Firstly, “in X” = “in black Americans”. I put it like that because (99% of reason) I can put no other characters in the titles. And (1% of reason) to attract interested people who may know stuff to my thread.
So the title of this thread should be, if technical thingy ma jiggys made it possible:
‘Are “mispelled” names in black Americans on purpose or due to poor education? And if the latter why no correction?’
I’ve seen loads of examples of this from here over the pond, but the news story that made me ask this question is this one, obviously intended towards light relief, of a lady who has a very large bottom. 8 foot wide it is. That’s all you need to know about the entire story really, and if you click on that link you’re a disgusting voyeur
My interest is more about two of the kids. Those two that are named “Justyce” and “Destynee”.
I go back to my question - are these mispellings on purpose? If so WHY? Does the mother appreciate how silly she looks? If not - WHY HAS NO ONE CORRECTED HER or WHY HAS SHE NOT TAKEN THE CORRECTIONS ON BOARD?
Again, I am not really looking for answers in this case, so much as general ones.
And by the way while this OP may seem critical, it isn’t, or it isn’t as critical as it could be anyway. If black Americans want to start spelling their names weirdly that is their business as far as I am concerned. I do feel it’s a foolish choice for their kids’ future, but what do I know? My understanding is that most American babies are non white now. It would be insane for anyone to extrapolate from now just what any of these babies will be facing in a job marketin 20 years time. I just want to know what’s going on.
There isn’t a factual answer to this post, but yes these ‘misspellings’ are on purpose. Either the parents who named them are trying to be cute, or set their child apart with a unique name, or something else.
Adding a Y to the normal spelling seems to be fairly common. I work with young adults and 18 to 20 years ago Austin must have been very popular as a boy’s name, I have several where I work. Austyn is fairly common.
I also have a Jaykub for Jacob.
And it doesn’t seem to be a racial or cultural thing.
There also exists the possibility that she spelled them that way because that’s how she thought it was spelled. Having given the kid the name, she feels that’s the kid’s name and she’s not going to change it. People telling her she’s spelled her kids’ names wrong are not likely to receive a warm welcome.
Some of the whitest people on Earth spell their surname Erixon to stand out from all the Ericsons of the world (Example), so I have to agree that it’s not a cultural thing.
And the second version couldn’t have been your thread title for what reason, again?
When someone names a child, the name is inherently spelled correctly.
That’s the spelling the parent’s chose.
I sure don’t understand your question.
White Americans do it too. I know a white woman named “Jynipher”. White American girls named with creatively spelled variants of what I guess was originally “Michaela” (McKayla/Mykayla/Mikahla, etc.) are also common enough to be something of a cliche.
“Justyce” and “Destynee” and not misspelled, they are creative or variant spellings. They are meant to be pretty or interesting, as mentioned, but as more people (of all races) do it, it loses its uniqueness.
I won’t pretend that there aren’t a few people who give their kids names with nonstandard spellings because they don’t know the standard spelling (Isiah instead of Isaiah always strikes me as this type because how does that even say Isaiah? but I’m sure it’s on purpose sometimes), but usually they do it because they like it that way.
“Non-Standard” spelling isn’t what the op mentioned.
He asked about misspelled names.
And he was real afraid to come out and say that it was the Black folks misspelling all those names.
At least in the thread title he was, in the thread itself, he had no such fear.
This ain’t the pit, so I’ll leave it.
My cousin was originally going to spell her daughter’s name Michaela, but was afraid people would pronounce it “Michael-Ah”. So she ended up going with Makayla.
This isn’t limited to blacks or the poorly educated either. One of my fellow church members is named Emilee for example and her parents are fairly well educated and well off.
Also, sometimes what looks like a “weird” spelling turns out to be in a different language. To wit, Spaniard Letizia Ortiz, whose firstname uses the Italian spelling (link mixes English and Spanish, apparently the translators’ budget is insufficient).
It goes a long way too. For example I’ve seen paintings with a written name Queen Mari, now she’s known as ( The Bloody ) Mary. It happens everywhere and both ways. I’ve seen a Spanish painting where the text was ‘Reyna Ysabella’
I think it’s a generational thing. Last fifteen or so years I have seen disturbingly many ‘youthful’ variants of Brittany. Wait 30 years and Britney ( &c ) is a name of old women and somebody is complaining ‘why does that baby have such a stupid misspelled name like Bretagne?’
