I see it as “Breeeeeeeeeeeeenda”.
Or maybe it could be “Brine-da”, or maybe “Br-yin-da”.
some parents don’t even wait for twins.
There was a Frederica in my class in high school.
Her brothers name was Frederic.
Or the family that lived around the corner from my parents. Three lads: Davey, Tom and Thomas (I kid you not).
Nope, Dogface, it’s pronounced Bren da. Ignore the spelling.
See how patient I am with this? 
I explained on page one that I don’t like “Brine da.” Those of us with the creative spellings develop patience. Maybe that is why parents give them to us! Eureka!
In the interest of full disclosure, my name was pronounced with an “in” sound when I was young, but it would have been pronounced that way regardless of the spelling. I grew up in Middle Tennessee, where we tend to pronounce all words with “en” as “in.” For example, we write with “pins” and the state is “Tinnessee.” I didn’ t really realize this until I moved to NC and got phone messages that my friend “Ginny” had called. Her name is Jennie. So when people asked me if my name was “Brinda” or “Brenda” I couldn’t really hear the difference; it sounded like “Brinda or Brinda” to me. When I had been there a year or so, my ears had acculturated and I could hear the difference.
Nowadays, my husband calls me a sort of hybrid “Brinda” but he is British, so he is allowed. In his accent, it even sounds good.
Good that you’re patient. I wonder about people who aren’t and spend their lives in a constant state of pissed-off-ness.
My best friend is Kerry, but people often assume her name is “Carrie.” So she’s careful about how she pronounces it, and spells it where appropriate. People also frequently assume she’s male, because it’s a unisex name. I’m glad she doesn’t get annoyed by this (well, I guess she wouldn’t be my best friend if she were the type to do that!) She has had people tell her that the proper spelling for “Kerry” for a female is “Kerri” or “Keri.” Oy. Depending on her mood, she tells them, “it’s Kerry, like the county in Ireland” or “it’s Kerry, like the breed of cow.”
I used to work with an Ivar, but the name on his birth certificate was spelled “Ivars”, and he would get quite upset when people left off the “s”. He didn’t know if the spelling was a typo or if his parents intended the spelling.
Tom Leher made reference to someone “who was such an individualist that he spelled his name H-E-N-3-R-Y”. The “3” was siilent, you see…
Roger Ebert, referring to the movie “L.A. Story”, described SanDeE as a character “who like many Southern Californians spells her name as if it were an explosion at the type foundry.”
This thread reminds me of two names I know of, one definitely true, and the other probably a UL.
My SIL had a friend in school whose parents never got around to naming her before she left the hospital, so her name was officialy “Female” (pronounced fe-MOLLY).
The second one I heard of was an illiterate welfare mother whose friend(?) convinced her to name her new daughter. The pronunciation was shy-TAYED (unique sounding name), but it was spelled Shithead.
Do you also know of twins named Lemonjello and Orangello?
I think I may be a wealth of information here. Not only do I have a creatively spelled name, but so does the hubby. I go by a dimunitive and so could the SO (although he doesn’t) and we’ve encountered lots of what is discussed here.
My name is Kembrly and I go by Kemi. His is Jaceson and he has been on occasion called Jace. Here’s a point by point answer to the “list” mentioned thus far…
*I never bother correcting anyone on the spelling of my name unless it is for some legal or important document, like someone previously mentioned. Hell, I never even say Kemi unless it’s to a person who’ll be calling me that repeatedly for a long period of time (like a cow-orker). However, I know Mr. hopefool does take the time to spell his out always, despite it being for a table we’re waiting for or an order he’s picking up. I think that’s silly, but it IS his headache to bear. Also, even when people ask, if it’s no big deal, I’ll even just say they can put it down to the conventional way. shrug Different strokes and all that, I suppose. 
Obviously, I hated never being able to find anything personalized off the rack whenever I was a kid. Now at 35, it’s only midly sad because I might wanna cool pencil or something immediately. And even with the huge influx of variations on Britney/Brittany/Brytnee, etc. that you find at your local WalMart, you just never see a Kemi or Jace. :::whimper::: But whadaya gonna do? 
*I’ve asked my mother and MIL if they just couldn’t spell it the right way or what, but both deny that they didn’t know how to correctly. With my mom though, I’m not so sure. I always blame it on the good epidurals available in the 60s, but if they’re both to believed at truth telling, the stories are that they wanted somewhat less common names spelled in some neat way. I’m still leaning towards didn’t know the right way for my mom, but who’ll ever know for sure. Furthermore, she claims to have picked my moniker from a, gasp, failed form of contraceptive – Kemtone. Who knows?
*Do I like creatively spelled names as a whole? Well, depends if I like the name in question originally (for example, I’m not too hot for Mortimer – no offense to any out there – but probably wouldn’t either even if it were spelled MOrtymUr) and how bizarre it is or if you can even tell what it’s supossed to sound like. Some of the ones listed in this thread would make my head hurt. Going one better, I’m not too fond of my own name but absolutely love hubby’s. Yep, I’m too weird.
*It is hard growing up with ‘em. I constantly had a difficult time spelling it for teachers and the like. Kids teased me when real small (like around six or so) that it couldn’t be pronounced normally and spelled like that or that you just COULD NOT do it that way. LOL. And, FTR, I do pronounce it just like every other regular ol’ Kimberly. Other than that, it wasn’t that much of a hardship. Back in the old days, you didn’t see it too frequently and I’m glad I’m much older than the current crop saddled with this problem as it does seem to be more a product of trendiness than genuine attempts at creativity. Poor kiddos.
*I have never been offended, ever, of someone misspelling my name. I figure if anyone ever nailed it right initially, they had been forewarned or otherwise, I’d want their picks for the next 6 winning lotto numbers. How could anyone be expected to guess a weirdly spelled name correctly? Boggles the mind.
*I’m glad that ultimately I am under the “8 letter max” that screech-owl has talked about. Man, that would so suck. My sympathies above and beyond what we already go through.
*A take on what ArrrMatey sorta mentioned… as a child, I didn’t want anything more than to just go by Kem. That’s what everyone at school called me, but alas, at home I had to go by Kemmy (since mom was Kem – also a side story here to validate what was later talked about in the thread by Yllaria– my mom has just always gone by that since she’s been an adult, never legally changed her name or nothing, just is Kem). I HATED it spelled that way even more than it being a dimunitive. So I felt that if I was stuck by it, I would get to at least pick the spelling. So I changed it at age 12 and ever since, it’s been something I’ve kept as a type of rebellion. You know, to those people who think you can only have “adult sounding names”. The ones who won’t go by Tommy any more, but are now Tom. Ahem. And the like. So, dammit, I think I can be a grownup with Kemi and don’t have to bow to peer pressure and go by Kem. Besides, I’m daylight and dark opposite of my mother, so that makes it a further necessity.
*I’m offering a public apology here to TV time. God, I’m so sorry. I can only imagine the hassles. :::shudder:::
*Last of all, a hijack… when someone specifically requests that you call them what they wish, please oblige and don’t take it upon yourself to shorten said name. That is my only pet peeve and something I WILL get my knickers in a knot over. My name is Kemi and I won’t ever in a million years now allow someone to call me Kem. I would never call you Dougie if you go by Doug or simularly assume that Cindy should be automatically Cin. It’s just rude folks. So, if you are politely corrected once, please take the hint and don’t make folks that do care about that one tiny little thing to go all freaky on ya. Thanks. [/thus endeth my hijack – sorry]
(Oh, and let me just say that I’m perfectly expecting someone to reply to my post with "Now Kem… Gotcha, I’m already there. :p)
Egads that was long! Even more sorry!!!
:::I’ll now wander off and promise not to babble on so much about names – hanging head in shame:::
My sister’s name is spelled JEANNA but is pronounced GINA. Most people figure it out quickly.
[montypython]
No, it’s spelled “Raymond Luxury-Yacht,” but it’s pronounced “Throat Warbler-Mangrove.”
[/montypython]
I’m sorry, but if I met your sister and she told me how her name was pronounced, I’d be forced to correct her and inform her how her name was really pronounced…
Barry
Oh, Barry, and you were doing so well, too.
No, no, no. You can’t correct Jeanna’s pronunciation. It’s her name, as foolish as you might think it is.
And hopefool, thanks for the reply. As someone else with the CSN, it was good to hear what your experience has been and opinions are. I’m with you on the spelling–who cares how it is spelled at a restaurant, etc? IN situations like that, they can write Brenda all day long as far as I am concerned.
Brynda: Errrr… you did see the little winking smilie at the end of my post, right?
Barry
Oh, is that what that was?
Oops, I missed it. All is forgiven.
“Kembrly” and “Jaceson”? Wow. I’m guessing that must cause a lot of confusion?
Just wow.
The one I notice most with students lately is Kaylee/Kayleigh/Kay Lee/Caileigh or Caitlin/KateLynn/Kaitlin/Catelin. My gosh. Another reason to call them by their last name when possible.
Speaking of weird name, my first name is, I once thought, kind of unusual. (Archaic, not creative.) When I register somewhere, like here, it’s usually take while my mundane initials are not. Anyone have a similar experience? That is, finding that what you thought was a unique aspect of your name quite commonplace while the seemingly ordinary aspect doesn’t seem to be so ordinary after all?
However, the people who register to message board with my name don’t seem to post.
I’m constantly being asked how to spell my name. As you might glean from my username which I’m increasingly regretting after the five seconds spent thinking of it possibly whilst extremely tired many years ago, it’s the particularly rare “Matthew”. I’ve never met a person who spelled it differently. And yet, people ask if it’s one “t” or two. They ASSUME it’s one. My own FATHER thought it was one. Where did this come from? If I’m gonna have to put up with this sort of crap I could have at least been given a non-bland name…
I, for one, have never seen the name “Mathew”. Honestly. Every Matthew I have known (and knew or taught several) spelled it with two Ts. Heck, I’d have assumed the single T spelling was an error or a creative spelling.
OK - when I was in America NO ONE could pronounce my name because it is an Irish name and the spelling is gaelic. Now I know there are two camps - those who believe that if you’re in a country where the people don’t speak your language you should spell your name phoenetically, and those who think that it is ignorant and arrogant not to make the (tiny) effort to pronounce someone’s name correctly.
I would fall into the latter camp. (This applies to names spelt using the Roman alphabet obviously).
As a result I do spend a lot of time correcting people but hey - that’s my name and I like it - so what does it matter if someone needs to be corrected? BTW I’m not totally anal about this. If people don’t spell my name right I’m not hugely bothered but I still think people should male the effort.
On another note - I believe the popular name ‘Katelyn’ in America comes from the Irish ‘Caitlín’ which is actually pronounced ‘Kathleen’.
It’s funny how a name is first pronounced wrong (understandable) and then the spelling id changed to make it even easier to pronounce it wrong. In other words a whole new name is created.
Live and let live’s what I say.
I despise my first name, which no one (okay, very few people) can pronouce properly. As a result, I go by the nickname my husband gave to me when we first met.
MJ. My first and last initials, or my middle and last. I don’t care.
I have heard EVERY SINGLE STUPID JOKE about what it stands for. Michael Jordan. Michael Jackson. Marijuana.
People ask me how to spell MJ. CONSTANTLY. I just always have to pause long enough to make them feel stupid before saying, “the letter M and the letter J.” It’s a bad habit of mine, because I have a couple of online friends who just call it EmJay.
But what really irritates me, more than ANYTHING in the world…“What does it stand for?”
If I wanted you to know what it stood for, I wouldn’t be calling myself MJ, now would I?
I used to get that on every single call at my old job. Now that I’m self employed, it’s totally different. My coworkers would never dare to dream of asking me that. Of course, I’m married to one, and I’m the aunt of the other. 