To get annoyed when parents spell their kids name wrong

[HelloSteve]

...and then they get annoyed when people constantly spell their names "wrong" (aka the right way)? Or buy personalised items with their names spelt their way?

Not really a big deal I know, but I what do you expect when you give your child a name spelled in a way to be yoo-niq?

Over the past couple of weeks I've heard of a Emma-Leigh, a Sophy and a Jordyn. I can't help thinking 'poor kids they're going to have to go through their whole lives having to correct people'. It seems people don't think about that though.

I know a woman who has two grown up daughters called Jemma (I assume they meant for that to be Gemma) and a Hollie (again, I assume Holly) and she always gets annoyed when people don't ask and just assume they're spelt Gemma and Holly, but I don't know why. She should have expected that/be used to that now? I know she would constantly get irritated when the kids were at school and received Christmas cards/party invites with their names spelt wrong but honestly I have little sympathy. What was she expecting when she spelt her kids names wrong?

Your thoughts?

oh and kellie my sister is Sara ...pronounced Sarah - my mum didn't realise it had a 'h' in it

her whole life she has had to tell people 'no it's Sarah ...without an H' it grinds I know!

YANBU OP!

I've had Jane written as Jayne on more than one occasion.

DS1 is called Ewan.

Which has many different, legitimate spellings - Ewan, Ewen, Euan, Eogan and Eoghan. As well as Iuan, Ioan, Iwan and Iwen. Not to mention derivatives like Owen and Ivan.

I had no idea there were so many regional variants. In hindsight, I'm glad that I picked imo the simplest one to make it easier for DS in the future. I have a name that has several different spellings and is a boys name in some areas to boot. It's a slight irritation to have to spell it and say 'no it's not a boys name'.

I agree plucaca, it's arrogant.

i know a couple of jorgias (yick spelling but one of them's nice).

which is not my best contribution to a thread ever

www.mumsnet.com/baby-names/most-popular-baby-names-england-wales

Both variations of Holly and Mollie are in the top 100 here
www.mumsnet.com/baby-names/most-popular-baby-names-england-Wales which suggest they're in common use.

My daughter has a name that has two common spellings. There's nothing wrong with alternative spellings to a name.

I don't rate it much but I hate mispronunciation a lot more.

Like Aneurin pronounced Ah-nigh-rin. urrgghh.

If you are going to use a name use it properly.

I think ynbu to get annoyed at the people getting annoyed. I have a friend called Darren but spelt Daren and he gets annoyed when people spell his name 'wrong'. Well your parents should have spelled it right!

Regarding names with variants like Holly/Hollie Isobel/Isabelle/Isabel I get that, they are all legitimate spellings but don't get mad when I don't automatically know which one of the half a dozen spellings is yours.

Do I count as being unreasonable?

I'm a Jasmin... no 'e' on the end..

I just say Jasmin without the 'e' whenever asked.

My daughter has a gaelic name and numerous people are unable to put a D in putting in a G and others have an A instead of an I.

Aeryn is a character out of Farscape. It isn't pronounced Eh-rin, it is pronounced Air-rin.

I found out a few weeks ago that someone I know spelt their DD's middle name Jorja.

Why? Why would you do that?

She has gone right down in my estimations.

"I agree plucaca, it's arrogant."

unrealhousewife, how dare you misspell my name?!

Thank you Pink Hamster.

Yes Aeryn is from Farscape as well. It depends on accent i think as to how its pronounced.

marvels at someone else knowing Aeryn from Farscape

My school friend was called Clare and always introduced herself as 'Claire without an i' so I called her cyclops

WTF is Farscape?

And i don't get annoyed.

As a Sarah-Jayne who has spent 25 years of schooling/adult life saying 'Its got a 'h' on the end and its j-a-Y-n-e' and they STILL spell it wrong, i am just not bothered.

Farscape was one of the best Sci Fi programs of the end of the 90's

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farscape

It had its own version of swearing as well

There is a long tradition in the English language of spelling names in a way that seems to have no relation to their pronunciation e.g. featherstonhaugh.

Sometimes it is logical based on the meaning (Beaulieu). Other times it just seems to be the posh version of creative spelling.

I have a popular name. Last two letters are reversed to how it usually is spelt. Only heard of one other person with my spelling.
Yes iv had people spelling wrong, even a customer asking if iv spelt my name wrong but it doesn't bother me. I like being one of the few with this spelling.

It is precious when people are irritated because others don't guess which of several different variants of Clare/Isobel etc. their child has. Each version may be correct but how the hell is anyone supposed to know which you've used until you spell it out for them?

Kree8ive spellings are a whole different matter - if you pronounce a name Georgia but spell it Jorja or whatever then it's your look-out.

I suffer from my Mother being a pedant and spelling my name correctly. The masculine version is far more commonly used for girls now, and no-one uses it as a boys' name. Only one letter difference but I can tell people think I've got an extra letter that shouldn't be there - my Mother is right, darn her, but would have been wiser to bow to common practice. (Although to be fair, I was named after her bridesmaid, would have been a bit rude to use the name with a different spelling.)

I dislike 'yooneek' spellings of names, but I dislike people ignorantly saying a name is 'misspelled' (or more usually 'mispelled' ) even more.

Many names, particularly ones that have been in use since the middle ages or are used in many countries, don't have a correct spelling, they just have more or less common spellings. As most people were not literate, and spelling was not really codified, as long as it was clear what the name was supposed to be, it was correctly spelled.

This is why it was acceptable for William Shakespeare to use a number of different spellings of his surname (his known signatures lean towards 'Shakspere', and there is no known handwritten signature saying 'Shakespeare').

An 'Alice' might also have been 'Alis', 'Alys', 'Aliss', 'Elys', 'Elliss' etc. However, I have only seen 3 of these on real people in the 21st century, because others have largely died out. I have seen people on MN criticise 'Alys' as a made-up spelling, when it is the usual spelling in Welsh. Just because someone is unfamiliar with a particular spelling does not mean that it is new or made-up.

On the other hand, YANBU that it is ridiculous for someone to get annoyed when someone uses a more common variant spelling, unless they have been told it is e.g. Lucie or Emilie (which are perfectly legitimate French spellings, btw).

A lot of names are cultural differences ie:

Conrad is English, Konrad German
Darren is English, Darin is Greek
Isaac is English, Isaak is Polish

With most families in the uk now having at least one parent from a different nationality you can see how the huge variety happens