If your friend wanted to call their daughter Lily

[Vagaceratops]

(totally outing myself here but ho hum)

And they thought that the spelling Lille was really nice, would you point out that that is a place in France and the pronunciation was different?

Or would you leave it and let them find out on their own?

I have friends Sara and Sarah and their names are pronounced the same.

I used to know someone called Karen (pronounced with a long "a") and she got very shirty if you didn't get it right.

The "e" on the end of Lotte, or similar German names is the schwa (upside down e), and not an "ie" - ie Lott-uh, rather than Lott-eee.

Quint - We picked Norwegian names for our kids to go with our surname - but were careful to pick ones that could be pronounced easily in UK. (Used to know someone through work called Wenche - I can pronounce it correctly but my then boss got it wrong every time)

I know a Hanne, drives people mad as they just her Hann eh or just Hann or Hann eeee

It's Hannah sound ... Dad is German I think?

I wanted to give my daughter a Swedish name, but I wanted my Brit family and friends to be able to pronounce it properly, so I simply changed the spelling to look exactly as it sounds, which fortunately is pronounced the same way if a Swede were to read the name.

The first thing you should consider when choosing a name for your child is whether they're going to have a lifetime of misspellings and pronunciation problems associated with it. It's only fair to your kid.

Well, my name only has two letters and people STILL manage to spell it wrong - even in response to e-mails etc where my name is a part of the e-mail address and in my auto signature. My son has an unusual name, but spely exactly as it sounds, but his middle name is actually a family surname so it has a slightly unusual spelling, but that's why it's his middle name - so he doesn't have to spell it every time he gives his name!

You need to give her the lecture from the new Compare the Market adverts.

There's no confusion
They're different Words
Spelled with different letters
Pronounced differently!

I know a woman through work whose name is Kayte. I always call her Kate but my boss calls her Katie. I still don't know which is correct.