# What do you think of "creatively spelled" names? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 12, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749 "2003-05-12T17:55:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/1 "2003-05-12T17:55:02Z")
Yesterday, I was at the grocery store and noticed that the clerk at the register had a name tag proudly telling the world that her name was “Jenefir.” Now, maybe her parents really liked the name “Jennifer,” but thought it was too common and wanted their daughter to be a little distinctive. I couldn’t help wondering, however, whether her parents simply liked the way the name sounded and didn’t have a clue how it was supposed to be spelled. I wonder the same thing when I see guys named “Antwan” or “Antowan” – creative spelling, or ignorance of how to spell “Antoine”? Asssuming that the parents really _do_ know how the names are “supposed” to be (_i.e._, are traditionally) spelled, I’m guessing that they want people to say “ooh, what an original name” and not “what’s the matter – didn’t your parents know how to spell?” So, how about it? When you see names like this, do you mentally applaud the parents for thinking outside the box, or do you lament the state of public education? Regards, Barry ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/2 "2003-05-12T17:57:33Z")
PUKING SMILEY HERE!!! Spell it right in the beginning, dammit - otherwise, your kid will curse you forever because they have to spell their name EVERY SINGLE TIME someone asks for it. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/3 "2003-05-12T18:05:28Z")
As the owner of a “creatively spelled name,” I don’t particularly like them. Mine isn’t awful, IMHO, and I actually like it a bit better than “Brenda,” which, let’s face it, is a pretty bad name, but give me Kathryn or Jennifer any day. I was named Brynda, btw, because I was the third daughter who was supposed to be named Bryan. They gave up on Bryan with a y and named me Brynda with a y. I get a bit tired of spelling it for everyone, but that part actually isn’t too bad. People tell me they like it all the time, but I don’t know if they are just being polite. I don’t really care, either, and never did. One funny thing is that I grew up in a small town and when a girl named Brenda moved there, she couldn’t understand why everyone spelled her name Brynda at first. They all thought the way my parents spelled it was the right way. ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/4 "2003-05-12T18:11:53Z")
**Brynda** : For the record, I would consider your name to be more of a “completely made up” name instead of simply “misspelled.” The ones I’m talking about have the same pronunciation as the “normal” spellings, leading me to think the parents simply didn’t know how the name was supposed to be spelled. I wouldn’t have thought your name was a mispelling of “Brenda” – instead I would assume it was either a foreign name (Welsh, perhaps?) or simply one that your parents created out of whole cloth. Either way, I think it is very lovely. 😉 Barry ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/47e85d/32.png) [@Captain\_Lance\_Murdoch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Lance_Murdoch)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/5 "2003-05-12T18:18:17Z")
What I hate is when I try to spell out someone’s name the normal way and they act offended that I failed to assume the correct spelling would be “Rocksan” or some such thing. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/6 "2003-05-12T18:20:46Z")
I’m thinking of **LA Story** , with Sarah Jessica Parker’s character named SanDeE\* (that last one’s a star). ---
**Author:** ![godzillatemple](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/49beb7/32.png) [@godzillatemple](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/godzillatemple)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/7 "2003-05-12T18:22:42Z")
Does anybody know whether there is any truth to the story that Oprah Winfrey got her name because her parents didn’t know how to spell the name of a Biblical figure named “Orpah”? Barry ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/8 "2003-05-12T18:23:27Z")
Okay, from now on I’m spelling my name **Biffé**. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/9 "2003-05-12T18:29:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by godzillatemple \* > \*\*Does anybody know whether there is any truth to the story that Oprah Winfrey got her name because her parents didn’t know how to spell the name of a Biblical figure named “Orpah”? > \*\* According to [Oprah Winfrey](http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/win0int-1) herself: > [@](#): > > Well, I was born, as I said, in rural Mississippi in 1954. I was born at home. There were not a lot of educated people around, and my name had been chosen from the Bible. My Aunt Ida had chosen the name, but nobody really knew how to spell it, so it went down as “Orpah” on my birth certificate, but people didn’t know how to pronounce it, so they put the “P” before the “R” in every place else other than the birth certificate. On the birth certificate it is Orpah, but then it got translated to Oprah, so here we are. But that’s great because Oprah spells Harpo backwards. I don’t know what Orpah spells. ---
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/10 "2003-05-12T18:45:20Z")
Personally, I find ‘creatively spelled’ names annoying. I don’t enjoy having to be corrected, particularly when I don’t care about how somebody’s name is spelled. The only thing worse than the ‘creatively spelled’ names are these ‘creatively pronounced’ names. These people must spend a big portion of their lives going around and correcting people. ---
**Author:** ![screech-owl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/82dd89/32.png) [@screech-owl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/screech-owl)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/11 "2003-05-12T18:51:13Z")
Sometimes hate it. Sometimes love it. As another owner of a C-SN (‘creatively-spelled name’\*\*): 1. I can never get anything ‘off-the-shelf’ personalized. 2. If I can get something personalized, either 2A) I have to wait 6 to eight weeks, or 2B) there is a 7 letter maximum (mine is 8 letters) 3. I am constantly correctling the spelling (over the phone, I can hear the backspace key being machine-gunned) On the positive side, I have, on occasion, switched the capital/lower-cased letters on my work nametags and changed the syLAHble emPHAHsis: “It’s actually spelled and pronounced “scree-CHOWL”. It’s a very old ethnic name in the family.” The looks of confusion and stuttered apologies are priceless. I would only use this on the customers who were real _tutzones_ joking about my name, since it is quite close to something NORML are passionate about… (Yeah, buddy, that’s the first time I heard that joke. In the last half-hour.) Eh, for all the problems, I’ve been stuck with it for [sub]indistinctlymumblednumber[/sub] years now. Can’t see myself changing this late in the game. \*\* - two weeks before my birth, mom saw a really pretty bride in the local paper with the odd spelling I now posess. Great. If the paper had landed in the mud that morning, as it usually did on a rainy day, I may have had a regularly-spelled name. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/12 "2003-05-12T18:59:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by godzillatemple \* > \*\ ***Brynda** : For the record, I would consider your name to be more of a “completely made up” name instead of simply “misspelled.” The ones I’m talking about have the same pronunciation as the “normal” spellings, leading me to think the parents simply didn’t know how the name was supposed to be spelled. > > I wouldn’t have thought your name was a mispelling of “Brenda” – instead I would assume it was either a foreign name (Welsh, perhaps?) or simply one that your parents created out of whole cloth. Either way, I think it is very lovely. 😉 > > Barry \*\* Ah, if flirting weren’t on the outs right now [sub]and if my husband wasn’t a doper[/sub] you would get at least a hug for that. 🙂 I agree that those of us with funky names shouldn’t get huffy about the spelling. I have found for my name, saying it is Brynda with a y instead of an e confuses people, so I tend to say, "It is Brynda, spelled B-R-Y (pause for emphasis) N-D-A. Don’t know why, but that tends to work the best. ---
**Author:** ![ArrMatey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrmatey/32/3522_2.png) [@ArrMatey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ArrMatey)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/13 "2003-05-12T19:09:02Z")
I wasn’t born with an oddly-spelled name, but an exceptionally common one. Because of this, and a ‘nickname’ incident, I started purposefully spelling my name oddly. It seems to have worked out well; my friends always know who they’re talking / writing about now when dealing with my name, and they even purposefully mispronounce it the way it’s spelled. Makes it more ‘individualistic’. Although I’ll be the first to say, I wonder what parents think when they intentionally do weird spellings. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/14 "2003-05-12T19:16:29Z")
I dislike intentionally goofy spellings like “Antowan” instead of Antoine. However, don’t forget that some variants from common are traditional. For example, “Brendan” is more traditionally spelled “Breandan” due to an Irish spelling rule (broad to broad and slender to slender). Likewise, “Bridget” is more traditionally spelled “Brigid”. ---
**Author:** ![Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e56c9b/32.png) [@Mirror\_Image\_egamI\_rorriM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mirror_Image_egamI_rorriM)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/15 "2003-05-12T20:05:53Z")
Bad. I’m Lindsay, which isn’t so awful, but I have never met anyone who spelled it rght on the first try. They usually try to stick an “e” instead of the “a”. I like Lindsay better than Lindsey, though (it’s better to type, because “dsa” is right in line) but if someone is using a traditonal name, use a traditional spelling. You can save crazy spelling for those names you make up. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/16 "2003-05-12T20:38:50Z")
Hey, another Lindsay, cool! 🙂 Apparently the tradtional is “Lindsey”, but it seems that “-ay” is really common (to me, it’s common enough that it isn’t really a “creative” spelling). Most of the time, if I see racks of pencils with names on them, I’ll see “Lindsay” and “Lindsey” side by side (and often times, the -ay spelling is the only one!). Although yes, I do have to say, “no, s-a-y” occasionally. Creative spellings, I don’t like them. It looks like someone was trying too hard to be creative, but in the ‘wrong direction’, if you know what I mean (instead of looking for a truly unique name, they just took a common name and changed letters). There was a baptism notice in our church paper, and the boy was named “Awstynn Mykal”. Jesus! I can’t imagine what that kid is gonna go through, just thinking of “No, it’s A-w-s-t-y-n-n…” ---
**Author:** ![ruadh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d2c977/32.png) [@ruadh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ruadh)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/17 "2003-05-12T20:52:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Dogface \* > \*\*Likewise, “Bridget” is more traditionally spelled “Brigid”. \*\* “Brighid”, if you want to be _really_ traditional about it. ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/18 "2003-05-12T20:59:25Z")
The choices people make with their names or their children’s names are none of my business. However, like rogzilla, I have no patience with people who are offended every single time an innocent person needs help with the spelling or pronunciation. And never, ever tell me that your name is spelled/pronounced the correct way. History is long and regional differences are great. Slightly off-topic, people who claim a great deal of meaning or symbolism in their name, or their child’s name need to chill. Ditto people who insist on the rest of us writing their name and only their name with the Arabic alphabet, Chinese characters, or the Cyrillic alphabet. You want to do that for personal letters, party invites, and postcards from the road? You want a spot my project plan, can the curlicues. ---
**Author:** ![Marc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8dc957/32.png) [@Marc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marc)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/19 "2003-05-12T21:14:33Z")
Depending on the circumstance, I usually figure illiterate parents, but sometimes you can see the creativity shining through. There are times when you do have to chuckle though–my supermarket checkout person the other day bore the name “Charaty” on her nametag. I wondered where Phayth and Hoape were hiding. I also find it odd when parent hang a moniker on a child based on their failed expectations. No offense, Brynda, but I seems as though your parents may have been upset that you didn’t catch that Y chromosome. I guess you’re lucky that they didn’t just name you Bryan. (I always did like the name Bryn, though.) BTW, my name (Marc) is spelled in a non-standard way and, yes, I do have to correct folks quite a bit, but I prefer it to Mark so I don’t really mind too much. My last name (Green) can also be spelled a few ways, so I’ve gotten used to saying, “M-A-R-C and Green like the color.” At least people have stopped asking me about ER, no that Dr. Mark Greene is no more. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749/20 "2003-05-12T22:08:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Marc \* > \*\*snip > I also find it odd when parent hang a moniker on a child based on their failed expectations. No offense, Brynda, but I seems as though your parents may have been upset that you didn’t catch that Y chromosome. I guess you’re lucky that they didn’t just name you Bryan. (I always did like the name Bryn, though.) > > snip \*\* No offense taken, as I am with you, buddy. I think it was a silly thing to tell me. I am over it, of course, but if I had my way, I wouldn’t know the origin of my name other than I was sorta named for my father, Bryce. Apparently, he didn’t like his name and wanted a Bryan instead. And…I _love_ Bryn, but not many people have ever called me that. My best friend does sometimes, but I must not be a Bryn to other people. Missing some essential “Bryn-ness” apparently. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-think-of-creatively-spelled-names/174749.md?page=2)