whats the big deal about spelling out names?

I am ashamed to say I had to bite back a snigger when we viewed a nursery for DC1 that had a child's picture of a house on the wall, with the word "Maison" underneath... 'Oh, are they learning French?' I asked innocently, to be told, no- 'Maison was a little boy in the pre-school class' (pronounced Mason)

My maiden name was a common or garden name that had 3 common spellings and therefore became 'common name with an e on the end.' It irks me a little that having married a Mr another common name, it transpires that in actual fact it is 'common name without a P.' It irritates me enough that when choosing names for DD1 and 2 I could only consider names with one accepted spelling. Mind you, nursery still sent home some lovely art work with 'Charolette' on the back.

On the phone I have to introduce myself as "I'm (unusual Irish name, unusual Irish surname) shall-I-spell-that-for-you?"

I know it frustrates me when people poo poo lovely names because of pronunciation/spelling. There are always going to be people who struggle with even the simplest words why limit yourself because of their ignorance.

My surname is very unusual and I have to spell it all the time it doesn't bother me at all :)

I have to spell first name and surname.
When I was younger I used to have to spell the street name and the town name. And quite often the county name!

But that's life. There will always be someone who can't spell where you live or whatever. I now live in a more straightforward part of the world and frequently have to spell the village because although the name has three components that are very common and easy to spell, people don't seem to expect them all in one go.

My name is not terribly unusual but is similar to another more common name and has a couple of variations, so I have to spell it a lot.

I think it's a good ice-breaker.

I wouldn't worry about it when naming DC unless they had to spell the whole lot.

My dad's handwriting seems to confuse people too - he has had post addressed to Mr Groan which I found amusing

People frequently misspell our street name as well but I'm not bothered about that tbh.

My first name is a completely ordinary one but has many accepted spellings. Main one being the choice between K and C. And my surname is quite an unusual one which I always need to spell. Doesn't bother me.

My maiden name was unusual. Not hard to spell (you spell it like it sounds IYSWIM), but unusual so a bit unexpected. People would either ask me how to spell it (which is a PITA to be doing all the time) or they would make something up which they think is more normal or acceptable (even more of a PITA as you end up with post etc. addressed to all sorts of random names).
Once I was call Miss Lewis. Lewis was not my surname, in fact it only shared two letters with my actual name.

It's just that when you have to say Phoebe-spelt-o-e, Jayne-with-a-y, Frances-with-an-e (to prevent getting post to Mr Francis), Edmond-with-an-o it ends up being your whole identity.

Especially when you have to spell your surname the whole time as well...

So some people prefer to avoid that potential pitfall! Personally I'm not fussed - I wouldn't automatically discount a name with an unusual/difficult spelling but it might be the deciding vote between, say, Ethel and Siobhan.

I have a very common first name, but it is spelt with one letter differently in France (where I now live).

It's a right pain in the arse - half my documents have the British spelling, half have the French.

But the real problem is that I work in consulting, so change companies and projects every 6 months or so. And I always get given a new email address. Some spell my name right, some don't. But whichever way it's spelt there is ALWAYS someone who tries to email me at the wrong version. And it's me they get annoyed with when their emails get returned unsent!

For our DC we are choosing simple, easy names in English and French!

I have a really odd Irish surname, and I have to spell it a lot. I'm really grateful my first name's easy to spell. :)

It's a pain in the backside. Until I got married at the grand old age of 28 I constantly had to spell my Scottish Mac.... surname or correct people's mis-pronunciation. I then got a weird married surname which I also have to spell for people and correct the various different mis-pronunciations. It does my head in.

'b) also a common English noun'

for some reason (possibly hanging about too long reading things on here instead of doing other stuff) I read that as verb instead of noun and sat there thinking, walk, jump, laugh, what on earth sort of name can be a verb? What an odd name that must be rofl

My name is fairly common and people still spell it incorrectly. My maiden name is a standard Scottish name but can be spelt with an S or a Z, not a huge issue, but annoying. Then some American sitcom have everyone mispronoucing it and adding an extra I. I now have a McName and constantly have to correct the MacName.

None of my names are unusual or uncommon, but are regularly mispelled. Can't win either way. :o

My DS's name is fairly unusual for young boys in the UK (about 650th) but it is:
a) 4 letters
b) also a common English noun
c) plenty of famous people are called it

Yet I still have to spell it out every time - even the registrar got it wrong twice

ach it's not like it's a major major thing, it's nippy sometimes like - especially when you end up having to do the phonetic alphabet, lol, but I must admit when it came to naming the DC I was of the opinion that having the choice of literally thousands of names it must be possible to find a recognizable name that's pretty easy to spell and is also nice, so that's what I was looking for

but if I'd found one that I loved and it was hard to spell, I wouldn't have ruled it out purely on that basis

I've started calling myself by my full name so people can hear it properly, but with my double-barrelled surname it sounds like I'm being pretentious.

My name's fairly uncommon - I've never actually met another one, or even met someone who knows another one, lol (and no it's not actually tabulahrasa)

Nobody who has heard it can spell it at all or seem to even get anywhere near it and nobody who has seen it written down can pronounce it properly - I get called another name entirely.

Every single time I ever have to give my name for something I have to spell it - to the point where I don't even bother telling them my name at all, I just launch straight into spelling it out, and then I usually have to repeat that two or three times because although it's not complicated it doesn't seem to register because they haven't heard it before.

People also seem to forget it easily, now personally I find that odd, but again I don't think they register it as a name and it's just remembered as - I knew it was something unusual.

it does get more than a bit irritating...

talking of Phoebe - I watched Friends the other day, Christina Applegate was in it, the one where she can't remember the baby's name is Emma, she thinks Phoebe is called Emma and when Phoebe corrects her, she just looks confused and says 'Why does she keep making that funny noise?'

that's the reaction I get to my name, rofl, it genuinely doesn't seem to register as a name at all.

It is, it's just an uncommon one, lol

I have to spell my (married) surname out every single time I say it, plus we live on a road where I have to spell the road name every time too.
I've given all my DC easy to spell first names as I think it would be too annoying for them to have to spell both names all the time!

I have always had to spell my first name and now my married name. Doesn't bother me. Sometimes I can't be bothered though and just let people spell it wrong.

Forgot to say, I never mind having to spell my name. It certainly wouldn't be my reason for not giving a child an unusual name.

I have to spell out my last name most of the time, and my dc's first names and last names I don't think it is that big of a deal.