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

I know that now (many years in) but was more naive at the time and believed everything SS told me !

Someone mentioned about a Snow White upthread. Well there is a little girl called Snow where my parents live.

I knew a Shevonne and it was not a creative spelling on purpose. Her parents just had realised that it’s spelled “Siobhan”. They registered it as they heard it. She said they discovered years later when they were discussing it with somebody.

See, this is what I genuinely cannot fathom at all.

If I were writing a shopping list and couldn't remember how to spell broccoli, I wouldn't really care and would just write an approximation, as it wouldn't actually matter; but surely these people must realise that they are officially naming a human - possibly for the next 100 years? Even if I were certain of the spelling of the name I'd chosen, I would still double check it online before going for it for definite. Why wouldn't you do that? Your phone is probably right there within arm's reach - it takes literally a few seconds to Google it; why would you just prefer to guess instead?!

Presumably it was before the days of reaching to your phone and Googling.

All this talk of Siobhan reminds me of my year 6 teacher many years ago. Her DD was called Siobhan, no idea how or why this had come up. But she got really snarky when we (a class of 10-11 year olds) didn't know how to spell/pronounce the name.

She was also very quick to correct the spelling of my friends names when I wrote about them, insisting I was wrong. I wasn't. They were Irish and used the Irish spellings. (Actually the girls name might not be an Irish spelling, I'm not 100% sure)

But it still goes on nowadays!

Even so, I don't think there's any excuse. Information was still out there and available before the internet, even if it took a bit longer to find it out. Any bookshop would have had a baby name book that they could have checked it in - probably wouldn't even need to buy it if there's just one specific name they wanted to quickly look for!

Maybe some people just really don't think their children are worth a tiny bit of their time; or they somehow just don't get (what I would have thought was obvious) how much of a hindrance it is going through your whole life with a silly spelling of a common name.

Some people see a baby to name, a cute accessory. Not a human who will be a feeling adult.

Yes, I think that's often it. To be honest, I usually think the same when people give their babies the exact same first name as their own first name.

They aren't a brand new person in their own right; they're just an ephemeral add-on to the parent's life. If you're wanting them to have a clear link to the family of which they are now a member... well, that's exactly what a surname is for!

I have met two different families where the sons were given the same name as the dad. As in, two sons and dad all with the exact same name. John Smith, and his son John Smith and his other son John Smith. It's mind-blowing to me.

Ah. Probably source of pronunciation then. But it's 'Airon' in Exodus, afaik. So Charles is also Carol - same name?

No Charles is pronounced Charles.

What girls name do you mean?

Siobhán is an Irish spelling.

I know Siobhan is an Irish spelling, which was why her lack of knowledge about other Irish names was so strange.

The girls name she kept correcting in my work was Hayleigh. Which may or may not be an Irish spelling, the brothers name was though.

To be honest, I usually think the same when people give their babies the exact same first name as their own first name.
They aren't a brand new person in their own right; they're just an ephemeral add-on to the parent's life.

It was standard practice in the past, up to the early 20th century. Eldest son after the father, eldest daughter after the mother, subsequent children after grandparents, aunts, uncles. Can be very helpful in family history, if an unusual name is passed down through generations.

Oh right, thanks, I understand now.

Hayleigh isn’t an Irish spelling, no.
There is no letter y in the Irish alphabet. Names don’t typically start with the letter h either, unless perhaps a name of foreign origin.

One of my very favourite names. 💕

@tulippa
Now that is a Polish spelling! Those are completely forgivable…

😂

@tulippa has already been corrected by multiple people and has thanked them politely. She learned something new on Wednesday (and again on Thursday, Friday and now Saturday).

Is anyone keeping a tally of these?.😂

Our village school has a set of twins called Chardonnay and Merlot (oh how I wish I was joking….), Yaxxon (Jackson), DazeMai, Eeli and Peeoni.
I absolutely despair of the mentality of some people.

It doesn’t make tracing a family tree easy - my DH’s family had 8 Samuel’s in one generation and 9 William’s in another 🤬😳

Their parents probably write should of, could of and would of.

Yes, but it's a bit confusing and vainglorious whilst the people in question are themselves still alive - as opposed to when they've passed into history.

Just one of the baby name books we had included 50,000 names; so why you'd be unable to think of any others is completely beyond me!

When our DS was about 2, he had multiple teddies that he named with his own name - so Bob the puppy, Bob the panda, Bob the jellyfish etc. - as he still only had a very limited frame of reference and didn't know many other names. How can you get to an age where you're old enough to be a parent and still be like that?!

Imagine deciding to name your precious baby after whatever you can make from the letters you have left in the bag right at the end of a game of Scrabble.