When someone asks your relatives about their names, they have an interesting response, it says something about your family, the names mean something.
But “Mom couldn’t spell”? Not so much.
Face it, Phinneaus (is that how she spelled it?) may be a sentence of doom for my kid, but for Julia Roberts kid, who will be rich, handsome and admired by the masses, not so much. It will get shortened to Phin and he’ll be cool and popular and there will be some kids named for him. You can bet on it.
That was a joke! Pretty much, anyway. 
Anyway, I wanted to add an adendum: I do care if the someone who misspells my name is a family member who is very influentual in the uppity-do community, who probably sends out four billion invitations a year to various social functions, charity galas and hospitals who have their wings or something donated. Therefore, I know she just has to spell their names over and over again (even if it’s just to type into her computer to then have her maid? secretary? whatever caligraphy it by hand) and I’m positive that she gets all those right of multi-millionaire snobs.
No, I’m not bitter, I swear. I’m just looking at my Aunt Bonnie. Who’s name I always spell correctly, although I’m part of the ignorant, poor, unwashed masses.
::: insert evil cackle here and nanananana! :::
Eh, nothing really. I’m more addressing people who act like either naming your kid something slightly out of the ordinary is abusive, and the ones on the opposite side who seem to feel that if they don’t name their kid Farfignugen or whatever, that the kid’s creativity will be stifled for ever. It’s like there are only two kinds of names-boring and outlandish. I’m more pointing out-hey, you know, there’s a middle ground here.
The only reason I brought up the spellings is more about people who name their kid something everyone else is, (Right now, it seems to be Madison or whatever), but come up with off-the-wall spellings just to be different.
Why is either John Smith or Melikkaka Madeupnamefancyschmancythingy?
I thought of putting it in MPSIMS but (as I said in the OP), it’s none of my business what people name their kids. Since I was pretty sure that this would be pointed out to me (and anyone else who cared to contribute), I started here.
I don’t know if what I said is Pit-worthy or not. I guess it would be if I rolled my eyes at parents who choose these names, but I don’t.
Names are important enough that their choosing should be given a little bit of thought. The child has to live with it. (I’m thinking of the guy I knew in the 60’s who named his boy Panama Red.)
I get that we all have ‘rolleyes’ moments at other people’s choices. and I also admit that when my brother told me that he was naming his daughter “Sarah”, my question was “spelled correctly?” 
But -
My sister (who grew up with a common name) named her first child the most fucking common name that year for boys, her second, an uncommon name w/an uncommon spelling (girl). My brother, who grew up with an uncommon name and an even more uncommon spelling of it, was annoyed at people spelling it wrong, but is proud of the off spelling. He named his two daughters two very common names, spelled the common way.
I had an uncommon name (only 2 others in my school of over 2000), and chose a traditionally spelled fairly uncommon name for my child.
My husband and I joked about several couples we knew - all named “Bob” and “Deb”. “we’re having dinner with Bob and Deb this weekend” which ones??? “the ones with the daughter Jazmyn”
I will also admit that I was exceptionally grateful to my parents in that they avoided ‘punning’ my name (which would have been easy with our surname) -
but - like I said, I work all day long w/folks who often have odd or oddly spelled names, and if nothing else, it makes it easier for me to recall them or their case. “bob smith” not so much, but “Bhob Smythe” - yea, I remember him.
I’m not spitting fire at you Auntie, just disagreeing. More annoyed at being told to “chill out” 'cause I dared to ask “what is your damage?” but you didn’t do that.
Don’t get me started! I hate the idea of giving your kid a trendy, bizarre name with a passion. All these faddish names sound fucking awful, and what’s worse is that the justification is usually that they want to give their kid a “unique” name. Number one, there’s nothing wrong with a pleasant, classic name that folks can pronounce. And number two, if you’re the fourth mother in your little parenting group to name your daughter McKaylee, shouldn’t that clue you in that it’s not a fucking unique name?
My name, Damon, is weird enough. And it’s a real name, just unpopular. I’m sick of fucking spelling it out, I’m sick of correcting people (no, it’s not Damien!), and I’m sick of the oh-so-creative folks that discover that it sounds like “Demon” or “Damien”, and haha! you must be the devil! I have no desire to see another kid saddled with a shitty name like mine, so what’s to become of these little Kaylas and Hunters?
A big fuck you goes out from me to all parents who decide to afflict their kid with one of these cutesy, trendy, obnoxious names. However pretty or unique you might think it is, it’s nothing more than an unnecessary burden on your kid.
:: catches his breath ::
Ok, I’m done now.
OMG, I am laughing so hard, I nearly wet myself. That poor guy…was he really old…I mean before Donald Duck old because otherwise his parents are just cruel.
There was a Donald Dick in our phonebook too. AND a Harold Dick.
Heh heh.
When my son was in peewee hockey. All of the moms talked about which kids had “Hockey names”. Like one young kid had the ultimate Hockey name 'Sonnier".
Smith isn’t a good “hockey name”, Chezlosky and any other slavic, Russian or icy type country names are. Most Canadians have great “Hockey names”. My son’s father has a MN norwegian name which is a good “Hockey” name. Unfortunately, his greatest talent in playing hockey was to wipe out the competition, along with his own teammates. Good skater, but NOT so talented in puck handling
Anyway, some of the more dedicated Hockey parents had obviously chosen first names that would make perfect matches to their already hockey ready last names (Thor Gunderson…poor kid in grade school, but just WAIT til the NHL), maybe that’s what these young men’s families did?
Heh. Reminds me of my last job, where I worked with Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, Kevin, and Bob. Bob’s name was Kevin, but he was hired after the other four, and we all agreed that we had plenty of Kevins already. So, when he arrived, we informed him that his name was Bob. Two years later, he still responds to it, at and outside of work.
As to the OP: people might as well give their children unusual names. It’s not as though anybody gets the common ones right any more often. Based on my experience, a guy named “Ean” would get his name spelled correctly 25% more often than I, Ian, do. As long as the name isn’t a pun, or a joke on the last name, I don’t really have a problem with it.
I never met the guy, but I used to mail pension checks to a guy named Dick Oder. 
Cite? Seriously, has anyone actuallly used that?
THIS wring is the problem. Poor kid! And what the hell can she use as a nickname? Klami? Klambake? Midea? (isn’t that a menstrual cramp remedy?). The problem is that with the truly bizarre and aesthetically displeasing names, the kids are subject to dreadful teasing already. Kids are quite adept at finding ever more creative ways to be truly cruel, why give them fodder?
No, we’re not the parent’s of little Klamidea so we don’t have to deal with that aspect of her torture in school, but we’re the parents of her classmates, we’re her teachers, her coaches, her first boss at McDonalds and so on. We’re the person looking through resumes at these names. “What’s in a name” does make a difference. Maybe it shouldn’t, but we have to deal with what IS now. And what is is that people are put off by particularly strange and purposely off the wall names.
It’s not really the Jacylyn Mykals so much as the Klamideas and the like, the way out there ones. The ones where it’s just crystal clear and obvious that the parents weren’t thinking about he child, but about what was “cool”. Like someone getting a pit bull, not because they want to love a dog, but because they’re “bad” and tough.
I believe that that was what Guin was trying to get across by using that example. But of course I’m sure she will correct me if I mispoke for her.
See, there are enough names out there that you can avoid repetition AND still have people able to spell, pronounce, and gender your name.
My little brother is Theodore. Comes with its own nickname (Theo, not Ted), spelt as it is pronounced and vice versa, and you won’t find two of him in a crowd. He came equipped with a more common middle name (David) should he have wanted to use one; he hasn’t.
A. I smell “urban legend” here.
B. no, that’s **not ** the problem outlined by the OP. the ‘problem’ that was listed in the OP were not names that could be confused with diseases, but were ‘non traditional’ (anglo/saxon)names or ‘non traditional spelling’ of traditional (anglo/saxon) names. and I don’t see a problem with either of those two.
C. I would, for the record, see a problem with a name that was a disease. I’d not like (for the childs sake) to see a name that became a pun when combined w/the last name.
but, non traditional (anglo/saxon) names? or non traditional spellings of same? nope, no problem for me.
Hey, I’m okay with that.
I appreciate the different perspectives on this sort of non-issue.
I wonder if any parents have rethought the names later on. My daughter Tracy is 38. She looks young for her age, and complains that people often treat her like she’s much younger (until they get to know her). I think her name has something to do with it. If she was Jean or Marge or Joyce, would they treat her like she was 38? I don’t know. It’d be interesting to find out.
I’m one of those oddly-named children. Sometimes I use the “60’s parents” defense, sometimes I use the real story. I’m named after my maternal grandmother.
I come from an Italian family and the name Michaeleane is common. My mother promised to name me after her but tried to phoneticize the spelling (Mikel Lynn) so nobody could get it wrong.
Everyone does. I have spent 35 years having my name mispronounced at me. It’s a minor annoyance. (I’m just going to tell everyone it’s pronounced bookay.) Although since *Dr. Quinn * was on the air I’m running into more little Michaela’s.
People also assume that I’m male or that my parents wanted a boy. No and no. The one time this confusion worked in my favor was my sophomore year in college when I was assigned to the men’s dorm. That lasted an afternoon.
Damn dorm mothers!
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Is it wrong that I would seriously consider naming a child Madison because I really like James Madison?
(I would hope for two kids if I went that route, so I could have a Jefferson as well…)
of course there are. But, OTOH, I’m not seeing that it’s a big problem to pronounce, spell etc a name. My son has to spell and pronounce his last name to everybody. I routinely spell out my name for folks even though it’s not uncommon and spelled the most common way. Not a problem for me.
as for “gender” identification - so, all people named “Chris” should rename themeselves?
(added on preview) I’ve had a bunch of clients named “Jimmie” or “Jimmy” (actually now that I think about it, both genders, but I digress) and yes, that’s what it is on their birth certificates. In some cases they regret it, others not.
I suspect that any given child may hate or love their name growing up, regardless of standard/non standard, traditional spelling/non traditional. I’ve known a number of "Sue"s who hated being the 46th Sue around, and some who loved their name. I’ve known lots of folks w/unusual names who loved their names because it was unusual, others who hate it. My husband’s first name is very common. He goes by a very uncommon nickname. Guess which one he likes more.