Unusual name spellings

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AIBU to think that people who give their kids unusual name spellings should not get upset at 1) incorrect spellings and 2) incorrect pronunciation.

For example: There is a child I know called Leyah. (pronounced 'lee-uh' as in Leah)

Now, the mum get upset when something had 'Leah' on it, and also upset when someone, upon seeing the name, pronounces it "lay-uh" or "lee-YUH"

AIBU?

In recent years people increasingly ask me how I spell my name. It is a very conventional name that traditionally has only one spelling. Think something like 'Amanda'.

I always have to avoid just saying 'the usual way' because I realise that they probably come across a lot of people who spell it Ammannnddda or Ahmandah or Amandar or something and are only trying to make sure they get it right.

I think if you choose an unusual spelling/ pronunciation e.g. Leyah, you should expect that people will get it wrong (incidentally, autocorrect just changed it for me, and I had to change it back!)

Equally, if you choose a name with two common spellings e.g. Rachel/ Rachel, or two common pronunciations e.g. Leah - Lee-uh or Lay-uh, you should also expect to need to spell it out or pronounce it from time to time.

The number of people in the world, and the number of names is growing. In addition people are much more travelled and multicultural, so more international variants of names are common.

I think there are actually very few names that don't have any variants in any other languages, without even considering unusual spellings people have come up with on their own.

*Rachel/Rachael
autocorrect does it again! (I think?)

Neither outlook nor Word autocorrect my name but this might be different for other systems.
dd has a classmate with a misspelled gaelic name. With quite a few gaelic names I wouldn't be able to tell if it was misspelled or not but this is a fairly popular and easy one.

Igneo, do you think it was spelled differently intentionally, or because the parents made a mistake?

Yanbu. I have a classic name that has several spellings. I have the German version as that's where I was born but people usually spell it the English way unless I tell them the spelling. On mn threads my spelling is usually touted as a "special" spelling, it isn't it's just not the common English spelling. It's no big deal.

My dd has an Irish Gaelic name but we spelt it the English way as we live here, it's an unusual name (but getting more popular but spelt the American way) and is always spelt wrong but I just correct the spelling.

I hate ridiculous spellings of names, fair enough use a less common spelling but don't just make it up. A colleague of dh wanted to use Rebecca but said that spelling was to common so used a different one, I thought it would be the Hebrew spelling but no they spelt it Ribekka, then got pissed off because everyone spelt it wrong.

Funny you should say that Op. I someone spell Leah as Leigha the other day. Sometimes giving a unique spelling looks silly.

I was adamant DD would not need to spell out her first name as we have to spell our surname each time. GMIL spells the 'gail' part of her name 'Gale' Don't like to correct her!

It's spelled that way on purpose ninaaa she is named after someone in her family but I don't know if that person was an accidential misspelling or not.

ALittleFaith, is her name Abigail (only "gail" name I could think of)?

Have you considered that if she decides to abbreviate her name to
Abi, Abby, Abbi etc, she will still need to spell it out anyway!

I have also come across an Abbigail, it is a more unusual spelling though. Like I said, almost every name has a variant e.g. I know a Liza and a Lise, who both pronounce their names Lisa.

YANBU. It must be tiresome to have a lifetime of explaining that your parents could spell, they just wanted to be 'original'.

As a Welsh person, hearing a wrong pronunciation of names makes me grind my teeth. Rhys-Reese for example. Seren is becoming increasingly popular in England it seems, nothing worse than hearing 'Serrruuun' being screeched out. If you can say or spell it, don't use it .

how else woudl you say Seren?

It is ninaaa but I figure for formal stuff etc it'll be assumed her name is the typical spelling. I'm sure the abbreviation will be something weird and wonderful if it's her choice!

Say it as you see it, it's 'ren' not 'run' at the end.

Seren is lovely, it means star I think? I thought it was pronounce seh ren with a slight emphasis on the second syllable? but I'll be corrected (lived in Wales for a bit but don't speak Welsh...)

There's currently a baby madelyn, a madysyn and jaydun on my Facebook feed at the moment. I fear for humanity....

I think it's more the 'UN' sound in English. As have Bethan on my shortlist for DC2 but know it'll become Beth-un round where I live. I think it might be a regional thing though

It's not an English word though. It's a Welsh one and should be pronounced as such. Doesn't matter in the grand scheme of life, just a personal bugbear.

I know a Katey, who when older will forever be asked "is that with a y or an ie" and have to explain er, no, actually......
I wouldn't mind betting she switches to just Kate for ease!

I also know a Klo-ee

I just do not know why people do this! Bonkers!

I'm agreeing with you MrsGently because I live in England I just know it'll happen. DS's name causes enough confusion with some people not able to say it at all, and it's a name I didn't think would cause difficulties (think more Dylan than Hywel - it's a name I thought wasn't too difficult!)

I reckon you can choose an unusual spelling if you must but don't be surprised if people judge you if it's a stupid one , but in that event you really don't have the right to get angry if people spell or pronounce it differently. If you choose "Leyah" people are being perfectly logical if they assume that the middle "y" is meant to be pronounced.

My name is one with a number of different spellings and one which people sometimes mispronounce as well. I may well correct it when necessary, but I hope not in a critical way - if they apologise I tend to say something like "Don't worry about it, everyone does it", or "Sorry, my parents' fault for choosing such an awkward name."

Totally disagree with gig re Seren (and I'm welsh!). Different names are pronounced differently all over the world depending on accent. It's not "wrong". The way the British say "Claire" for example is different to the French. Why should people adopt a fake accent?

It's a grip for me, it may be a grip for a French person to hear how we pronounce Claire. I just feel since Welsh and English share 99% of the same language sounds, it isn't difficult to pronounce a name such as Seren the correct way. I'm expecting a little boy, I've had to veto a lot of names because my partner can't say them 'correctly'. Can't help feeling that way, when you're brought up with Welsh as your first language, it has that sort of effect! Some deepseated, national pride I think.

I have a very common 1970s name. My Mum had a friend who spelt it like a large desert on every Christmas card .

Some people are rubbish at checking spellings and that is why people get pissed off, it really shouldn't be hard to spell a name the way the person has told you. It just shows lack of consideration.

drinkscabinet I've had that too... How hard is it?!

I have a friend who has an unusual spelling of a straightforward name (think as in an example above Ammannda). Drives her mad but I think she now thinks of her mum's self-acknowleged poor spelling abilities with some fondness.