelling/pronunciation, you totally ask for it. I dont think its the spelling or the unusual names as the problem, perhaps its the attitude of the people who chose the name when asked to clarify.

 

Ive only come across one really really upset person when I didnt pronounce her daughters name correctly.

 

How would you pronounce this? You are going to be shocked!

 

La-a

Laura? :tongue_smilie:

[DarlaS]

My name is common but not hugely popular. Its Colleen. Everyone spells it with an i, a, y... I find it funny and it is usually a good ice breaker and an opening to conversation. Growing up and still till this day my father pronounces it "Ko-leen" and my mom "Call-een" LOL.

 

I am all about uniqueness and creativity. I love seeing unique names.

 

However, with that said...if you choose to name your child some funky, weird spelling name, you HAVE to accept the outcome of your decision. You WILL be explaining the name/spelling/pronunciation, you totally ask for it. I dont think its the spelling or the unusual names as the problem, perhaps its the attitude of the people who chose the name when asked to clarify.

 

Ive only come across one really really upset person when I didnt pronounce her daughters name correctly.

 

How would you pronounce this? You are going to be shocked!

 

La-a

 

I'm going to guess. Is it Leia - like from Star Wars?

[colleenebeans]

:iagree:Hate, hate, hate "creative" spelling or when people just make up names.

 

Here's another story: my bil was at a doctor's office and the nurse called for "Shady-nasty". A woman jumped up and started yelling that she hoped the nurse was NOT referring to her as her name was "Sha-dynasty"! Okaaaaay...

 

I cant even pronounce "Sha-dynasty" LOL I think I probably would have done the same thing.

 

hahaha...that reminds me...once I pronounced Leonard as "Leo-nard" I realized it once I said it and apologized and thankfully he just laughed at me.

[Rebecca VA]

Lah - A (as in angel)?

[FlockOfSillies]

The ones that give me a chuckle are the ones with standard spellings and unusual pronunciations. Alicia is Ah-LISH-ah, etc.

 

Back in my working days, I met a lady named Charan. You know, Sha-RONN? Yeah. Hollywood.

 

My eldest has the least common spelling of her nickname, but she's named after her great aunt, who had a very traditional full name and spelled her nickname according to her full name.

 

I just figure there are fewer and fewer people out there who are functionally literate, and it spills over into baby names. :glare:

[beaners]

Ladasha. I've never seen a real person with it spelled like that though. I worked with a girl with a very similar name, but it was spelled out.

[colleenebeans]

Nope, I told you it would shock you!

 

Its "La dash uh"

 

You actually say the DASH!!! I didnt even try to pronounce it, all I asked was "how do you pronounce her name?" She totally flipped out on me.

 

Sorry beaners, we posted at the same time...you were right...you got it!

Edited December 22, 2010 by colleenebeans

[mrbmom77]

All I want to know is what happened to the older beautiful spelling of Michaela? Every Michaela I've seen in the last 15 years is spelled Mikayla.

 

My spell checker recognizes Michaela, but puts a red line under Mikayla.

 

My daughter is Michaela! Of course, we get MaKayla, Mikayla, and I can't even remember what else. No one seems to know the old spelling anymore. People spell my name wrong quite often. Virginia. They leave out an i. I always think, "Really? It's TWO states. Didn't they learn the states in elementary school?" And my son's teachers and SS teachers have always misspelled his name. I really think Virginia, Micah, and Michaela are very traditional names with traditional spellings. ???

 

I absolutely agree that people have no business getting angry. If you spell it weird, we're going to mis-pronounce and/or misspell it. Shoulda thought that through.

Edited December 22, 2010 by mrbmom77

[Mom2J112903]

*I* wish people would remember that different spellings can be the traditional way of spelling it in a different region/culture.

 

J's name is "common" but not spelled the common way since he is named after his Czech great-grandfather.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

 

How would you pronounce this? You are going to be shocked!

 

La-a

 

I've seen this before, but I won't say so that others can keep guessing. :D

[LarlaB]

DD's name is Gracia (pronounced gray-sha). I knew there would be spelling & pronunciation issues, but assumed if people could determine that Marcia is Marsha, then it isn't that big of a leap.

 

A lot of people pronounce it in Spanish 'gra-see-a', and more than one has mis-read it as 'gar-see-ah'.

 

So, I guess I'm one of "those" people, and I guess I don't care. ;) Her name, as defined by DH & I, means "a unique form of grace". :)

[Rebecca VA]

Gracia is a very pretty name. It's too nice to belong in a thread about names that are spelled in bizarre and distorted ways.

[mommaduck]

DD's name is Gracia (pronounced gray-sha). I knew there would be spelling & pronunciation issues, but assumed if people could determine that Marcia is Marsha, then it isn't that big of a leap.

 

A lot of people pronounce it in Spanish 'gra-see-a', and more than one has mis-read it as 'gar-see-ah'.

 

So, I guess I'm one of "those" people, and I guess I don't care. ;) Her name, as defined by DH & I, means "a unique form of grace". :)

I would have pronounced it mar-see-ah. *blush* And I would have made the leap that it was gray-see-ah. Though I think gray-see-ah is pretty.

[Haiku]

I wanted to name my child Gratian if that child were a boy. Dh immediately nixed it because we disagreed on how it was pronounced.

 

I wanted three boys and was going to name them Arkasha, Gratian, and Peregrine. :D

 

Tara

[Medieval Mom]

My second ds's middle name is Nikolas, not because we're into creative spelling, but because in dh's home country, this is the usual spelling. But, boy, are there a LOT of ways to spell Nikolas!! Luckily, his first name is rather straightforward. Dh gets all kinds of grief for his unusual (in this country) name, so we tried VERY hard to find names for our dc that can be easily pronounced and spelled in both the U.S. And dh's homeland. Easier said than done! ;)

[DarlaS]

I would have pronounced it mar-see-ah. *blush* And I would have made the leap that it was gray-see-ah. Though I think gray-see-ah is pretty.

 

Me too. I'm influenced by living in an area where a large percentage of the population is Hispanic.

[mommaduck]

Me too. I'm influenced by living in an area where a large percentage of the population is Hispanic.

Same here. Most of our city is hispanic.

[mommaduck]

My second ds's middle name is Nikolas, not because we're into creative spelling, but because in dh's home country, this is the usual spelling. But, boy, are there a LOT of ways to spell Nikolas!! Luckily, his first name is rather straightforward. Dh gets all kinds of grief for his unusual (in this country) name, so we tried VERY hard to find names for our dc that can be easily pronounced and spelled in both the U.S. And dh's homeland. Easier said than done! ;)

We have a ton of Nikolas' in our church...of every varied spelling and many times called Nicos.

[Oak Knoll Mom]

\ if people could determine that Marcia is Marsha, then it isn't that big of a leap.

 

I would have pronounced it mar-see-ah. *blush* And I would have made the leap that it was gray-see-ah. Though I think gray-see-ah is pretty.

 

And I had a friend named Marcia who does pronounce it Mar-see-ah.

[Audrey]

Folks, I really don't care what you name your kids. Seriously. Call the girl Quasimodo for all I care.

 

However.

 

Could ppl please can it with the weird spellings?

 

'Pawla' "Distiny' 'Dystny' 'Sevastian' 'Millisa' Folks don't think, "Wow! Those parents are just so cool!" Rather, they think, "Geez, they couldn't even be bothered to spell the kid's name properly!"

 

Furthermore, if you do choose to create your own spelling, you are not allowed to lose your mind if the name is spelled with the typical spelling on invitations, gifts, etc. We're not all gifted with psychic abilities and instinctively know you've spelled your kid's name differently.

 

This has been the end of the PSA.

 

 

I agree. I have a hard time taking people seriously when they have ridiculous names. I have an even harder time taking someone seriously when they give their kids ridiculous names.

 

I'm not the only one either because I hear HR people "off the record" saying the exact same thing.

[Alice]

When I was in residency I had patients (very young teenage patients) that wanted to name their new baby Charisma. But they wanted me to spell it for them. I suggested a dictionary. I can't remember what they came up with but I do remember thinking that it was weird to ask someone else you just met to spell your child's name...and if you were picking a name you couldn't spell maybe it would be better to pick a different one.

[Audrey]

Also, my name is Audra. Not Audrey. Not Andrea. Not Aubrey. Certainly not Andrew. I used to get mad when people messed it up, but it happened so often I ran out of energy to be mad.

 

I hate that, too. :D

 

MY name is Audrey. Not Audra, not Andrea, not Adrienne, not Aubrey and most certainly not Audie.

 

I've always hated my name. I wanted to be named Michelle or Stephanie, or Jennifer or Kimberley or Tammy or Lori -- just like every other girl my age. I never met people with my name unless they were 50 years older than me. I've always thought it was such an old lady name. My mom said it's because she and dad saw Breakfast at Tiffany's on their first date. I suppose it could be worse. She could have named me George.

[Rebecca VA]

Well, we should all be thankful that they at least wanted to spell Charisma correctly! Think of the awful spellings they could have dreamed up if they'd been too lazy to spell it right.

[AngieW in Texas]

I have two with names that are commonly spelled with or without a final "h".

Sarah/Sara

Hannah/Hanna

 

We spelled both of them with the "h" so all three of our girls would have it at the end. Our other dd is Elizabeth.

[mommaduck]

I have two with names that are commonly spelled with or without a final "h".

Sarah/Sara

Hannah/Hanna

 

We spelled both of them with the "h" so all three of our girls would have it at the end. Our other dd is Elizabeth.

And we spell that with an "s" LOL!

[Abigail4476]

Pawla?? Oh, my goodness.

 

A lady in my church named her baby a *strange* variant of a (usually) very beautiful name, and it's so hideous to me. I couldn't even bring myself to give her a baby gift. I won't say the child's name -- I always just say "your little girl." It still icks me out if I let myself think about it.

 

And you're not going to tell us the name???? :tongue_smilie:

[JohannaM]

Speaking as someone with a slightly different spelling than pronunciation (spelled Johanna, pronounced Joanna), it wasn't a lot of fun to have to correct every teacher/professor who pronounced my name wrong or wait nervously in the graduation line to see if they would pronounce it right! If you pick a name with an unusual spelling or pronunciation, you will have a lifetime of spelling and correcting people in exchange for that uniqueness! I ended up going with more traditional names for my kids, but tried to pick ones that weren't super common.

[Mejane]

If you pick a name with an unusual spelling or pronunciation, you will have a lifetime of spelling and correcting people in exchange for that uniqueness!

 

It's a drag all right.

 

jane (whose given name is not so common)

[stephanier.1765]

My name is common but not hugely popular. Its Colleen. Everyone spells it with an i, a, y... I find it funny and it is usually a good ice breaker and an opening to conversation. Growing up and still till this day my father pronounces it "Ko-leen" and my mom "Call-een" LOL.

 

 

 

When I was little my best friend was named Colleen. I remember getting off the school bus when I was in first grade and seeing her mother working in the front yard. All proud of myself, I go to her and tell her I know how to spell my friend's name: c-a-l-l-i-n-g. :lol::lol::lol::lol:

[Rebecca VA]

Oh, I'm scared to do it for fear the mom (whom I like) reads this board. Her daughter is only a baby, but she plans to homeschool and is probably already researching her options. In the baby's name both the spelling and pronunciation are distorted, and the original version (the name of a famous female character in one of Longfellow's poems) is so beautiful. It was an abomination to mess with it.

[TravelingChris]

Talk about strange names and strange spellings- they can come back to haunt you. On another board, there was a big discussion about a girl applying to college who was doing unethical applications. Well, stupid her, she used her real name as a board name (I think it isn't wise normally anyway but it is really stupid if you are planning to do unethical things). Her name is so unique that her real info comes up as a first entry on google. I have no idea whether anyone was actually reporting her but I wouldn't be surprised.

 

For a very interesting essay on name choices, read the chapter in Freakonomics.

[Mejane]

In the baby's name both the spelling and pronunciation are distorted, and the original version (the name of a famous female character in one of Longfellow's poems) is so beautiful. It was an abomination to mess with it.

 

Blasphemy!