"Creative" name spelling- your opinions, please

In My Humble Opinion
121

If the spelling on a standard name is way off or just silly, I generally have to wonder about the parents. I don’t discount the idea that it might be a foreign variation on a very Anglicized name; however, sometimes it’s pretty obvious that the name was either made up (I used to work with a girl named Qualonda) or that the creative spelling got a little too far (Maadysynne for Madison).

I like ethnic names and like hearing ones that I’ve not heard before. My name is Natasha, which is the most common Anglicized spelling of the name as far as I know. I rarely have someone misspell it, and if they do, it’s never the “normal” variants such as Natacha, Natassia, Anastasia, etc.

During college, I worked as a cashier on campus. One day, a girl came in my line and her card said M’chelle [lastname]. I said in an interested tone, “I’ve never seen it spelled that way; how unique.” As a reply, I got “Oh, that’s the French spelling,” which I could not help but respond with “The name is French, so the missing I in your name is the original spelling.” Of course, this was all friendly and with a grin. How stupid to parents have to be to do that crap?

122

[QUOTE=LifeOnWry]
Honestly, it would never occur to me to pronounce Caroline as anything but “cara-linn.” Same concept as “Katherine” (my daughter’s name) - surely no one pronounces that “Kath-a-rhine”? I’d pronounce Carolyn the same. Carolina, on the other hand, would seem to me to be “Cara-line-ah.” I don’t think I have ever known a Caroline whose name was pronounced with the long I sound (not that I’ve known dozens - I can think of two offhand.) My default pronunciation for Madeline would be same same thing - mad-a-linn - but I have heard that name pronounced mad-a-line.
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I’ve never heard anyone seriously try to pronounce Katherine with a -rhine on the end, though I have heard Madeline both ways. I assume that the names were popularized in English by way of the French, and so had more of an -een ending. Anglified, it’d be closest to -inn, but thanks to English spelling they’re sometimes pronounced with the English -ine. While I’ll generally just correct someone once and cease to care much about it since I go by a nickname, it baffles me that people seem to be offended that I like my name to be said in a perfectly acceptable way. It’s a family name and this is fairly close to the way they pronounced it before coming to this country. In my mind, saying it another way would damage the familial connection.

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[QUOTE=Siege]

Speaking of which, I’ve been compiling a list of names I’ve actually seen on mail lists. May I present Siege’s first list of what not to name your baby?

Channel
Brittannie
Cheronda Shaylyn
Luscious
Baby (Appears to be an adult)
Despina
Cydney
Julann
Shadaye
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Could I ask why Despina makes your list? It doesn’t seem like the others to me, it’s a traditional Greek name that’s been around forever. Little old Greek ladies are named Despina. It never really crossed over to mainstream American naming trends, but it’s stayed fairly popular with Greek-Americans.

124

[QUOTE=CanvasShoes]
So is the name/word “John” here in America.

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Yes but

  1. I’ve heard the name John many many many times, where I have never heard the name Dunny before this and
  2. Daani is a name I have heard before.
125

[QUOTE=kittenblue]
And while we’re on the topic, what’s with the multiple middle names, and the first names that don’t get used?
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Here in the bucolic south of Holland, everybody has three middle names. Well, not everybody, but a large percentage of the population. I thought Dearly Beloved was so clever for coming up with all those names but then somebody clued me in that there are naming conventions in this region. A fellow on a train told me a number of things about my family without knowing anything but all of my kids’ names.

Everybody gets their own first name, then the middle names generally follow a pattern of the various relatives’ names. As far as I can tell, nearly all Dutch names can be converted to both genders; still it is not uncommon for boys to have a woman’s name as one of the three middle names. Dearly Beloved has “Johanna” amoung his middle names and Eldest’s third middle name is “Maria”.

For people who did not use last names until Napoleon made them, they sure like names a lot.

Being a good American, I named my kids regular, ordinary names: Douwe and Daan. My mother was annoyed at me for naming Eldest with a name that does not exist in English but I offered her Voostenwalbert Schimmelpenninck as an alternative and she picked Douwe. :wink:

I very badly wanted a son named Jelle (it’s pronounced YELL-eh, just like it is spelled) but I was concerned about nicknames Stateside so we didn’t do it. I also liked Kees a lot (pronounced case) but Dearly Beloved hates that name.

The only regret I have is that Daan turns out to be in the top 5 names for boys in his age group. I didn’t know, I had certainly never heard it before. Stateside, they are so clearly foreign names that nobody gets wound up about it as far as I know; they just ask how to spell/pronounce them. (FTR it’s DOW-eh and Dahn)

126

[QUOTE=Anaamika]
2) Daani is a name I have heard before.
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I think this is exactly the pronunciation “guide” I’m looking for! Thanks.

(Now why did I never think of that myself? :smack: )

127

My name is spelled Gwendolen but of course the default people use is Gwendolyn. EVEN IF I SPELL IT FOR THEM AND ENUNCIATE EACH LETTER BECAUSE I KNOW THEY WILL SPELL IT WRONG. GRRRR!

At least one source says Gwendolen is the original (I know, the original is probably something like Gwynnyllwyllyn) and Gwendolyn is the derivative!

128

[QUOTE=kittenblue]

And while we’re on the topic, what’s with the multiple middle names, and the first names that don’t get used? Poor Litoris thinks we’re picking on her, since her child’s name inspired all this, but her Aiden Caughner Niquolos (I think) first was called Caughner (pronounced Connor for all the newbies to the Thread, though I still hear Coffner in my head when I read it) and now has decided to use Niq as he goes into kindergarten. What about the Aiden part? Why even bother naming him something you never, ever use? Makes my job as an engraver harder, too, as friends try to figure out just what his initials are in 20 years when they want to get him a gift when he’s a groomsman! I had a friend in school whose first name was his dad’s first name, and he was called by his middle name to not confuse them. Let’s say his given name was Albert Ronald Davis, and he was always called Ron. Always. It was a huge shock to many of us when the senior yearbook came out and we found out a lot of people’s real names! He tried using A. Ronald Davis professionally, but finally decided to legally change his name to reflect the reality of his usage, so now he’s Ronald Albert Davis. Still honors his dad, but more accurately reflects the name he goes by.
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Let me clarify – when my son was due, husband decided no matter what, his name would be connor. I dislike the name, and I especially dislike the idea that he was to be named after a television/movie character. I have always said I would name my son Niquolos – like I said, I loved the name when I knew 2 guys who had it when I was younger. When we agreed on a name for him, I honestly wanted him to go by Aedin (and yeh, I do pronounce it with the AE as in aesop, so “eden” is not too far off, although it is more gutteral), but husband decided connor it was. Ok, whatever. My son is highly intelligent and at age 5 decided that when he started kindergarten, he wanted a very specific haircut, a very specific type of clothing and oh by the way, I don’t like the name Caughner, can I go by Niquolos? He has been very individual since birth, this didn’t surprise us, and we agreed. He did agree to shorten to Niq, based on how much fun it is to announce “my name is N I Q, Niq”

As for why I gave both my kids 2 middle names – it just happend that way with my daughter. She was named after her uncle Devin, her dad (jason) Lee, and given her own name. Originally, we were going to call her by her first name, but that just confused people – more than one devin in the family – so we let her go by Sterling, which suits her. With my son, well we just liked all the names. I have noticed it as a trend, though. I do know several people who have given their kids 2 middle names. I don’t know why.

Honestly, I don’t feel like I am being "picked on"I am just amazed at how angry people seem over my choice of names. What’s funny is that we have had very few issues with people mispronouncing our son’s names – as for misspelling? Sure, but we figured that would happen and don’t get bent out of shape over it.

Hopefully, this clarifies a bit for people. While I know the annoyance of always saying “no, my name is not joann, joanne, johann, johanna or janice (???),” my kids have yet to have those problems. I donno, perhaps they are lucky. Of course, it does help to have unusual names or go by your middle name when screening calls – “Hi, may I speak to koffner?” immediately identifies a phone solicitor.

129

[QUOTE=Litoris]
Of course, it does help to have unusual names or go by your middle name when screening calls – “Hi, may I speak to koffner?” immediately identifies a phone solicitor.
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Point taken.

130

I think a lot of the venom is coming from people who either a) have been forced through parental mis-naming (or parentally butchered spelling) into a lifetime of having to go through some combination of spelling, pronouncing or explaining their name to everyone they interact with on even a casual basis, b) people who feel awfully sorry for the people in column a, or c) people who for one reason or another spend a lot of their professional life dealing with parental naming disasters.

It’s certainly your right to name your kid “Aedin Caughner Niquolos”, but it’s also the right of other people to think you’re a prat for doing so. Of course, it’s also not you that gets to spend the next 70 or 80 years patiently correcting spelling and pronunciation of your weird-ass name.

Thus speaketh the woman who’s father actually misspelled her name on her birth certificate and whose name was changed at age 6 days because the nurses kept pronouncing it “Jelly” (for the record, my original given name was “Geli” pronounced “Gay-li” - the affectionate diminutive form of my mother’s given name (“Angelika” pronounced “Ahn-gay-lica”) by her and the rest of her family, as they’re German. My mother was (and still is, actually) known to her family as “Geli” - sort of like most Nicholas’ are Nick or most Roberts are Bob. Reasonable pick of baby name, really) My mother got sick of this and sent my dad to change it on the birth certificate. I assume it was the drugs that caused her to send him without the name written down, as everyone who knows him is aware that my father cannot spell. Hence my new name was spelled phonetically. However, everyone else in the free world spells my name with a silent, prosthetic “h” on the end.

I’ve learned to spell my name to everyone I meet.

Of course, you’d think that the lesson would have been learned the first time, when my father did the exact same thing when my older half-sister was born. The man can’t spell - so my older half-sister is also missing her silent prosthetic H.

The best part is that the name my father wrote down on the birth certificate was not the name my mother intended he write. It was agreed to name the baby after my mother’s oldest sister (since my mom’s name name wasn’t working), who was known by a random nickname that was only marginally related to her given name (Americanized nickname from the not-very-pronouceable-to-Americans German first name). My mother *meant * for my father to change my name to her sister’s given name. What I ended up with was the misspelled, Americanized version of my aunt’s only-tangentially-related nickname. :smack: Nobody realized for a good six months, when my mom had to inspect the birth certificate for some reason.

I’m told the yelling was thunderous - and that she’d have smacked my dad if she hadn’t been three months pregnant with my brother.

My brother, who was named “John”. After his father. Who could theoretically be expected to spell that name correctly. Only six months after my naming disaster, my mother was still a little snippy about the whole thing.

So chalk the fact that when I read your kid’s name, I automatically assumed you were an idiot up to a lifetime of dealing with a poorly-thought-out parental naming issue. Having a rare first name is bad enough when you don’t have to deal with a misspelling of a rare first name. I don’t even want to speculate how irritating it would be to have a randomly-spelled common first name. At least with my first name, people ask how to spell it. It’s just weird enough that people aren’t totally sure (there are at least three equally-likely possibilities). If I were Niquolos, I’m not sure what I’d do. Other than have a Word with my parents for saddling me with that hassle for the rest of my life.

131

You know, I can’t see much venom or anger.

132

Posted by Nava

It is a very old name, but decidedly not the name of a Saint.

133

There are lots of names that are uncommon enough that they don’t have a standard spelling, and thus should get a pass.

Someone mentioned “Makena” for “McKenna”. If I saw the former, I wouldn’t have a problem for it. It is just as phonetically reasonable as the latter, and that name has so many variants in use that it’s hard to say what’s right and what’s wrong. Plus, “McKenna” looks like a last name. I can see a parent wanting the name to appear less formal and more feminine.

I only have the rolly eyes when it’s a very common name (like Jane, Allison, Amber, Jason) that’s been butchered (like Jayn, Alysson, Ambyr, and Jayson). That’s when it appears like the parent is stupid or crazy, though it could be only that they want to use a creative name, but they’re too wussy to commit full-force.

134

[QUOTE=Litoris]
Of course, it does help to have unusual names or go by your middle name when screening calls – “Hi, may I speak to koffner?” immediately identifies a phone solicitor.
[/QUOTE]

Of course, having a foreign name that adheres to the name’s original spelling can also do the same. Solicitors often not only mispronounce my mother’s first name, but interpret her name to mean that she is a man and is Mr. [surname]. Because I have a surname that’s difficult to pronounce correctly,* I don’t quite understand why anyone would purposely want to make it even harder for strangers to spell or pronounce their kids’ names correctly.

*I have friends that went to school with me for six years who still can’t pronounce my last name properly. It’s not like I haven’t corrected them politely every time… :rolleyes:

135

[QUOTE=nashiitashii]
…*I have friends that went to school with me for six years who still can’t pronounce my last name properly. It’s not like I haven’t corrected them politely every time… :rolleyes:
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Slightly off-topic, but senior year in HS one of our exchange students was a girl from Thailand. None of the teachers or office staff used her surname because it was so hard to pronounce (though a couple of us could by the year’s end), but her first name, Prontisha (sp :confused: ) was unique enought that this wasn’t an issue. Until graduation practice when our principal kept calling her "Prontisha whatever :eek: ! For the actual ceremony he just used her first name. Then there was our Georgian exchange student, Irakli. He went by “Ira” and all of teachers were fine with this except our principal who kept calling him "Iragi!

136

[QUOTE=alphaboi867]
…principal who kept calling him "Iragi!
[/QUOTE]

Didn’t notice 'till after the edit fuction expired :smack: . That should be Iraqi.

137

I have I guess what was considered creative spelling back in the 70’s. Granted, I’ve never met another “Cheridan” with my spelling. But I really like the way that my name looks as a written word, over the more traditional “Sheridan”.

And over the years I’ve gotten used to spelling it out for people - especially for my email. It’s unique (and I think, pretty) and it suits me. :slight_smile:

138

I wish people would actually say their names instead of saying “Well, most people spell it with a C in the front and then PH in the back, but I spell it with a K in front and an F in the back.” Because, honestly, it might make sense to you, but it confuses me.

For the record, the once slightly unusual spelling of my name is now becoming more popular due to Lindsay Lohan. Now it’s more likely for people to write Lindsay then Lindsey.

139

[QUOTE=alphaboi867]
Slightly off-topic, but senior year in HS one of our exchange students was a girl from Thailand. None of the teachers or office staff used her surname because it was so hard to pronounce (though a couple of us could by the year’s end), but her first name, Prontisha (sp :confused: ) was unique enought that this wasn’t an issue. Until graduation practice when our principal kept calling her "Prontisha whatever :eek: ! For the actual ceremony he just used her first name.
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I used to work with a Thai bloke called James Ratnavirawatana. It was funny when newbies would try to pronounce his name (not pronounced as written exactly). Not funny because they were doing it wrongly, but funny because they were trying at all, and didn’t know his preferred form of address was, simply, “Jimmy the Rat!” :smiley:

Or “James Ratna” if he was feeling formal.

140

My first name is Dawna. As a child, I thought it was pronounced just like Donna. As an adult, I no longer give damn how you say it, just so it’s spelled correctly on the check. Dah-na, Daw-na, Dawn, Don, Donna, Hey you, whatever, I’ll answer to anything.

Please, please, PLEASE don’t get creative with the spelling or pronounciation of your baby’s name. Cultural variations are entirely acceptable, but if you’re a WASP, for love of Og, spell the kids name J-a-n-e and say it to rhyme with the rain on the plain in Spain. The child will thank you for it.

For the record, I was born in 1964, my parents are middle class, well educated, Wonderbread pale whose ancestors have been in the US for at least 100 years. I love them, but I’ll never forgive them for sticking that A on the end.