# What first name, other than the obvious ones, seems to have the most spellings? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 20, 2018, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893 "2018-08-20T01:13:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/41 "2018-08-25T13:27:26Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I hear these all the time. Also Abcde (pronounced Absedee), Nosmo King (last name was King, mom looked up and saw a No Smoking sign), La-A (pronounced LeDasha, because “the dash don’t be silent”) and twins Beneatha and Betweenda Sheets. > > Urban legends, all, until I’m shown a cite. > > ETA: When someone tells me in all seriousness about ABCDE, I ask if they were aware of her little brother, FGHIJ. I pronounce it Fujij. > mmm Well, for what it’s worth, the Social Security Death Index does have a record of an “Abcde B. Mora” who died in 1999. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/42 "2018-08-25T14:04:54Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Unless her szyszter was named Knitalye, that’s stupid. > > Natalie DOESN’T “have” that spelling. If you allow that, then my name can be spelled Pjmnhavird = David. > > Knatalye is a MUPOS name - Made Up Piece Of Shit. > > Names respelled to ease their transition from one language to another - sure, that’s legit. Usually there are one or two generally-accepted respellings per name, in English. Sometimes more, if the name entered English more than once. > > But ixnay on the MUPOS names, or we’ll be discussing this for far too long. > UNLESS - was the topic of MUPOS names your main point? In that case, this is going to be fun. 🙂 This is the kind of response that really troubles me whenever we do these name threads. Names are arbitrary in the first place. Reacting with aggressive contempt to someone else’s name choices reflects something unpleasant, especially when you consider that these things can often be connected to arc, ethnicity, or social class. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/43 "2018-08-25T14:17:44Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Well, there’s Muhammad: Moohammed, Mahmad, … I have a plush toy on my desk in the shape of a spotted bovine. This is Moohammed, and she’s a sacred cow. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/44 "2018-08-25T14:21:03Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > Well, there’s Muhammad: Moohammed, Mahmad, Mehmed, Mahamed, Mohamad, Mohamed, Mohammad, Mohammed, Muhamad, Muhamed, Muhamet, Muhammed, Muhammet, Mahammud, Mehmet, Mohd, Muh, Mahamid. Probably more. … but “Mahmud” is a completely separate name. I was under the impression that “Mohd” or “Moh’d” or “Mohd.” is just an abbreviation, not a name by itself. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/45 "2018-08-25T14:58:36Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > There’s a guy who pitched for the Orioles today named Yefry Ramirez. Pronounced Jeffrey. In case others do not know J in Spanish is pretty well silent Or is it the Y? Well look at Juan. Isnt Y pronounced E? A lot I know…I hated Spanish class. If I had know the rules of English is would have been a lot easier to understand the Spanish! :smack::smack: ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/46 "2018-08-25T15:14:00Z")
H is silent in Spanish J is /h/ Y is like Y in English in some dialects but in a lot of Latin American accents, it’s pretty much like English J. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/47 "2018-08-25T15:35:50Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > This is the kind of response that really troubles me whenever we do these name threads. Names are arbitrary in the first place. Reacting with aggressive contempt to someone else’s name choices reflects something unpleasant, especially when you consider that these things can often be connected to arc, ethnicity, or social class. I agree and yet I don’t. To some extent, what you name your kid is something that they will have to deal with all their life (or until they change their name to Mary). People will make assumptions about them based off their name. They are going to need to go through life spelling their name. And even John has to say “John with an h” - but Knatalye is going to spend hours over the course of her life getting her name spelled properly. We don’t live in a world where the English Emily gets to trump the German Emilie simply because its most Americans would spell it Emily - and there is much to be said about paying homage to your cultural or ethnic roots when naming a kid. But there is also something to be said for not giving your kid a name that will be a burden. That line isn’t going to be clear, but Knatalye probably crosses it. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/48 "2018-08-25T15:45:11Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > There’s a guy who pitched for the Orioles today named Yefry Ramirez. Pronounced Jeffrey. Normal for English J-names absorbed into Spanish and transcribed. We also have Yéremi (Jeremy, in Spanish Jeremías), Yasmín (Jasmine, in Spanish Jazmín), Yerái (Jedi)… **WildBlueYonder** and **Acsenray** , Americans tend to turn Juan into what Hispanics would back-transcribe as _gu-an_ or to give it an aspirated h. In our usual pronunciation it’s the /x/ phoneme as in the Scottish word Loch; “the throat-clearing sound” is a pretty good description (Hispanics who speak mainly English tend to lose that phoneme). ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/49 "2018-08-25T15:48:54Z")
I’m picturing Knatalye at 40, spelling her name for the zillionth time. "Its ‘Natalie’ but let me spell that for you. K…yes, K, I know. n…a…t…a…l…Y…e…no, no, that should be a y. Yes, that’s right. " Her name on her cup at Starbucks is Anne - with an e - its just easier. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/50 "2018-08-25T15:59:46Z")
I can tell you that “Chaya” crosses it-- it’s a perfectly normal Jewish name, maybe if you live in the Orthodox section of Israel. But I still harbor a little bit of ill will against my parents for giving me a middle name that has a phoneme that does not exist in English. People in the US just say “Haya.” Actually, sounds more like “Hiya.” So why not just spell it that way? At least 1) it isn’t my first name, and 2) they weren’t like the parents of a girl I knew named “Michal,” who tried to get gentiles to say her name with the glottal fricative all the time-- the freaking sound that doesn’t freaking exist in English. Every teacher that kid had got a mini-session of speech therapy from Michal’s father. I’m also a little resentful that they named me Rivkah, not Rebecca, and my brother Joshua, not Yehoshua. My mother gave me a reason for it one. I’m kind of vague on what exactly it was, but I remember not really buying it. It had something to do with gentiles thinking of “Yehoshua” as kind of Jesus-y, IIRC. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/51 "2018-08-25T16:07:31Z")
As someone with an unusual ethnic first name myself, all I can tell you is avoid hard to pronounce names for your children. Their only advantage is they are difficult to make up nasty rhyming nicknames for. Also, names beginning with I-L will look like a double LL as in llama in printed materials. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/52 "2018-08-25T16:44:43Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > \ > > Rachel would seem to be straightforward enough, except some people want to spell it Rachael and some are even the actual name of the girl. You’d think, but I’m a Rachel and I get Rachael, Raechel, Rachelle, Rachele, Rachal, Racheal and probably some other spellings I’ve forgotten. My niece is Mikaylah. I’ve seen it spelled Michaela, Michala, Mikayla, Makayla, McKayla, MacKayla, Mykala and so on. I’ve never seen my niece’s particular spelling anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/53 "2018-08-25T22:29:21Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#): > > And even John has to say “John with an h” And then he gets his name spelled “Jhon”. :smack: Someone on another board thought someone else was an idiot for asking how “Tom” was spelled. I’ve seen “Thom” more than once, and I suppose there’s Tahm, Tomm, etc. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2018, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/54 "2018-08-25T22:33:04Z")
> [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > I hear these all the time. Also Abcde (pronounced Absedee), Nosmo King (last name was King, mom looked up and saw a No Smoking sign), La-A (pronounced LeDasha, because “the dash don’t be silent”) and twins Beneatha and Betweenda Sheets. > > Urban legends, all, until I’m shown a cite. > > ETA: When someone tells me in all seriousness about ABCDE, I ask if they were aware of her little brother, FGHIJ. I pronounce it Fujij. > mmm However, Marijuana Pepsi does exist. > **[Meet Marijuana Pepsi](https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/her-name-is-pepsi-marijuana/1873584/)** > > She’s a tall, striking, self-assured, motorcycle-riding woman, a school teacher with a master’s degree in higher education administration. And that’s her real name, whether you believe it or not. When I was in high school ca. 1980, my area got a lot of Southeast Asian refugees, and there was one girl who asked to be called “Pepsi” because her real name was unpronounceable in English. A few years later, a Thai couple in the same city had a baby, and they named him Ronald Smith. They wanted something he didn’t have to constantly spell or explain for his whole life. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/55 "2018-08-26T15:04:42Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Luckily Bob is pretty easy, you can even spell it backwards and I don’t mind. Just don’t add an extra ‘o’. I remember seeing somebody once who spelled it “Bahb.” ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@MonkeyCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyCat)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2018, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/56 "2018-08-27T19:19:57Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > Unless her szyszter was named Knitalye, that’s stupid. > > Natalie DOESN’T “have” that spelling. If you allow that, then my name can be spelled Pjmnhavird = David. > > Knatalye is a MUPOS name - Made Up Piece Of Shit. > > Names respelled to ease their transition from one language to another - sure, that’s legit. Usually there are one or two generally-accepted respellings per name, in English. Sometimes more, if the name entered English more than once. > > But ixnay on the MUPOS names, or we’ll be discussing this for far too long. > UNLESS - was the topic of MUPOS names your main point? In that case, this is going to be fun. 🙂 I love the new acronym. Made my day. But really, this topic seems to be about just that. I could be wrong. No input to add to the conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2018, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/57 "2018-08-27T19:36:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I can tell you that “Chaya” crosses it-- it’s a perfectly normal Jewish name, maybe if you live in the Orthodox section of Israel. But I still harbor a little bit of ill will against my parents for giving me a middle name that has a phoneme that does not exist in English. People in the US just say “Haya.” Actually, sounds more like “Hiya.” So why not just spell it that way? Not just in Israel. In Orthodox communities in America, names like Chaya(h) and Michal, and well, my IRL name, are common as dirt. My name still gets misspelled all the time even in our Jewish bubble, but that’s because there’s several legit ways of spelling it. (Amusingly enough, there was a kid this year at the camp I worked at who had the exact same name as me, just pronounced differently). Outside of specifically Jewish settings, no one knows how to spell _or_ pronounce my name, but I’m used to it by this point. > [@](#): > > At least 1) it isn’t my first name, and 2) they weren’t like the parents of a girl I knew named “Michal,” who tried to get gentiles to say her name with the glottal fricative all the time-- the freaking sound that doesn’t freaking exist in English. Every teacher that kid had got a mini-session of speech therapy from Michal’s father. At my (Jewish) elementary school, I have memories of my gentile teacher telling us to go to the _mincha_ prayer. Except that she would say it as “minka”. So we started calling it “minka” sometimes- not in a mean way, just the way you would imitate a friend’s speech patterns. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/58 "2018-08-28T07:02:32Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > At least 1) it isn’t my first name, and 2) they weren’t like the parents of a girl I knew named “Michal,” who tried to get gentiles to say her name with the glottal fricative all the time-- the freaking sound that doesn’t freaking exist in English. Every teacher that kid had got a mini-session of speech therapy from Michal’s father. > > I’m also a little resentful that they named me Rivkah, not Rebecca, and my brother Joshua, not Yehoshua. My mother gave me a reason for it one. I’m kind of vague on what exactly it was, but I remember not really buying it. It had something to do with gentiles thinking of “Yehoshua” as kind of Jesus-y, IIRC. True story - my parents were going to call my sister “Michal”, a very common Israeli name, until they heard my (American) grandmothers try to pronounce it. They went with “Talia” instead. English-speakers seem to have no problem with that one. Incidentally, my own name is Yehoshua/Joshua. I write “Joshua” in English and “יהושע” in Hebrew. A name is a word, and words are different in different languages. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2018, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/59 "2018-08-28T19:46:45Z")
I once knew a woman whose name was spelled Janine and pronounced juh-NEEN, which is the way I would think it was pronounced. But a lot of people didn’t. She was an artist and she took to signing her works “J9” after the way a lot of people initially pronounced it, and then she took to signing her name that way and saying, “it’s pronounced juh-NEEN.” ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2018, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893/60 "2018-08-29T01:39:02Z")
I’m not a huge fan of highly original name spellings. I understand your child is a special snowflake. But why give an unusual name then get mad if it is mispronounced? This seems to happen with people named Siobhan, for example (which is not an unusual spelling, I realize). Latinos sometimes like American sounding names such as Jhonny, but I was never sure how intentional this was. I am glad not too many people are named Qaddafi. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-first-name-other-than-the-obvious-ones-seems-to-have-the-most-spellings/819893.md?page=4)