I’ll continue to roll my eyes, as your semantic nitpick is thoroughly irrelevant to my post, which was to comment on a woman named Bryan, pronounced as you’d expect. That you chose to parse “as it looks” to mean “according to the rules of English orthography” instead of “as it looks [to anyone who has seen the name Bryan]” is your problem, not mine. Context matters.
I don’t need a lesson in English phonology and orthography, thank you very much.
I note that you didn’t answer my question about the word Celtic.
Here is my point. Given the casual relationship between orthography and phonology in English, and the difficulties this can cause even education persons, it’s not unreasonable that some persons simply say “Screw it, I’ll just spell my kid’s name the way I want to.” I sometimes find that vexsome too, but to say that people who do that are necessarily stupid smacks of elitism, not to mention dickishness.
Again, context matters. “Bryan” is a well known name, and people seeing it will naturally pronounce it a certain way. They will “pronounce it as it looks”, which is like the name “Bryan”. That there are two pronunciations for “Celtic” has nothing to do with it.
All of which is perfectly irrelevant to the fact that Sarah Bryan Miller goes by Bryan.
Don’t get me started on the umpteen variants of Michaela - Makayla - mcKayla etc. One (the original) was just fine.
Well, he’s certainly not a WASP.
Regards,
Shodan
Says who?
I’ve usually seen “Michaela” pronounced \məkeɪlə. But I see no reason to prefer that pronunciation over \mʌɪkələ, which would seem logical given that “Michaela” looks like a feminization of Michael.
Makayla seems clearer, in fact. Except at the beginning of words, ay is almost always pronounced \eɪ, and since the iambic tendecy of English dictates that the second syllable is likely to be the stressed one, the schwas of the first and last syllables can reasonably be spelled with any single vowel.
Of the spellings you list, I’d call Makayla the least ambiguous.
Not to mention, “Michaela” smacks of, “But the person who looked at the ultrasound *said *it was a boy!”
Not to mention the fact that Makayla might be a coined name, or a variation of Kayla, rather than a feminization of Michael.
Still not willing to listen to hip-hop, by the way.
Some day! :shakefist:
The more common pronunciation (especially when this name was rare) of Michaela was/is \məkeɪlə\ as you so indicated. There are now about 5 variants of the spelling because of people wanting to be unique.
I might concede one phonetic variant, the one you called out: Makayla. This does not explain all the other unnecessary variants.
Parents just looooooooove doing variant spellings on girls’ names. I’m a Megan, personally. Variations I have seen include Meaghan, Meghan, Meagan, and Meggan.
Why shouldn’t they seek be unique, or at least non-conformist?
Because, when you’re a kid, you see those big racks of keychains/license plates/doodads with names on them - and yours is NEVER on them, because your name is either (1) known and standardly spelled, but unusual or (2) not spelled the same way as they have on the keychain/license plate/doodad that you want - NEVER, EVER - it’s really really really annoying.
I, personally, ENVIED all the Jennifers and Jasons and Marias and Johns and Mikes and such that I went to school with - they could have signs on their door that said “JENNY’S ROOM! KEEP OUT!” or book covers that said “PROPERTY OF STEVEN!” or even T-shirts that said “WATCH OUT WORLD, HERE COMES MINDY!”. Yes, they often had to be referred to as “Mike K.” or “Kelly G.” in class, but they got PERSONALIZED CRAP WITH THEIR NAME ON IT!!! Which is a huge deal. Or was to me, dammit.
As a matter of fact, even as an adult, I will buy just about any crap thing with my birth-name on it, even though I haven’t gone by that name for over 15 years. Just on principle. My name being so ususual is probably a good part of why I disliked it so much that I changed it to something slightly more common (Maggie).
Let me tell you - when it comes to names, “unique” is over-rated.
My stepsister’s daughter’s middle name is pronounced mo-NAY. My dad was filling in the family tree when stepsis stopped him when he typed “Monet”.
“It’s Monay!”
“What kind of ghetto fabulous shit is that?” He refused to change the way he spelled it and told her to fix the baby’s birth certificate. And then we all sang Mony, Mony because we are a cruel, sit-com type family.
Just as a differing point, I have a “unique” name (it’s a “real” name and not made up, but it ain’t popular) and I have ALWAYS loved it, even as a little kid. Sure, I hated not finding shit with my name on it as a child, but I adored that I wasn’t another Jennifer or Jessica or Sarah.
I have literally never met another person with my name, but I do know they exist (I see it in listings and stuff).
I know what I’m naming my baby. It’ll be pronounced “Go-shay,” thank-you-very-much.
Contrariwise, you could have my fairly common first name, and simply hate it from the time you were four and resolve never to introduce yourself as such after you become an adult. Like me.
Naming kids is an inherent crapshoot.
True. My mom had a very common name, and hated the common-ness of it - she was a Susan born in the 50’s, and said that nearly every girl in her classes was either a Susie or a Debbie - hence her giving me something more “unique”. :smack:
Oh well. If we successfully breed, I’ve got the girls’ name picked out, and it should be fairly inoffensive to her.
Good times.
Strangely enough, I wished my name had been more obscure at times-- I think a bit of it was jealousy that I was the only child without a traditionally Icelandic name. I still like my name (peaked at #70 in US popularity around the time of my birth), but having been so inundated in my maternal home culture, I sometimes long for a name that more readily identifies me as a member of the non-American culture I identify with.
FRONK-en-steen. 
someone had to.