Did you spell your DC's names normally?

[KristinaBreece]

I guess it's a self-explanatory question. Did you use the standard spelling when you named your kiddos, or did you mix it up a bit?

 

For example. I will soon have a niece who will be named Khloe Rayne. I cannot for the life of me understand the spelling choices. Chloe, I understand, needs an 'h' to make the hard C. But why does a K need an 'h'? That would be like me spelling my name Khristina. Why make life harder for your kid in that respect than it has to be? She said she chose the middle name because it was a good compromise. My brother wanted to give her the middle name Kay. It's a family middle name. He thought it would be nice. His girlfriend wanted her middle name to be LaDawn. She said that she liked Rayne almost as well, but that at least it would sound like Kay. :001_huh:

 

And yes. I know it's not my business. And it's a dumb thing to let bother me. But it's been one of those days when everything bugs me just a little bit more.

 

Ok. Done whining now.

[Thea]

I do spell my dc names traditionally.

 

I did take an 'e' out of my youngest's name. There were already two and I felt the third, while the traditional spelling, was overkill. Heck there were only 6 letters, half of them didn't need to be e's. :001_smile:

[swellmomma]

Well yes and no lol My 2nd born has a gaelic name, so it is spelled normally for being Gaelic but not by english standards. It is Ceilidh. The rest are all "normally" spelled.

[eloquacious]

Sigh. The question of the week. I'm generally opposed to "odd" spellings, but we spelled my son's name Nikolay instead of Nikolai because my husband insisted that it was how his grandfather spelled it. I thought it was odd, but it wasn't my hill to die on... fast forward three years and my husband snuck a peek at his grandfather's passport, and of course it was spelled Nikolai. (The English on the international page, that is. The main page was of course in Cyrillic.)

 

Nikolay, while an accepted alternative and not an "invented" spelling on our behalf, is far less common than Nikolai, and already we've gotten a lot of Niko-LAY (as in, lay that down) at doctor's offices, etc. When my husband returned from visiting his family in Russia, he broached the idea of changing the spelling, but I'm really not sure if I could, now that I've gotten so used to it, and he is used to it. Sigh. I do so wish we'd gone with the i spelling, especially because my mother decided to call me JoAnne, no space, no dash, capital A. Teachers misspelled my name for years and years to where I started to just write "Joanne" or "Jo Anne," as whim led me.

 

As a former teacher with four Asia's (all spelled differently) and two Unique's (ditto), I can say that with, ahem, "inventive" spellings, life can get really really hard. ;)

 

With our second son, we stuck to Alexander, and not Aleksandr, as my husband proposed.

[sewingmama]

Yes I did spell my kids names the traditional way and it really, really bugs me that because of this crazy trend towards "kreative" spelling people still ask me how I spell them. C'mon people -you really can't make a guess at how to spell Anna and James :confused:

 

In Australia spelling your kids names wierdly generally means you will be associated with being a bogan - not something many people aspire to ;)

Edited October 13, 2011 by sewingmama

[eloquacious]

Incidentally, a friend's son is getting married soon, to a nontraditionally-spelled traditional name, and it absolutely drives me up the wall. Made-up names or foreign names are one thing, but super standard names with odd phonetics just seem...unprofessional, or childish.

[ondreeuh]

Yes, but that doesn't mean people spell them right.

 

Chloe's name is often spelled Chole (really!). Cloe and Cloey are less common. Incidentally, Khloe is a traditional spelling because the name is Greek.

 

Noel is usually spelled Nole, or Nolan.

[Skadi]

It's going to hurt those children when they grow up. You can't ignore the fact that certain assumptions will be made about people whose names are "kre8tyvly" spelled. Right or wrong, if I have the choice between seeing two doctors in my town and one is named Dr. Ayden Rayne Williams while the other is Dr. John Thomas Ford, I don't think I'd hesitate to choose the latter.

 

Just to make the necessary disclaimer, I'm not making a statement against non-anglosaxon names. Foreign names are a wholly different matter than what's being discussed here. Actually, both times I've undergone surgery (the first time was a life-saving 13 hour procedure; the second was simply Lasik eye surgery) I saw doctors who were Indian immigrants to this country.

[mazakaal]

All my kids' names are spelled in a traditional way. It really kind of bugs me when people spell their kids' names some odd way. I don't mind international spellings, but odd, phonetic spellings just make me think that the parent wants their kid to suffer in school. My given name is not Megan and went on school records and every other official record as it is on my birth certificate. I just got so tired of having to explain it all the time. I can't even imagine what a pain in the neck it would be for a kids to have to constantly explain their odd spelling. I know how much it bugs my 13yo when he has to explain his name. His proper name has a traditional spelling, and we shortened it to a common nickname form of that name that could be spelled several different ways. I thought I chose the most common and most intuitive spelling, but people constantly misspell it. Poor kid. I would actually legally change it for him if he wanted me to, but he says he's okay with it, even if it does irk him every time he sees it misspelled.

[Laura Corin]

My boys' names are spelled traditionally. There are traditional alternate spellings for Hobbes' name, but we went for the most common. We deliberately chose names which were common in both the UK and the US (as they have dual nationality) and were fairly easy to pronounce in the other countries the languages of which we knew (Chinese, French, Spanish). As it is, they use Chinese names in China which barely relate to their English names.

 

Laura

[Deb in NZ]

My boys' names (Carl & Sean) are spelled traditionally, for the most part. Ds#2 does have a Gaelic name & we used the traditional Gaelic spelling, as the NZ & American alternatives (Shaun, Shawn) had different spellings. Our dd has a Fijian name & we chose to spell it phonetically (Sarianna) as the proper spelling (Sereana) would have been mispronounced in our home countries. People still misspell & mispronounce her name, but she just ignores it for the most part.

 

As a teacher, I find the modern, creative spellings of names very annoying. I have had 3 kids in a class with the same name & 3 different spellings. Also, using traditionally male names for females, or vice versa, makes life difficult as well. Just getting my tongue around the Maori names are enough of a challenge for me. :tongue_smilie:

 

JMHO,

Edited October 13, 2011 by Deb in NZ

[Amy in NH]

Well yes and no lol My 2nd born has a gaelic name, so it is spelled normally for being Gaelic but not by english standards. It is Ceilidh. The rest are all "normally" spelled.

 

I don't have any idea how to pronounce that. And I've always been good (even as a young child) at phonics....

[Amy in NH]

Made-up names or foreign names are one thing, but super standard names with odd phonetics just seem...unprofessional, or childish.

 

:iagree:

 

uneducated and trashy

 

no, I'm not judgmental ;)

[Heather in Neverland]

Yep. If you choose a non-traditional spelling for your kid's name that is your choice BUT do not be surprised or angry if you and your child spend the rest of your lives correcting people who spell it and pronounce it wrong.

 

For instance, how would you pronounce this: Mikhlale

 

Yeah, I don't know either. But it is a student's name (American) and somehow I am supposed to know how to say that and how to spell it? :001_huh:

[cloversandlions]

I don't have any idea how to pronounce that. And I've always been good (even as a young child) at phonics....

 

Gaelic is one of the most confusing and difficult languages I've ever tried to study. Chinese was easier... :lol:

 

I think "Ceilidh" is pronounced like Kaylee or maybe Kaylay; is that correct?

 

My three children all have traditionally-spelled names. The only one that has ever been problematic is my littlest's - lots of people spell her name, Bridget, with an extra T or TE at the end. OTOH, there are quite a few variations on the name, and Bridgette and Brigitte are both acceptable alternatives, I think.

[Mama Geek]

Our last name always gets questioned. It sounds ok to say it, but if you spell it or see it written it is very difficult. My dd has the traditional spelling for her first name. We didn't want her whole name to be difficult all her life.:001_smile:

[kalanamak]

I stuck to traditional spelling, although the less common of the traditional spelling (think Ann vs. Anne). Any westerner (US, European, or British Empire countries) could recognize it. Perhaps in much of the third world, too. It is the name of a famous thinker in the economics field, 19th century, and it isn't Frederick. :)

[Joyofsixreboot]

I chose the normal spellings and people insert their own weird variation. :001_huh: Our last name is Polish so I went with simpler first names. Now the poor child named Hrmny in my kid's pre- school class. I'm still not over that one. Oy.:confused:

Edited October 13, 2011 by joyofsix

[mooooom]

but it is not hard to read or pronounce. It is Cadence, although we mostly call her Cady. People are always trying to call her Candace, which never occurred to me or I might not have done it. I have a real aversion to children being named after foods....

[blessedmom4god]

I did. My youngest dd's name is Rebecca, I thought this was the normal US spelling, but most people spell it Rebekah especially at church. It does get on her nerves but she usually doesn't correct them unless they ask.

[JFSinIL]

My youngest, Jackie, not not a Jacqueline or however you spell it because I have trouble with it (I may have spelled it right, let me know ;)) so she is Jaclyn on official paperwork. That is as odd as I got with names (her sister Jean would disagree simply because she has yet to meet another teen with her name!)

[RegGuheert]

We spelled our children's names normally, but as the first two were growing up we learned that we had chosen less-common (not uncommon) names that sound *similar* to very common names. For instance, "Ryan" is not as common as "Bryan". As a result, many introductions go like this:

 

Us: This is our child Ryan.

Them: Nice to meet you Bryan.

 

It's not a big deal, but we were surprised to learn that this would be a lifelong issue for them, even if it is a minor one. Their names really are quite normal.

 

It seems that when we hear a name we naturally try to fit it into a name database somewhere in our heads and the most common names are considered to be what was most likely heard. We met a "Ryan" recently and I noticed others calling him "Bryan". I confirmed with him later that his name was really "Ryan" as I thought I had heard.

[Impish]

All my kids have names that have more than one acceptable spelling. I don't think we went for any unusual versions, but I always have to spell their names anyways.

[TravelingChris]

We used traditional spellings. As far as I know, my son's has generally only one spelling, though who knows nowadays? My older has a name that is usually spelled with a K, and we did, but sometimes with a C. My longest has people who see her name sometimes think it is another name with a different last letter. Usually, if they hear her name first, they don't think that at all. People generally want to change her name to the French version but her name is more likely to be Italian, Spanish, Russian, Ukrainian, etc.

[Renee in NC]

Yes I did spell my kids names the traditional way and it really, really bugs me that because of this crazy trend towards "kreative" spelling people still ask me how I spell them. C'mon people -you really can't make a guess at how to spell Anna and James :confused:

 

In Australia spelling your kids names wierdly generally means you will be associated with being a bogan - not something many people aspire to ;)

 

:lol: I looked up bogan on wikipedia and thought, "Oh! They have rednecks in Australia, too!":tongue_smilie:

[freesia]

Well yes and no lol My 2nd born has a gaelic name, so it is spelled normally for being Gaelic but not by english standards. It is Ceilidh. The rest are all "normally" spelled.

My dh always wanted a girl with that name/spelling! We almost did, twice! He'll be thrilled to hear someone did it.

 

Anne

[Renee in NC]

I guess it's a self-explanatory question. Did you use the standard spelling when you named your kiddos, or did you mix it up a bit?

 

For example. I will soon have a niece who will be named Khloe Rayne. I cannot for the life of me understand the spelling choices. Chloe, I understand, needs an 'h' to make the hard C. But why does a K need an 'h'? That would be like me spelling my name Khristina. Why make life harder for your kid in that respect than it has to be? She said she chose the middle name because it was a good compromise. My brother wanted to give her the middle name Kay. It's a family middle name. He thought it would be nice. His girlfriend wanted her middle name to be LaDawn. She said that she liked Rayne almost as well, but that at least it would sound like Kay. :001_huh:

 

And yes. I know it's not my business. And it's a dumb thing to let bother me. But it's been one of those days when everything bugs me just a little bit more.

 

Ok. Done whining now.

 

I have a Dillon (instead of Dylan) but I don't *think* that is a creative spelling, just an alternative. However, for some reason he always gets an extra i before the o and people have acutally called him Dill-yun.:confused:

[twoforjoy]

My boys have very traditional names, with the tradition spelling.

 

My DD is Theresa. I had liked Teresa, but she's named after one of her great-grandmothers, whose name was spelled with the "Th". In that case, it was more a matter of picking between two common spellings. But, at this point it's moot, because she's Tess, and nobody ever says or writes Theresa, anyway.

[Pamela H in Texas]

My daughter's name is spelled traditionally - Kimberly. At one point, I considered that I could have done Kimberleigh or Kimber Leigh. I still kinda like the second one. But she is *definitely* a Kimberly.

 

I would have had to really work to spell my son's birth name creatively - Tyler...Maybe Tyhler, Tylher, Tylor, Tiler, etc?

 

Then my son changed his name in June 2010 to Johnathan. Now, we are quite aware that isn't a normal spelling, but I like it better and one of the others would have been more difficult for him.

 

Now I have "the three." All their names are spelled the way those names are spelled these days for little girls. Only problem is that two are boys. We will be changing the spelling of the littlest's to the boy spelling (it's a unisex name). I can't do anything about the older boy's unless I changed his name and I'm no longer thinking that is best. His name was one of the most popular girl names the year he was born, but....I will change his middle name and he likes the initials (I'm using them only in play and in connection to someone famous right now).

 

There have been a few names I like that are either weird or I like the weird spelling:Amberleigh (not as much anymore, but for years) and Kaileigh (said kylee), for example.

[MissKNG]

Normal.

[KarenNC]

Just to make the necessary disclaimer, I'm not making a statement against non-anglosaxon names.

 

There was a point (was it in the 70s or 80s?) that the popular idea was to use actual names from one's ethnic heritage rather than creatively spelling or making up names. Because of that, when it came time to pick a baby name, we joked that we needed to claim our Anglo-Saxon heritage and name our kids Hrypa, Egbert or Aethelflead ;). Most of the names folks would consider "Anglo-Saxon" are more likely Hebrew, Latin, Greek, etc in origin. They are just more common Western European names because of their occurrence in the Bible or other very familiar Western writing. http://www.mybirthcare.com/favorites/pg1/Anglo-Saxon-names.asp gives example of Anglo-Saxon names. Not a Sarah, Ann, Mary, Mark, James, John, Matthew, etc in the bunch, but it's a really good source for names no one will know how to spell (or pronounce, in many cases).:001_smile:

 

We used a very common girl's name, but with what is evidently considered a common but "old-fashioned" spelling (similar to the example of Ann vs Anne) because it is the way her great-grandmother's name was spelled (being the person after whom she was named). That means folks usually ask about the spelling anyway.

Edited October 13, 2011 by KarenNC

[keptwoman]

Yes, they are spelt traditionally although all 3 have acceptable alternative spellings, but we tried to choose the most common for the boys. DH and I argued over the spelling of DDs name and while it is an accepted spelling for her name, it's more commonly pronounced differently and so people get it wrong all the time. I would have prefered a different spelling that was more specific. But hey, I got my way on the middle name and she can always change it by deed poll :D One of my absolutes for my kids was that there was no Y in their name. People stick random y's all over the place these days, so I wasn't having one even in the proper place.

 

Yes I did spell my kids names the traditional way and it really, really bugs me that because of this crazy trend towards "kreative" spelling people still ask me how I spell them. C'mon people -you really can't make a guess at how to spell Anna and James.

 

In Australia spelling your kids names wierdly generally means you will be associated with being a bogan - not something many people aspire to ;)

:iagree:

Well I agree except that some bogans do actually aspire to be bogans. It's perplexing but there you are.:confused:

 

Made-up names or foreign names are one thing, but super standard names with odd phonetics just seem...unprofessional, or childish.

:iagree:

 

 

uneducated and trashy

 

no, I'm not judgmental ;)

:iagree: I'm not judgemental either :lol:

[Bassoonaroo]

Normal spelling here. People do judge due to names, including my own kids. I'm reading aloud a biography of Wilfred Grenwell to the four kids. Wilfred is a bit strange but not that strange. His brother is Algernon. The first time we encountered that name I directed a comment to my ds, "Oh, we almost named you that." It's sort of a family joke when we encounter a name that is not common we say "We almost named you that..."

 

My dd10 just made friends with two little girls: Abigail and (I have to go to my email and look this up): Makhaila. It'll take a while for me to learn that one.

[amy g.]

People misspell and mispronounce Madeleine's name all of the time. I'm pretty sure that I spelled it correctly.

 

Vivienne is even more problematic. I discovered that the way I wanted to spell it-Vivien was actually a misspelling, and I just don't like Vivian, so we compromised by using the French spelling.

[IsabelC]

Another vote for the "normal" spellings here. (Must be something about the demographics of this forum.) If you want an unusual name, then choose an unusual name - don't choose a common name and proceed to mangle it!

 

Am I the only person who burst out laughing at the idea of a class with two kids called Unique?

 

Heather, are you going to put me out of my misery by divulging the pronunciationg of Mikhlale? I'm thinking something like Mick-Layla. Unless it's just Mikayla or Michael gone wrong.

[Disney Dreaming]

We spelled Brooke(dd 8) with an "e" on the end but for some reason most try to spell it without an "e". Hayley(oldest dd) is spelled with the "y" in the middle, but this wasn't my spelling, I saw it on TV:tongue_smilie: and liked it.

[KungFuPanda]

Yes, because I love them and life is hard enough.

[twoforjoy]

Another vote for the "normal" spellings here. (Must be something about the demographics of this forum.)

 

I don't know. In preschool and kindergarten, the vast majority of my son's classmates had traditionally-spelled names (not necessarily traditional names, but names that were spelled the way you'd expect). Same with my students (college freshman). There's always a few who have really creatively-spelled names, but most don't.

 

I think perhaps we see the trend more online than in real life. Some of the name ideas I've seen people throw around on pregnancy/parenting boards look nothing like any name I've ever encountered in real life.

[Miss Peregrine]

 

 

:iagree:

Well I agree except that some bogans do actually aspire to be bogans. It's perplexing but there you are.:confused:

 

 

OT: My Australian friend just introduced me to that word a couple of weeks ago. I like it.:lol:

[Miss Peregrine]

No unusual spellings but my first daughter has kind of a cutesy name. I regret using it now, especially since someone relatively known and I consider 'trashy" has the same name. Oh well. That girl isn't even on DD's radar and she like her name anyway.

 

The others all have traditional spellings. Even my other daughter who has what is commonly a boy's name.

Edited October 13, 2011 by Miss Peregrine

[mom2denj]

Yes, I made all of children's names difficult. =) I put a K in Erik, an H in Nichole and my baby girl's first name is Jamie-Lynn. I can never find anything with thier name on it. Why did I do it? I just liked the way it looked. :D

[Jen in PA]

I did. My youngest dd's name is Rebecca, I thought this was the normal US spelling, but most people spell it Rebekah especially at church. It does get on her nerves but she usually doesn't correct them unless they ask.

 

That's my middle name (and my mother's and my great-grandmother's!), and we spell it the way your DD does.:001_smile:

 

My DD"s name is from Hebrew, and can be transliterated more than one way. She gets really annoyed when she sees other variations, but we are comfortable with the spelling we chose.

[Brigitte]

My three children all have traditionally-spelled names. The only one that has ever been problematic is my littlest's - lots of people spell her name, Bridget, with an extra T or TE at the end. OTOH, there are quite a few variations on the name, and Bridgette and Brigitte are both acceptable alternatives, I think.

 

Brigitte is the french and german spelling. :001_smile: My name never gets spelled correctly. Everyone wants to throw a "d" in the middle and an "e" before the "t's." My parents are from Belgium, so that is how I ended up with the spelling I have.

 

I used the traditional spellings for both my girls. Francie's given name is Frances. Most people want to use an "i" instead of the "e," not realizing that the "i" is for boys. My other daughter is Lillian. She goes by Lily. I used just one "l" in the middle, since I figured that that is how most people would spell it (almost no one knows her given name is Lillian and not Lily). Without fail, people spell her name Lilly. Drives me crazy, since I picked Lily to keep it easy. :glare:

[Haiku]

None of my kids' names are spelled the traditional American way. One child's name is spelled with a fairly common variant of the "normal" way ... akin to Stephen rather than Steven. But people still misspell it all the time, and they misspell it in odd ways, too, like if they spelled Steven Steeven or Stevenn. My other two children have names that are common in their home country and are variants on names that people in the US are certainly familiar with ... but because they are spelled differently, they are constantly misspelled and mispronounced. I'm not too worried about it, though, because no one gets our last name right, either.

[thescrappyhomeschooler]

My kids have traditional names spelled in the traditional way. But, as others have said, people still misspell them.

 

I'm so used to my name being spelled incorrectly. Thanks, Mom, for making me Lynne with an "e"!

[Dmmetler]

My daughter's given name is, but apparently when we shortened it, we picked a less than typical spelling (although it's the ONLY one that actually comes straight from the name, without adding letters), because invariably, when someone else writes it, they spell it differently. And that's had DD saying "My name doesn't end in an e!" since she was 2, and being very frustrated with a whole stream of well-meaning people trying to write nametags for her. (Maybe THAT'S why she started writing so early?)

[Michele B]

My girls have ultra-traditional (and catholic) names spelled traditionally. The spelling was not, however, a conscious decision. The hospital lady who was filling out my forms did try to spell Margaret "Margrit," but we didn't go with that! ;)

 

The spelling of my name was a huge problem in my school days. (And Michele was my middle name to make things even more interesting.) In college when I declared my love for linguistics, I began to be annoyed by being a "one-L-Michele." It's a french feminine; it should have 2.

 

After years of correcting documents, embroidery, and the like, I no longer make a stink, but pass over "mispellings" without raising an eyebrow. (Unless it is a legal document).

Edited October 13, 2011 by Michele B

[RoughCollie]

My kids' names are spelled the traditional way, and are ordinary white bread names.

 

Stephen's name is often written as Steven by others, no surprise there. Recently, it was mispronounced as "Step-hen" by an adult, which did surprise me.

[IsabelC]

Stephen's name is often written as Steven by others, no surprise there. Recently, it was mispronounced as "Step-hen" by an adult, which did surprise me.

 

"No! My husband bought that hen. It's not my hen, it's on my step-hen."

[angela in ohio]

Normally. We thought about giving the last one an odd spelling so that it would match the rest better, but it was already an unusual name (although becoming more common) to begin with.

 

I don't mind foreign names spelled traditionally, but it bothers me to no end when people spell names that don't say what they think they say phonetically. I won't give an example, as I'm bound to insult someone, but people need to ask someone who knows how to read well whether the name really would be pronounced the way they think it is.