silly name spellings

[Fififofum]

ESMAI!!!????

That's it really - just being a judgy judgemeister.....

Ive posted these before but I know two girls, sisters, who are called Sydney-May and Jersey-Rae.
Apart from being weird and not that nice names I can't work out why the parents went for the May spelling with a Y on the end yet used an E on the end of Rae. Is Rae even a name? Is Jersey a name?!

Imo Ann is miles nicer. If you told me your name and spelt I would think you were well classy (!)

ladystartk I actually think it's quite rude you're basically saying I made this up...
I did say that perhaps the mum was inspired by the urban legend - maybe even heard it once, thought it sounded pretty and the forgot where she'd heard it or something.
But that was the name she gave for the child when she booked her in with with me. I didn't ask to see her birth certificate...

And then there's the unusual name spellings that actually aren't unique at all... my DD (19) has a name which is considered to have a unique (ie, made up) spelling - but actually? It's the Portugeuse spelling, and reflects the fact that her paternal grandmother's family is Portugeuse.

Over the years, I've had a lot of abuse for it though - her primary school, for example, practically sneered at the fact that her name has a 'C' and a 'Y' in it, when surely everyone knows that for there to be a 'Y' in her name, then it must begin with a 'K' and not end in an 'E'... (may possibly have just outed her actual name). They did back down when I explained, though. Possibly they were worried I'd call them on their inadvertant racism.

I also have the French spelling of a name which my mother insists was always meant to be pronounced the English way. And an Old English middle name which no one has ever heard of. There's been more than a few raised eyebrows over that one, over the last 40 years or so. I'd drop the extra 'E' and change my middle name... but why should I have to? It's my name. The first gift my parents ever gave me.

My DD and I both like our names. Even if we do have to repeatedly spell them to people who are so insecure in their own lives that they feel the need to try to ridicule and/or sneer at us for them. Little people, narrow minds and all that.

Also, as Literacy lessons continue to focus on spelling out words phoenetically, names are going to change. 'Esmai', for example, is probably how the parent(s) think the name is spelled, as that's how it sounds.

I used to live upstairs from a woman who I thought was called Klair, as all her post was in that name (we all used to pick each other's up and put it in the box).

One day a post card arrived addressed to Clare/Claire Surname (can't remember which it was). Glancing at the bottom I saw it said "love from Mum and Dad"

She had obviously decided to change her own normally spelt name to a yoooneeek spelling.. ...

My sister had the opposite, mum was yelling for 'Choal' to get over here.....turns out the name when written down was Chloe.....

I know it's not massively strange, but my cousin insists on spelling my boring name Susan as Suzan. It winds me up every time.

Jaime isn't pronounced the same as Jaime though. Except on Game of Thrones.

Think it was a Le-a born in the 80's/90's who now goes by Lea.

I came across an Ameliyah the other week

I can't work out why the parents went for the May spelling with a Y on the end yet used an E on the end of Rae.

because Ray is a man's name.

Women can be called "name with that sound" but it is usually spelled Rae. Nowadays it would be Rei I guess (smile)

@ Achey, yes Rae is a name in its own right: though all the ones I have heard off come from Northern Ireland. I don't know if it's a diminutive form of another name.

I read that thread recently SoupDragon. IIRC it mentioned a L-a born in the early 1980s, not a L'a from the late 1990s.

L'a was born in Surrey. I can't see the whole record as I am not a paid member of Ancestry.co.uk.

One of my personal favourite posts on a thread like this (prompted by a post above) was a poster who commented that she had the opposite problem.

Apparently her name was Sian, spelled correctly but people insisted on mis-pronouncing it......

As a fellow "Sian" I sympathised until she elaborated that is was pronounced Cyan or Sigh-Anne and not Sharne and had spent most of her life "correcting" people

She was most aggrieved - nay insistent - she was right even after myself and many other posters (mostly Welsh obviously) pointed out that she was not only using the incorrect pronunciation but "teaching" a whole load of people to do the same - now that's annoying

Fair enough. That doesn't tell us how the parents pronounced the name though. It could be Ella just as easily as Lapostrophea.

lapostrophea.. That's my next child named :D

because Ray is a man's name

So is Sydney!!

Bunging a 'May' on the end doesn't make it more feminine. Or maybe it does.

Not a silly spelling, but there's a child in my daughter's year called Swastika. I know it's a valid Hindu name, but would you really choose it for a child growing up in Western Europe??

Rae is very much a real girls name, I love it and it is on my DD's birth cert.

As a stand alone name I think Rae is pretty. But maybe not combined with Jersey.
Each to their own though.

My children both have unusual names, I have to spell them all the time! They don't look or sound made up but neither of them show on the birth register because they are presumably the only ones. I have never had a negative comment or pronunciation issue. I myself have an uncommon though not unusual name and have always liked being the only one!

Jayden/Bayden/Kayden etc

I've just read an article about an Australian KVIIIlyn.

In case you are wondering how to say that, its Caitlyn, with a roman VIII in the middle.

I rather hope it is a windup.

Jaxon is a popular one 'round here.

It'sSian a friend of mine gave her daughter an Irish name and insists to everyone that it is pronounced the way she says it. I cringe every time then one day someone else posted a video of a famous woman who has the same to my friends Facebook. On this video the famous woman is quite keeps saying the name over and over with the correct pronunciation which is nothing like how my friend says it lol. I'd have loved to have been a fly on the wall when my friend watched the video lol. To be fair though some names are so easily mispronounced, and in fact there's a boys name that really grates me when it's pronounced the correct way. I'm wondering if the Sian you met just didn't like the traditional pronunciation?