All these messed-up spellings are the reason a kid named something not-wierd-but-un-trendy like “Russell” can’t find a bicycle license plate with is name on it at the gift shop…
Oh, and woe to all ye single-L-ed so-called "Russel"s…you know who you are!
Which just goes to show you that creative spelling is not such a bad thing, in moderation. I’m certain that almost none of our names have gone unmodified through the ages, so if it weren’t for creativity, I guess we would all be named the same thing. Or something like that.
Not that I’m defending; I also believe it’s incredibly annoying when parents give their children creative, made up spellings of common names in an effort to follow a trend.
My personal solution to spelling problems for my last name (Baillie) is to pronounce it (just like Bailey), and then immediately begin spelling it for whoever I’m talking to. What’s irritating is when I spell it, and the other person is not actually listening because they believe they know how it’s spelled, and I have to spell it for them upwards of four times before they can get it right. Every day. But then, I wouldn’t trade my Scotch heritage for an Irish one! 
I have the weirdest problem. My name is normally spelt but I’ve had to deal with literally hundreds of people trying to spell it wrong!
Michael! A-E-L! Why do some people think it should be E-A-L I’ll never know. I’m now in the habit of spelling that part, just in case.
In my job I’m typically typing and saying names all the time. I’m kinda lazy so if you tell me your name is “cindi” with an “I”, if I can’t be troubled I’ll note it cindy. It’s not like anyone is going to mis-pronouce your name and it doesn’t show up that way on bills or whatever.
One interteresting note was that “Michael” is apparently uni-sex. One of the people I deal with (female) is named “Michael-anne”. Seems like her parents really wanted a boy.
I’ve mentioned this one in previous similar threads. My favorite instance of creatively spelled names falls under the made up category, and is also pronounced differently from how it is spelled.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Washington Redskins wide receiver Laveranues Coles!
It’s pronounced Lah-'vern-e-us Coles.
At first I would write this off as an attempt at creative naming poorly spelled on the part of Coles’s parents, but it turns out that Coles’s father is actually Laveranues Sr.!
To answer the thread title: I think they are effing stupid. Especially ones that end in “i” instead of “y”, or are missing consonents, like Teri, Conor and Keri.
I my name is vintage and I like other good, old-fashioned names, like Abigail and Violet and Annabel and Jane.
A while back, my family and I were all sitting around talking, when this very topic came up. Everybody present was adamant about how they hated, absolutely hated creatively spelled names. Then there was a moment of silence and we turned to look at my sister, because we all realized her name is creatively spelled. We’re all so used to her name being spelled Jayme, instead of Jaime, that even she didn’t automatically put it into the goofy-spelling pile.
Since we all hate creative name spelling, how did she end up a Jayme? No trailer parks in this story! Well, when she was born, it actually was spelled Jaime for a couple of days. We lived in a predominantly Hispanic area though, so everybody was congratulating my parents on the birth of their baby boy, since Jaime is a boys-only name in Mexico. They figured Jayme would help people with the proper pronunciation and clue them in to her being a girl, too. It didn’t work-- her name is always mis-spelled, people fumble on pronunciation, and think she’s a guy about half the time, when they’re going by the spelling. Poor lil’ Squeeky.
Hmmmm… And here I always thought the name was supposed to be spelled “Jamie,” not “Jaime.” I guess it’s all those episodes of “The Bionic Woman” with Jamie Sommers that I watched as a kid.
Live and learn, I guess…
Barry
it took me halfway through the first page of this thread to recall that i pretty much fall into this category too. :smack:
i guess you could say mine is a creative version. but then again, my (American) mom picked a not-uncommon French name for me. unfortunately, even in French there seems to be a multitude of ways to spell it. (it shows up three times on j.c.‘s list.) plus, good ol’ Amurikins being the way we are, people seem to have a tough time pronoucing it correctly, too. (just too many vowels for some to cope with, i guess.)
so Mom tried to do a phonetic version. i have to spell it out all the time. but then again, i probably still would need to even if she’d gone with any of the traditional versions.
and people STILL can’t always pronounce it right! but it’s great for weeding out telemarketers.
what freaked me out was when i finally started seeing OTHER women with the same spelling. give it back–it’s MINE!
: ahem :
it’s tough to give up being unique, sometimes.
I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned the basketball player, Anfernee Hardaway.
I’ve always wondered if this spelling was intentional or if his parents meant “Anthony” and misspelled it.