One of my coworkers has a friend who goes by Psarah. The p is silent, and she added it later in life, so at least you can’t blame the parents for that one.
My good friend is a 3rd grade teacher and has a child named Liltony. Which is pronounced Lil’ (little) Tony. Because his dad is big Tony of course.
Try working in juvenile court. I’ve seen kids named Ganja, Kilo, Talon (pronounced Tay-lahn), Armani, Alpacino, Bonjovi…there’s a list about 100 names long that our law clerks keep as a file on the shared drive called “Names for our future children.”
I don’t, it’s a spelling of Isabel that’s popular with the kind of (not-Hispanic) woman who would like to call her daughter Guinevere but doesn’t dare. The English version is Elizabeth.
“Logic” checks on people’s names sigh. The only way to do this is to just give up and allow everything (numbers, spaces, special characters, etc). A combination of logic checks and basically lazy programmers means that my two word Dutch surname looks different on practically every document I have. I think the only people who get it right are USCIS, perhaps not unexpectedly.
I got this story third hand so I can’t really confirm that it is true.
A friend told me that her aunt worked in a daycare where one of the children was named Princess Forever Moore and that her mother called her by her full name every time she picked her up.
Talk about spoiling your children.
I admit I’m not a big fan of Americanized ‘creative’ names, especially those that are spelled in a way that makes it hard to know how to pronounce them. I prefer traditional European and Biblical names.
However I don’t think parents should be expected to name their kids in a way that conforms exactly to certain cultural standards. Popular names and their spellings change naturally over time and naming practices are very different between places and subcultures…
There’s too often an element of racism/classism involved in the scorn and anger ‘creative’ names seem to invoke in certain people (often nerdy, white, self-described ‘grammar nazis’ who don’t actually know enough about what grammer to understand that African American Vernacular English is a gramatically correct dialect). Many people in black American community name their children differently than the majority culture, that’s no reason to look down on children named, for example, She’Cor, my friend’s son - his name is the first syllable of his father and mother’s names, a common practice. Luckily his is pronounced pretty much like it looks (sha-cor), unlike his mom whose name is spelled Sheyiyanniah(yes it took me some time to memorize that!) and pronounced ‘shey-ya-nah’.
I’ve lived in Philadelphia since age 14 and went to high school with lots of kids with unusual names. Sisters and brother named Love, Peace and Victor. Several girls named Toy, Princess, Duchess, Diamond, and Peaches (all dog names to me!). A girl named Attache (I admit I couldn’t resist calling her ‘Attache Case’ but only behind her back -she was very nice). Lots of boys named Prince. Several boys named Griffin, one named Gryphon (maybe his mom was a Mercedes Lackey fan!). And endless typical ‘black’ names, often creative spellings or alterings of traditional Islamic or Arabic names.
In elementary school, my daughter had a classmate named Blaize, pronounced Blasé.
He didn’t care, though. 
I see a lot of Nevaeh’s at work.
That’s “heaven” spelled backwards, so I’m not sure what kind of connotations that’s supposed to have.
Mussiah, I swear.
I’m not believing that La-a, Na-a legend either.
And you defend them? Make fun of their names? Then gloat about it on some stupid message board?
I believe he’s mocking not gloating.
Stupid message board? Them’s fighting words, pardner! :mad:
Maybe she doesn’t defend them - maybe she’s the prosecutor trying to send them to Naming Reëducation Camp.
Always my favorite story on baby names is the couple in New Zealand who attempted to name their baby son 4Real. When the Government refused to register the name because it contained a digit, they decided to officially name him Superman, but call him 4Real anyway.
Yeah, I’m not buying it either, but I actually did know a guy whose last name is Sithole, pronounced sit-OL-ay. Just one letter away…
I once had to do a benefit enrollment for someone who just had twins named Madysson and Adysson. It’s bad enough she gave her kids stupid names, but she gave them rhyming, stupid names that were misspelled. I had her address, so I could have gone to her house and killed her, but I decided it just wasn’t worth the effort.
I know a four-year-old named Talon, and it’s pronounced the same as you would that part of a large bird. His grandma said he’s getting a little sister soon, and I can’t wait to see what they name her.
I was thinking a few days ago people should branch out more with spelling and spell names as pronouced in their local dialect. I even thought of a few examples too.
How to spell baby names the N’Hampsha way:
Bear in mind that most people in NH don’t have the traditional NH accent, because more than half of us weren’t born here. But, some people do. You know the type, they eat blueberry pie for breakfast…
Anyway, here are a few guidlines
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if the name traditionally ends in vowel+r change that to an ah. That gets you names like Connah, Spencah, and Skylah.
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if the name traditionally ends in on or an change it to in. For example there’s my name, which is always pronounced Shannin, and then there are my friends Brandin and Ryin…
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if it’s a female name that traditionally ends in a change that to uh. Andreeuh, Lauruh, Annuh…
Considering how many people are willing to defend things said with a regional accent, this should catch on because it’s so much more defendable than merely mispelling a name you want to be creative with.
An oldie but a goodie. (It’s a study that shows a correlation between unusual names and delinquency. There have also been studies that correlate unusual names and low socioeconomic status.
On the one hand, I can understand wanting to honor one’s culture; there’s nothing wrong with that. On the other hand, some of the more creative names are just cruel. Some of my son’s classmates have names that all but guarantee that their owners will never be taken seriously. There’s nothing quite like a seven-year-old girl with a stripper name or a boy whose name sounds like a hero from a Danielle Steel novel.
[quote=“MeanOldLady, post:35, topic:534660”]
Yeah, I’m not buying it either, but I actually did know a guy whose last name is Sithole, pronounced sit-OL-ay. Just one letter away…
S*ithole! That is mean! I once worked with a man named Harry Butt. How could his parents do that to him?
My ex bf’s step daughter had a thing for odd names. She has 4 kids, Darshawn, Romeo, Justice and the baby is Rain. I tried to get her to name the baby Juliet but she thought that would be silly…
Yep, I’ve run across several Nevaehs as well.
I’m still waiting for my first Lleh, though. 
Mirikle. Pronounced Miracle.
Ah, thought of another one! Surinder. As in surrender. But he’s from India.