To not use proper spellings when naming your child

[Catterpillarsflipflops]

Am I being unreasonable to think it's ridiculous to use a funky spelling of a normal name. I spent today dealing with lost paperwork for a child as the person that took the details didn't think to check the spelling as there is no other spelling of the name.

It looks silly and just causes no end of problems for the child. It also disadvantages them as straight away people get an image of what the child is like.

I've seen

Jaymz
Ezmay
Lil-leigh

There have always been unusual names but misspelled ones can't be easy to live with. I'm perpetually having to correct the spelling of my surname, I don't bother if it doesn't matter but for anything official it has to be done.
In Bath Abbey there is a memorial stone to Lieutenant General Sir Manley Powers. What a name!

😂😂😂

@Notsosure1 but those aren't "unique" spellings of the kind people are talking about in this thread.
Huw is the Welsh spelling of Hugh for example, not someone trying to be different!
Leslie and Lesley are the male and female spellings of the same name respectively.

Some of your other examples are just personal preferences eg. "ie" instead of "y" which is pretty inoffensive rather than the frankly ridiculous spoiling of perfectly good names like Jacob - JayCub?!!

There is no doubt in my mind that the parents who name kids things like this are the ones causing havoc at the school gates, picking fights with teachers and generally being a PITA.

😂😂😂

Indeed. There was a whole thread about this, and it's use with racist intent. Every single time there's an "unusual names" thread, this gets trotted out again. Someone said that the whole "L-a" thing was made up, and she used evidence. It's all nonsense.

Those that you mentioned are recognised variants though.

This is about ridiculous made up versions trying to be clever/cool, but actually just sound chavvy

DC went to school with a Conna and a Tayla. London innit!

When I first came across an Aimee, I originally thought it was a wacky way of spelling Amy. Was puzzled as her parents somehow didn't seem the type until I discovered it was the French spelling.

The parents of Tallulah does the hula from Hawaii were not stopped from calling her that. Poor girl.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jul/24/familyandrelationships.newzealand

Oh also for people who can't be bothered to RTFT:

we know about Kacper being the Polish spelling

@Namechangetry 😂😂😂

Also....do these posters think that no-one else has spotted it in 12 hours??🙄

We foster and have had children with very unusual names . We were told in our training that parents in these cases often choose an unusual name to help 'find' the child at a later date.
It's scary, and very real, to know that parents who could be dangerous can find you x x you do what you need yo keep your DC safe ❤️

All terrible spelling does is make the parents looks stupid and the child sound common. must be horrible to spend your life spelling out you name too!

Don’t just change a ‘y’ to an ‘ie’ to be different , I also dislike it when people essentially call their kids almost identical names but switch the y and ie in!

Yes I have already been corrected by multiple people. Thank you. I learnt something new yesterday. 🙂

I agree although I have to say that the Jaymz I taught was a lovely boy with very nice parents. I wouldn't necessarily expect it but I wouldn't be surprised if they were rule breakers in other ways than spelling.

Frightening also that these people take into account the possibility of searching for their children in the care system as soon as they are born when they name them.

I often wonder what is behind the spellings of names, as phonetically, they are just the same as conventionally spelled named.

I have visions of parents in the parks calling their children to come back to them - "James, spelled J-A-Y-M-Z, come here please".

I feel for the poor children, having to go through life constantly correcting the spelling of what should be a straightforward name

You'd think they could at least take a stance against punctuation marks and capital letters in the middle of a name. Calling a child D'Zheim'z is really not in his interest or anyone else's.

Now read the thread, you're being a good sport @tulippa 😊

@Perculiar " I’m mostly baffled by Abigayil"
That spelling looks like the parents wanted to keep the Hebrew pronounciation of the name, where "-gail" is two syllables "ga-yil".

I am in my mid-50s and only two days ago I heard my name pronounced properly for the first time 💜 (my phone (!!) has a new ringtone, that reads out the entry of the caller in your addressbook, and I called from my mobile to test it). It's Brazilian and ends with a d, so "-dji", while everyone just says "-d".

The trouble with mocking others for perceived ignorance is that most posters are just revealing their own ignorance about how languages, naming conventions and formal spelling rules have evolved. Yes, "Jaymz" gave me pause as well while I tried to work out what it was, but you'd be shocked at how many "normal" spellings were originally mistakes. Imogen springs to mind - it's a misspelling of the original Innogen. Curtis was brought up earlier - it derives from "courteous" so perhaps "Coeurtis" is closer to the original than we think?

The list of "correctly" spelled English words that have been mangled over the centuries, or from whatever original language we nicked them from, could fill this entire board.

(However in the spirit of the thread, while this has obvious class connotations in the UK, I've noticed deliberately-misspelled names is a huge thing in Australia, where it seems to cut across all class divides, and have always wondered why.)

I hope this hasn’t been said before …..
but can this thread be added to Classics simply because of @tulippa
she’s a ledjund.

My kids have completely normal names but many teachers still pronounce them wrong!

I have RTFT and I have learned Kacper wants to change his name. Possibly to Ajay.

Not to derail, but Schopenhauer always makes me think of QVC!