What do you think of the name Alice spelt as Alys?

Alternative spellings are a pain in the arse.

Ailish is both spelled and pronounced differently. It's a different name.

It's like spelling Elisabeth with an s. Just spell it the normal way.

If you need a weird spelling to make a name seem attractive, it's not that nice a name.

I think it's lovely as Alys, it is most definitely the Welsh spelling.

It's one I'm strongly considering if I have a little girl but I have a Welsh name and my mother's side of my family are all Welsh with Welsh names, and my father's children from his first marriage are both Welsh as well. DP's Mum was raised in Wales and has Welsh connections so I think using Welsh names wouldn't look odd for us. If you have no Welsh heritage it might look odd though.

My name is constantly mispronounced, a few rude people have suggested I should have been called Laura instead of Lowri but it's really nobody else's business what you call your child, as long as it's not something like Tallulah does the Hula from Hawaii which would be cruel!

Also, as has been pointed out lots of names have different spellings e.g.

Catherine/Catharine
Katherine/Katharine
Cathryn/Kathryn
Catheryn/Katheryn
Catharyn/Katharyn

Living in North Wales, it is quite common, and I love the spelling. Not sure on an English Alys. Do you have a Welsh surname?

Alys yn wyndyrlynd

Dd is called Ailish which is a gaelic variant of Alice - I suspect that is 'well wanky too'. Innit.

Well....it's difficult.

My ds2 is Rudi - we researched into this and found that commonly a boy with the name will end in an i - whereas a girl will have a y.

Everyone else spells it Rudy though. It is a pain correcting people and you feel a right tosser when you do.

Our daughter is Anoushka. There are many ways of spelling it, but the original spelling is Anousska. We picked what we thought was the easiest, most foolproof spelling, but it still causes confusion everywhere.

I did not know that Alys was the original spelling. I was taking it like Robyn, or Caitlyn....you know....that twist on a spelling that is so poular these days.

So - given it is a bona fide spelling then it's fine, but be aware the EVERYONE will spell it Alice and she will have a lifetime of correcting them, as our Rudi will.

Either way, fab name.

Alys is lovely and is surely the original spelling?

How is using a real name "well wanky"? It is the correct spelling of a real name. What's the problem?

FWIW, I have a very common, bog standard name. I still have to spell it out as there are two spelling variations (of which mine is the most common version).

Rubbish.

It's Alice, and that's that. Everyone else in the whole world will spell it correctly anyway. Alice is a fab name, but spelling it Alys is well wanky.

Personally I'd go with Alice.

But then I'd never seen the other spelling and thought you'd made it up.

I have an unusual name and have spent my life being asked to spell it out or correct pronounciation. It gets a bit tedious.

I know an Alys and it's pronounced A-lees, so I see them as different names.

Love it - very middle Ages! Germanic links. Have also seen it spelt Alis.

I don't understand the argument about having to spell it all the time. I've never met anybody with my name, certainly nobody ever spells it right without being told. Or pronounces it right either.

But each teacher only needed to learn it at the beginning of term, my family had it down by the time I was about a week old, friends seem fairly bright and can manage to remember the order and pronunciation of each letter.

Yes the doctor's surgery might shout it incorrectly but I'm only there once in a blue moon. Largely it's not a problem. And it takes about 3 seconds to spell out my name should I meet somebody new.

I think it's lovely.

It's my dd1's middle name! We had a welsh connection and I had a Fantastic great aunt alice who never able to have her own children.

It sounds a bit medieval bordering on witchy to me.

Why not add an 'a': Alyssa ?

Your child won't be called Alys, she'll always have to say her name is "Alys, A L Y S, no, not A L I C E". Alice is by far the more common spelling and people will automatically spell it that way.

I am a Catherine, and I always have to add "with a C and an E", but then it's much more common to have the variations of Catherine than it is to have Alys.

The Gardener's World presenter has probably made it more widely known as a spelling. But only amongst a certain demographic. Dislike it, personally. (And Titchmarsh was a better presenter.)

I like it.

My best friends daughter is an Alys. I love it, because I love that little girl

If you don't want to keep telling people how to spell it or have to convince your child's teacher at school that you can really spell then I would go for the traditional spelling.

I'm not keen on alternative spellings for traditional names. Like another poster I have spent a lifetime telling people how to spell my name.

I admit that I have never come across Alys before and would pronounce it Aleece. Is that correct?

I hink it will lead to a lifetime of "Actually it's ALYS not Alice" conversations

Unless you live in Wales your daughter will have to spell it out or correct it every time she has to give her name.