My friend’s idiot teenage on-welfare sister named her baby “Alyksis”. I’m sure that stupidity played a large part in this. Oddly enough, everyone calls the baby “Lexi”.
Exactly. :rolleyes:
My name is spelled the common way, but I still have to spell it out all the time because of the variations; “That’s two c’s: R-e-b-e-C-C-a!” I’m amazed at how many people don’t seem to know how to spell it.
My mother wanted to name me something unique, couldn’t think of anything that didn’t sound made up and silly, so she just went with a different spelling of a common name.
Sure, I have to spell it out for people constantly, but you get used to it. shrug I like it, and that’s what counts. I couldn’t care less about what anyone else thinks.
Somebody with a sense of humor and absolutely no other endearing qualities should try naming their child Chastitty.
I’ve enjoyed my varied spelling - Krystal - although I do get sick of “It’s Krystal with a K” when people need to write my name.
My name is Jill. When I was in Junior High, I was close friends with 2 girls who were also named Jill. When walking together down the halls at school, people would often call out, “Hi Jills!” Frankly, it made me feel like I had no individuality when I got lumped together with the other Jills like that.
Now, I love my name and had no desire to change it. So I decided to distinguish myself from the other Jills by simply spelling it Jyl. Sure, kids could still call out, “Hi Jills!”, but I’d know my Jill was really Jyl. (12 year olds can be SO goofy! ;))
Well my father thought it was soooooo stoooooopid! He grumbled at me, “That’s not Jill, that’s Jile.” I kept the spelling until I graduated High School at 17, so for 6 years my father called me Jile! Too Funny! It sortof became his pet name for me. It’s such a fond memory, I have to admit.
When I got to college and my other Jill friends went to different schools, I reverted back to the standard spelling and have been just plain Jill for more than 20 years, and will stay that way forevermore.
Oddly, I still have to spell it all the time for people who think it starts with a G! Amazing.
So anyway, it’s not always the parents’ fault. Just thought I’d say. 
re: the Jill post, I realize that I have a friend named Lizz (short for regular old Elizabeth) and another named Kristel. And I used to have a roommate named Erik, but that’s not terribly wacky.
As a newspaper editor I really hate them. My reporters are pretty good at getting names correct but errors can be made and boy if creatively spelled people don’t help–What do they expect?
Last week I had a complaint from a Cyndi that we spelled her name the conventional way. It was an interview with her over the phone. She should have mentioned something. The week before, we had a school story and in the space of 30 high school girls taking part in an art show there were four Brittneys and all four spelled it differently. Yes, I know it’s their right, but jeez, is it a pain.
I should mention we’ve had a Lacy, Laci, Lacee and Lacey at different times in similar stories. And if we do a story on rodeoing, I will bet we will have young people with the names of; Kaci, Kacy, Cacy, KC, Kaycee, and on and on. And further, that the guy whom we interview about the event will know the competitors but not how to spell their names. In this way, we are sure to screw up the spellings and just as sure to get people angry. Just as suredly they will all call or write letters of complaint saying, “Rodeo is the fastest growing sport in the country and you should know these people. They will be the stars of tomorrow.”
(Why does it seem that every sport but football, basketball and baseball is the fastest growing sport in the country? At least the lady curler we interviewed last winter was openmined enough to say “one” of the fastest growing sports in the country.)
TV
Funny thing is I read a nice article posted here about this very topic.
Erik, Eric, and Erich are all standard variations.
We should distinguish between standard variations and “creative” spellings. Mark and Marc are standard variations. Marque is not. Elizabeth and Elisabeth are both standard. Alizabeth is not. (I grew up with Alizabeth. Her parents named her that so that everyone in her family would have a name that started with A. Groan.)
I dislike “creative” spellings. There are a boatload of names out there–if you don’t like one, choose another! Awstynn? Good lord, that’s absurd!
My name is unconventionally spelled - Karolina. Except that in Poland, where I was born, that is the correct and only way of spelling it. I feel really bad when I am asked my name and I have to spell it out every time. I can tell some people are internally rolling their eyes.
A friend of mine has a girlfriend who named her son Chace.
“Sha-say?” I asked, thinking it was perhaps some odd French name. She shook her head.
“No, it’s pronounced like Chase,” she said proudly, “but I wanted him to be unique, so I replaced the ‘s’ with a ‘c’.”
The downside is the kid will have to correct people’s spelling for the rest of his life. The upside is that if he ever decides to become a drag queen, he’s got the perfect name for the job.
.:Nichol:.
My name has an unconventional spelling. It’s only the subsitution of one letter, however, nothing ridiculous like “Antwone” or “Awstynn”.
It doesn’t bother me when people misspell it. I usually don’t even correct them, unless the misspelling will go on a permanent record.
A former coworker’s given name was Nicole (or some creative variation of that). Her story was that at around age 5, she decided that Nicky was a boy’s name, so she chose to spell her name Nikii. Cute, then? Perhaps. Now, some 25 years or so later, it strikes me as just short of SanDeE*(and thanks to Eonwe for bringing that one back to me!).
I used to hate my outrageously common first name, but now I’m deeply thankful to my mother for going with “Jessica” instead of some mid-'80s nouveau riche monstrosity like “Jissica”, “Jesyca”, “Jeccikka”, etc.
P.S. For some truly horendous names, try Baby’s Named A Bad, Bad Thing.
.:Nichol:.
Hi, I’m Ralph. But I spell it B-O-B.
I think the cutesy-pooh stuff is awful. Because the parents think it’s adorable, the poor kid ends up sounding like a stripper–“It’s Brandi with an ‘I.’”
I can’t wait until we reach the point where Brandi’s name will “officially” have a heart over the “i,” rather than a dot. That would be so creative and different! Or, maybe Bob could spell his name B-O-6!
(By the way, I have nothing at all against the name Brandi; it was just an example.)
You know, I’ve noticed that almost nobody likes “creatively-spelled names”. Perhaps prospective parents should take not.
In another vein, my pet naming peeve: twins with cutesy names. Either excessive alliteration, or rhyming, or “male/female” versions of the same name, etc, etc, etc. These names all seem to be saying “You aren’t a person, you’re a part of the TWIN ENTITY! And you must be amusing!!”.
Sometimes other people want to do the unusual spelling for you. My mum’s name is Gay. It seems no one thinks this is appropriate spelling for the name of a 60 yr old woman. Even when she points out there is no ‘e’ virtually everyone wants to spell it Gaye. It drives her round the bend.
I hate creatively spelled names, too. There just isn’t any point! It looks so bloody stupid! It creates unnecessary confusion. I hate to say it, but the worse the name, the less I trust the intelligence of the parents. As a side note to Brynda, that spelling doesn’t fall into that category, in my opinion. (I’m sure you can sleep at night now, knowing that! <g>) Kinda like “Kathryn” vs. “Catherine” kinda of thing. But if I had to guess, I’d think it’s pronounced “Brin-da”. Is it? Or is it pronounced “Bren-da”?
Of course, as someone pointed out, there is a different between accepted spelling variations and creatively put together names. There are thousands upon thousands of legitimate names out there, you mean to say you couldn’t find one you liked besides “Awstynn”???
I work in customer service and talk to at least one-hundred people a day. I encounter all kinds of interesting names in a day. I try really hard to say everyone’s first and last name correctly if I can, but sometimes it can be difficult. We won’t even get into those people who pronounce their names with letters that don’t even appear in the name itself. heh (And I’m not referring to names from other languages!)