To not use proper spellings when naming your child

That's fun! When I studied in China for a few years one of the very kind welcoming "buddy" students with very good English helped us choose Chinese names - for free! Eg a friend called Brooke got a Chinese name meaning "little river", a friend with a Hindi name related to morning/sunrise got a simular Chinese name, it was great (mine was shit though cos my name means nowt)

There was a news article from years ago about an enterprising young girl who helped Chinese people to find an English name - for about a fiver a go.

Apparently, lots of them with connections to the West or with international aspirations were happy to pay it. Obviously, they could easily buy a baby name book from an English-speaking country (probably cost them more than a fiver, though!) and pick one, but they wouldn't have the cultural context to know which ones gave a good impression and which ones might raise eyebrows - like Fanny, Dick, Gaylord, Baldrick etc.!

I totally agree with you that it was commonplace for rich Hongkongers to have old fashioned English names.

But if you are implying that it was common for everyone in Hong Kong to have both an English and Chinese name then there I would disagree with you. (Source: my DB who worked in Hong Kong from 1987 until 1997).

Ah, interesting!

Seems like it's definitely made up then.

Bullshit you did.

It’s also Italian for honey but that’s just an interesting fact - I doubt it will be repeated in future posts.

I know several pronounced shan... There's no r in it. And Welsh is phonetically regular.

Like rhian- which might be re-an or might be re- Anne depending on which side of border you are.

I met a Lucifer the other day. He's a delight. Surprisingly

I very recently met Miele.

Milly to you and I.

I'm sorry, but Miele is a brand of household appliance, surely?

Osian is the Welsh equivalent of Oisín. It looks like a (made-up) feminised version of that maybe?

It breaks Irish language spelling rules too btw 😅

Demin-Blu came up on the screen at my GP surgery.

i don’t understand why parents give unusual spellings of normal names. Parents and later the children will waste time in telling people and companies “it’s spelt…..”

Then get posts on here saying “teacher keeps writing DD’s name as Sophia, it’s Zofhera”

Plus children get upset about unable to buy things with their name on. Tourist attractions and gift shops sell water bottles, teddies etc with names on them.

We're Northern Irish.
(Well, she probably considers herself Irish).

I'd never heard of it before meeting her either, but she claims it's Irish.

Yeah I had a feeling there wasn't a female version of Oisin.

Edit; it's being spelled Oshiana.

I’m Irish and can’t think of any name like that tbh.
There isn’t a female version of Oisín.

In my parents generation it was common to have a Gaelic or Scots first name, then English middle name, often a direct translation, not always obvious. So my father was, eg. Iain John X. He had two equal parallel identities, and he switched between them at will, Iain X at home in Scotland, John X out in the world. Documents could be in either or both.

It's quite common in parts of Ireland for people to be called both the Irish and English versions of their names interchangeably eg. Sean/John, James/Seamus. I've heard people change between the two in the same conversation
.

😄 at least it isn't Juztyss

Plain Jane Superbrain??

I think there is an Irish name like that but it's not O'Sheayana.

It's like Oshianna or something. My nephew's gf is called that.

It might be a female version of Oisin(n), I don't know.

Mine is spelt in a way that is a bit more unusual. The more common spelling is when the name is short for a longer one but mine is not a shorter verson of anything
I never came across another one until I saw a scottish actress with it when I was in my 20's but since then it has got a bit more common. I have never met anyone with the same name as me,there are people out there with it but I have never met anyone IRL with the same spelling.
People usually spell it wrong.

I know one too.

And a Kylo (after Kylo Ren in Star Wars).

And a Justice.

when I was born my dad registered my name. My name would typically be spelt with a c followed by an h, but my mum wanted it spelt with a k (not particularly unusual but with the h omitted). My dad forgot to take out the h, and I have now spent the last 55 years having to spell out my name. It was even worse before I married as I had to always spell my surname out too as it was unusual. It’s a nightmare for children to have to constantly spell out their names, so I definitely think the usual spellings should be used.

Please tell me their last name wasn't 'Legge'?

Whilst I am not a fan of random spellings, there's definitely a happy medium between my parents' approach - pick the most beige, bland name possible and the whackiest whack job names.

As much as the whacky names can be a negative, blandsville isn't the best either. I found an article once about perceptions of people based on their name. I have a name that, apparently, marks me out as plain in appearance (true, TBF) dull, reliable, unimaginative.

Didn't help that, for some reason, there was apparently a beige phase in 1974 because not only was it dull as ditchwater, was also very common. Teacher shouting my name across the hall would have seven girls turn their heads.

She pronounced it in the same (normal) way, but we once knew an older American lady who introduced herself the first time we met her as "Sharon - as in Rose of Sharon".

We had to keep a straight face whilst, as Brits, our first instincts were to think of the slightly less poetic 'as in Sharon and Tracy'!

I know an Optimus Prime! I don’t think their parents named them that though. I also went to school with a Chair. His parents did choose that 🙄

Thanks @KnickerFolder , that's interesting 🙂 At the time I wondered how often the woman would need to give that information as it's an unusual variant. I guess, like with so many names on this thread, it can get tiring for the people involved to keep fielding such questions.