However, on the subject of correcting people’s spelling, I don’t really get why people don’t just accept that a name is not an absolutely fixed quantity and that you will find your name spelled in slightly different ways by different people at different times. It’ll still be the same name, for all intents and purposes, even if an “a” is missing or in a different places or if it’s one “l” or two or whatever. Cripes.
Then again, I do have a first name that comes in a slightly different variety in every European language, not to mention about five varieties in my native language, and I’ve gotten into the habit of just defaulting to the local variation when I’m travelling, and letting people get it wrong all they damn well please when I’m at home. Sometimes I change it myself just for the heck of it. I find a name to be a rather blurry thing. If I had a kid named Colin, I would probably spell it “Colin” or “Collin” on alternating weeks.
It’s the absolute antithesis of cool. You couldn’t give your kid a LESS cool name. Giving children last names as first names is going to seem extremely dated as time goes on; in 2050, it’ll sound like a name only an old person of a certain generation would ever have. It’ll be just like “Ethel” or “Mabel” are today.
Give your son a REAL name, not one that’s made up or a last name converted into a lame, trend-following first name. Believe me, he’ll be glad you did. It doesn’t have to be common; “Colin” isn’t too common. Here are some other really nice names that aren’t silly which rank below 75th place in the U.S. baby name popularity chart (2006 data):
Timothy (94th)
Richard (99th)
Jeremy (124th, I am shocked it’s this low)
Kenneth (128th)
Marcus (112th) or Mark (129th)
George (153rd)
Just in case anyone was wondering, #1 for boys was Jacob, #1 for girls was Emily, with the similar Emma being 2nd, probably due to “Friends.” The highest-ranked ridiculous names, IMHO, were for boys Jackson (36th) and for girls Madison (3rd.) Girl names seem much more prone to changes of fashion, and are heavily influenced by characters in pop culture.
The Canadian lists, I note, are slightly different but follow the same trends. Todaysparent.com ranks names in groupings, which is a bit more telling (so it ranks all absurd variations of Madison, like Maddison or Madysyn, as a single name) and is clearly informed by Canada’s different ethnic makeup; more French, way less Spanish. In Canada the #1s are Emma, with Emily being second; Matthew is the #1 boys name, including French variants. The highest ranked stupid names are, for girls, Madison/Madysin/etc., at 5th, and for boys I’ll go with “Caden,” which apparently is spelled eighteen different ways, at 52nd.
My name is Jonathan, not Jonathon, Johnathon, Johnathen, John, etc. In fact the names John and Jonathan are not related, John is not short for Jonathan although Jon is!
I don’t particularly care if someone spells my name incorrectly when they have no guidance. But when someone continues to misspell my name despite having the correct spelling infront of them (e.g., in the signature of an email) then, to me, that indicates they don’t care enough about me to be bothered trying to get the name right.
I have found that I must correct the spelling otherwise I risk effectively having the spelling changed. As an example, when I first joined the company I work at, my name was spelled incorrectly by some HR clerk. I didn’t bother correcting it. Eventually, I got fed up with every single person in the company spelling it wrong, and I talked to HR about having it corrected. By then it was quite an exercise as the name had to be corrected through multiple company departments. Since then I’ve decided it is best for everyone if they’re corrected immediately.
What’s so difficult about asking how someone spells their name? I never understand why people would rather guess (in the HR example, among others) than spend 5 seconds of their lives confirming. since I have an odd spelling to my name, I always make sure I’m spelling (and pronouncing!) everyone’s names correctly, although I admit I rolled my eyes at Krystal, etc. But some names have several valid spellings! Alisa Alyssa Alissa Elisa etc. Can’t count how many teachers would misspell my name when I’ve been handing in papers all day with the correct name spelling on the top… :rolleyes:
Edit: forgot to say my peace about the names! I’d think one L would be standard. Does your wife have an unusual name and feel married to it as her idea of her own uniqueness? As for colin-esque names, Kevin is pretty close and it’s hard to spell that one wrong. No one names babies Cy anymore. Cyrus? Or Cecil!
I suspect people think they know how to spell a name when they don’t. If they don’t realise they don’t know the spelling, they won’t ask. Case in point, my surname is genuinely unusual, most people ask how to spell it and consequently it gets spelled correctly. On the other hand, they think they know how to spell Jonathan, don’t ask or check, and then get it wrong.
Strange, my surname is very unusual and Italian. It does not spell close to how it sounds. Despite this, my name gets mangled in 8 or 9 different ways, quite often, even when I spell it for them. I think people often hear what they expect to hear and not what is being said.
Without checking any other answers, it should be Colin. It’s the name I would use for a boy, and it’s the spelling I would assume most people would use when they hear it.
