Not told anyone but....

Know no Seths. Know a lot of little Toms and Edwards, James and Williams, Max and Theos though. In my neck of the woods (London) most kids actually seem to have pretty standard names, with only a vvvvvery few Cosmo types around.
But, hang on, period pains you say? Hmmm. Look out for the delightfully named mucus plug. Make sure you post tomorrow if you're still here... :)

OK, I saw your post and read it as Edith, then did a double take and thought...oh no, it's some Gaelic name and I haven't the faintest idea how to say it and the child will have to tell everyone. THAT I could accept because it's a language thing, but it's the other way round and I don't know why you'd do that to a perfectly lovely name.

Do you know anyone who has a bizarre spelling of a regular name who likes it? I don't.

Edie is a nicer spelling than Edi. Edi doesn't look 'finished'.

Edith isn't a boring spelling - it's the spelling. It never occured to me to ask my Mum why she didn't spell my name Kathyeerrrinee, because Katherine is a 'boring' way to spell it...

The extra 'i' does nothing, it doesn't change the prononciation (well it does, to something other than edith!) and it looks pretentious and irritating.

It may well be in the baby name books, but don't they mean 'pronounced eyedith'?

No No you X posted with me OP. Don't give in now

and I can't spell apologies, rushing

she may not want to shorten her name? I think that's a personailty thing - my Friend is called david, he is most def NOT Dave. DH is Matthew and never ever Matt

Eidith is perfectly acceptable imo. You can pronounce the word 'either' as eyether or eether, in fact there's a comical song about the pronounciation. Also the words ending with an 'ie' tend to be pronounced eye (e.g: lie, pie, die etc) so where is the confusion? Conceive is pronounced with an ee sound and that's an ei written word.

OP if you love the name, use it. Once the kids in your DD to be (possibly) class hears the name they'll pronounce it the way you want. We have two Amaia's in DD year, one is an Amaya pronounciation the other Ameyea, also the same with Mia - same spelling different pronounciations. No one gets muddled, they just accept.

After all this you will probably get your little Seth which is also lovely and i only know of one so still pretty uncommon.

ROFL maxybrown - I must try harder :)

chilli - why did you call all 7 of your children Seth? sorry..................that made me giggle

We have 4 children called Seth in Reception and 3 in Year 1!

I don't like the spelling of Edith either, sorry. People will mispronounce it - and while that's not necessarily a huge problem, and wouldn't put me off using an unusual but lovely name, I just don't see the need to take a nice classic name and give it a 'wacky' spelling for the sake of it.

Eidi is just weird and sounds like Heidi said by someone who drops their H's! What's wrong with Edie?

Or what about Eilidh, for a similar 'looking' name? Might seem a bit odd if you don't have Irish heritage though...

Eidith just sounds like you were "trying to be different" so when she's on the phone in her twenties to her gas company trying to sort it out, "can we take your name please" "yes it's Eidi" "sorry, Heidi?" "NO! Eidi................." and so on so it's not about beig bthered about wether strangers can spel it or not but it sounds blardy irritating to me as an adult. My Maiden name was Cumbes, pronounced Coombes, I was so glad when I got married! PLus my first name is a slight variant though I prefer my spelling and I do get asked now if it has the extra a!

Sorry it feels a bit like "piling in" but really do agree about the spelling of Edith. I didn't know how to pronounce it either and totally agree with Shouty Hamster who puts it brilliantly

Otherwise I do think they are too nice names that are exactly what you seem to want - classic and not common (in a there won't be 4 in a class way not the other C word that must never be used on MN way )

Have an Edith called Edi at work and love the name. Not keen on alternative spellings in general.

Just my thoughts...
I now have an unusual surname and although I'm very proud to have taken my husband's family name it gets very annoying having to spell it our, correct people or put up with bizarre pronunciations! I also get called by my first name in situations where I would expect to be called Mrs... As people avoid my surname. I think it's a bit mean to set someone up for this when it can be avoided.
On a similar note my mum has always been known by her middle name which causes lots of problems!
I'm pretty old school on names though, I think people should stick to full versions spelt traditionally/in usual form

Edith & Seth are both lovely xx

Agree with everyone about the spelling - Edith is lovely but Eidith? I've spent my life spelling my first name and my surname and it's no fun at all, especially seeing as its an unusual spelling of a normal name and not an unusual name IYKWIM.

Yes there are lots weirder out there - but the real point is that it looks a bit daft, a bit try-hard... everyone will have heard of Edith and so you'll have:

a. People who are introduced to her in person and assume she is Edith. Then there will always be the 'Oh I spell it with an extra 'i' conversation - she looks odd and affected.

b. People who first see it written down. They will think it's pronounced Eye-dith or something Gaelic. Then on explanation, 'Oh, Edith! Right, I see... Again, she looks odd and affected...

It's just because it's a perfectly nice normal name which looks deliberately messed around with, rather than a genuinely unusual name, iyswim?