They changed the site years ago and there’s no longer any way to bring it up, but in the Victorian Registry Office’s online database of names was a Perseffany. Odds are low that they were African American, but (IMO) high that it wasn’t a deliberate creative spelling.
Are "mispelled" names in X on purpose or due to poor education? And if the latter why no correction?
I knew of a Kateland, which was supposed to be pronounced like Katelyn, for some reason.
I don’t even dislike that name, but there are just way too many things that can (and shouldn’t) be done with it.
I rather like the Alysinn spelling for a girl because it seems more feminine than the traditional ‘Allison’ spelling. IIRC Allison was originally a family name derived from Allis, and actually enjoyed some currency as a name given to boys before crossing over to the girls’ side.
Creative spellings aren’t even an American thing, let alone black American. There are plenty of British kids with creatively spelled names. Ask any schoolteacher.
There are quite a lot of Brits on here, you know.
This sounds exactly like a FOAF story I have heard more than once. Did you ever meet this woman, yourself?
What about Alisoun from “The Miller’s Tale”? As a girl name, Alison derived from a Norman French variant of Alice, and was first recorded in Scotland in the 12th century.
It’s a girl thing. My sister Judy insists that people spell it Judi. Well, I guess it really is Judith, so rather arbitrary how you shorten it. No such excuse for ex-GF April that decided it was going to be Apryl from now on. So when women who think this is a cool thing have kids, the kids get names with weird spellings. Also happens when people have heard a name but guess at the spelling. I know several Shawns from Texas. Guessing their moms were not James Bond fans.
“Shawn” is pretty common in the US, not just in Texas. (I’ve also seen it as a last name.) Name Voyager indicates it was more popular than the “Sean” spelling from the 1950s-1970s, although it’s dropped off pretty sharply since then. I’d guess that “Sean” was boosted by the rising popularity of Irish names.
I have a (white) friend named Dianne, and her mother had no idea that the spelling she put on the birth certificate wasn’t the standard, most popular spelling.
I also have a friend whose parents mispronounced her name. Eowyn, pronounced “Yowin.” Gotta watch for those accent marks in Tolkein!
True but I don’t think most (any?) are going out of their way to point out interesting differences like I am. It would not be correct to say that I see myself as an ambassador, but something like an online tourguide may be apt. In a gentle way.
Not to be too dickish, but there have been Brits sharing their knowledge here since probably a few weeks before your join date. Your contributions are perfectly valid, but Christ, I don’t need a shepherd.
I did have a schoolfriend whose middle name was Sean, spelled that way. Same age as me, born in the 1950s. (He hated the name too, but that was probably more of a Texas thing, dunno. Although like me, he was born outside of Texas.)
I like your definition of “a few”.
You flatter yourself.
Thing is, Caitlin isn’t even pronounced like “Kate-Lynn” or any of those variants. It is (or at least was originally) pronounced more like “Kathleen”, which IMHO is a lot prettier.
OK, now I assume you’re joking.
Actually, the ‘tl’ or ‘thl’ is a phoneme that doesn’t exist in English, and is transliterated as either ‘kl’ or ‘thl’ depending on where in the word it appears, and what vowels come before or after it. Different places in the word cause native monolingual English speakers to ‘hear’ it differently.
Hence “more like ‘Kathleen’” - I agree it’s not exact, but closer than “Kate-Lynn”. 
I wasn’t disputing you, I was agreeing with you while adding some pedantic additional useless trivia, as is this board’s tradition. 
I see. So does that mean some people hear it as “Cackleen”? Maybe Kate-Lynn ain’t so bad after all. 