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

Osian is the Welsh equivalent of Oisín. It looks like a (made-up) feminised version of that maybe?

It breaks Irish language spelling rules too btw 😅

I very recently met Miele.

Milly to you and I.

I'm sorry, but Miele is a brand of household appliance, surely?

I know several pronounced shan... There's no r in it. And Welsh is phonetically regular.

Like rhian- which might be re-an or might be re- Anne depending on which side of border you are.

I met a Lucifer the other day. He's a delight. Surprisingly

It’s also Italian for honey but that’s just an interesting fact - I doubt it will be repeated in future posts.

Bullshit you did.

Ah, interesting!

Seems like it's definitely made up then.

I totally agree with you that it was commonplace for rich Hongkongers to have old fashioned English names.

But if you are implying that it was common for everyone in Hong Kong to have both an English and Chinese name then there I would disagree with you. (Source: my DB who worked in Hong Kong from 1987 until 1997).

There was a news article from years ago about an enterprising young girl who helped Chinese people to find an English name - for about a fiver a go.

Apparently, lots of them with connections to the West or with international aspirations were happy to pay it. Obviously, they could easily buy a baby name book from an English-speaking country (probably cost them more than a fiver, though!) and pick one, but they wouldn't have the cultural context to know which ones gave a good impression and which ones might raise eyebrows - like Fanny, Dick, Gaylord, Baldrick etc.!

That's fun! When I studied in China for a few years one of the very kind welcoming "buddy" students with very good English helped us choose Chinese names - for free! Eg a friend called Brooke got a Chinese name meaning "little river", a friend with a Hindi name related to morning/sunrise got a simular Chinese name, it was great (mine was shit though cos my name means nowt)

That's definitely not an Irish spelling.

According to Google, its origin is unknown but possibly hawaii or Polynesia.

France has laws about names you are allowed to call your child - their is a list (and has been for centuries, I think). If you want a non-French name or a name not on the list you have problems. I think registrars should have a duty to point out stupid names or embarrassing ones. e.g. Chlamydia for a girl (not unknown in the US, apparently).

I loathe Aaron (pron. Airon) being spelled and pronounced as if it was the Isle of Aran. It's not.

Everyone i know pronounces it like Arran. But then I'm in Scotland where Karl is Carol.

I stand corrected. I think my friend's family must have been quite wealthy because they sent their children to England to be educated. This was in 1980.

But this is the point. It’s not your goat that’s floating - it’s the child’s. It’s them that has to endlessly spell out their names for their whole lives, deal with arseholes at school etc.

The child pays the price for the parent’s tacky whimsy.

I have to live with such a name and unfortunately it's a little more complicated than just changing it by deed poll in my specific case. It's not as dramatic as some of the examples here, but it does cause a number of issues.

I'd urge any parent to rethink what they are doing to their child, both in the short and in the long run. As a child, it was upsetting to never find a pen or keyring with my name on it (I was born at a time where personalisation was not as much of a thing as it is now). My teachers always mis-spelled my name and that was annoying. My name is not only mis-spelled but also the shortened version of a longer name, which is more common (like Val instead of Valerie) and I've often been mistakenly called by the longer version.

As an adult, I have to correct people on pronunciation and spelling on a regular basis, but more importantly, I've had a number of official documents being issued in the wrong name (for example my council tax bill) and I've had to spend time sorting this out over and over, but more importantly, I've once been denied a parcel because the name on it didn't fully match my ID.

Everyone tells me how wonderful and unique my name is, while they are probably secretly thinking the opposite. I've always hated my name and had a long phase as a teen and young adult going by a completely invented alternative.

Lots of south Asian and Turkish boys are named Aran. I don’t even think it’s intended as the same name as Aaron (which I’ve only ever known to be pronounced as “arun”), it’s just a coincidence that it sounds the same.

what i mean is i respect peoples right to name their child as they please but i will still find it a odd choice but i wont be rude about it to them.

Although people have weird naming conventions ultimately the child will change their name when their older anyway

I do feel sorry for them though

This is where we differ. I accept they have a legal right, but I don’t accept that they have a moral right to impose their fanciful indulgences on a child when the cost of those choices are borne by the child.

So the salient point is that I don’t respect, at any level, a choice like this. Children have a number of protections in this country because they are seen as human beings and not the playthings of their parents.

I understand from HK Chinese friends that some people even pay a consultant to choose an English name for their Children when they send them to The UK for their education.
I was at Boarding school in the mid 80's with a HK Chinese Kenneth, Susan, Monica, Edward and Lawrence amongst others

My irish nanna used to pronounce karl as carol🤣

My HK Chinese ex-flatmate and her siblings have English names, their parents definitely had an eye on their planned future there. But I know some of her friends were just given English names when they went to school, if they only had a Chinese name. Literally a teacher saying 'oh you don't have an English name? Ok your name's Nancy'. She had a HK Chinese friend called Rice and another called Cross. It's sad that families or children feel they need to change their name.

A friend at school was called Linda, I went to her house and her parents called her Ling. When I questioned it she said Ling was her name but her parents thought Linda would be easier.
No easier at all and a shame when people feel they have to use a different name to fit in in England, a Welsh friend did the same but his name was lovely and not difficult at all

I've just remembered a girl in my class at school whose birth name was Teena. Her parents were of Indian heritage and that's the more usual spelling there. But they had very quickly found it frequently misspelled as Tina, the better known spelling in the UK and started using Tina as her "known as" name.

Her name in the school register said Tina with a note in brackets "birth certificate name Teena". But her exam certificates, passport etc all said Teena. Would have been easier to change it by deed and make it official!

Or would have been easier for people to recognise that not all names that sound English are actually English.