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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Original poster

Evolution of names.... misspellings that might work...

26 replies

Cimcardishan · 29/12/2015 17:44

So have seen several threads, troll and genuine, about misspelled names.

Please inform me onomasts about names that have evolved?

For instance is Margo a name in its own right or an alternative spelling of Margot?

Also which one is the correct spelling of Isabel, or are all the variants valid?

I know a baby Irenie whose mother wanted to honour her mother but didn't want her child to be called Irene. Would Irenie be frowned upon on mumsnet?

Am quite curious about this.

Disclaimer my children are already named so this thread is just for my own curiosity and I don't mean to wind anyone up so this is not about names like Eliviah for Olivia, etc...

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BondJayneBond · 29/12/2015 18:00

I suppose a lot depends on how long the names in question have been around.

Names like Isabel and Margaret (I believe Margo(t) was originally either a nickname or version of Margaret) have been around for centuries and variants of them have been used in a number of different countries and languages, so there are a lot of well established variants and nicknames.

So IMO e.g. Isabel doesn't have just one "correct" spelling, and Margo and Margot are both names in their own right, which aren't necessarily pronounced the same - I read on another baby name thread that while Margot is usually pronounced in the French way without the 't', in Germany (I think) the 't' would be pronounced.