AIBU to ask why parents give deliberately unusual spellings of otherwise common names?

[Ihateasthma]

Why do parents give their DC names which sound normal but differently spelt to the normal way?

Maddyline for Madeleine
Febee for Pheobe
Pheo for Theo

You have shot yourselves in the foot from day one as you get angry, roll your eyes when others spell their names the normal way. If you gave DC the normal spelling- you wouldn’t react like this

Then when the DC are older they do the same thing and say “it’s spelt ….”

We’ve got the Spanish spellings of names in our family (think ‘f’ instead of ‘ph’ or ‘c’ instead of ‘ch’ for example) but I don’t think anyone would think these are misspellings in the same way the post’s talking about here.

Ignorance or illiteracy.

Or wanting to be “special” or unique.

Aspirational in a weird way.

I'm always reminded of Kath and Kim, and Kim (absolute bogan) wanting her daughter to be “yoooneeke.”

When I worked in a school parents would ring up and you would be desperately trying to find their child on SIMS. Of course they had some nonsense spelling you couldn’t guess. The worst of it would be the parents would be pissed/shocked you didn’t know straight away how to spell their child’s name straight away - even if it bore no resemblance to the name they were saying.
‘But why can’t you find them’ because you’ve named your child some random mix of letters.

Came across a Jewlee recently- bearing in mind she was in her 60s that was random, another I came across many years ago was Mellonie, apparently her father registered the birth and couldn’t spell it the more traditional way.

Maybe try to get out more?

People think we have done this this.

But weve used an old family name, spelt the traditional way, not an angelised version.

Culture is a part of names too.

Our oldest children (now +18) are stuck with a -k- where -c/ch- is the norm in their names in the UK. The spelling -k- is the norm in Scandinavian. One also has a common middle name with a -z- in UK but -s- in her Scandinavian spelling.
Their names are pretty common in UK but simply just spelled a bit different due to culture.
They were named before we moved to the UK.

3rd child's name is spelled UK standard.

Yeah I’ve a couple of friends with names that are spelled correctly for their native country but they’ve now moved to the uk and their names are unusually spelled.

I'd always heard and read about Mumsnet being a vipers nest. Full of: judgemental, sneering, smug, sanctimonious, snobby bitches. I thought surely it must be an exaggeration and only be representative of a minority. 🤔 After reading this thread I'm not so sure after all.

Thank you, indeed I did. I forgot pedantic too .

Wouldn't it be vipers' nest, as there's definitely more than one viper in this nest...

I'm a health visitor so meet new babies almost every day. I am always very careful to ask how parents spell their child's name as you never know when a random vowel has been thrown in there, or they have made up a completely different way of spelling the most mundane names.

He'll probably end up on benefits (*joke 😀)

I know a few kids with names that I thought were spelt creatively, but then it turned out that those were the spellings commonly used in the culture one or both of their parents were from.
So sometimes it’s that.

I know an Emmally, an Emaleigh, an Emmaly and an Emmelie. No comment purely an observation.

This. ^ ANOTHER thread designed to poke fun at and sneer at people that posters class as beneath them. 🙄

Why are these threads allowed to stay @MNHQ ?!

Maybe she means multiple vipers.

Are we attacking peoples spelling and grammar on here too?

Some posters on Mumsnet never fail to deliver.

Sometimes the truth can seem unkind, but it is still the truth. If it's true, that people who misspell or mispronounce their children's names, or give them ridiculous made up names are usually poorly educated, why shouldn't we say so?

If the parents of these unfortunate children aren't on Mumsnet, they can't be hurt by it. If they are, they might realise what their ignorance is doing to their children and stop doing it.

I know a woman whose parents managed to spell her name correctly (Eilidh), but insisted it should be pronounced Eye-Lia. They were as thick as pigshit obviously, and probably only ever saw the name written down before choosing it for their daughter.

Fortunately for Eilidh, she is now an adult and chooses to use the correct pronunciation.

No-one has ever called their son PHEO. Come off it.

I very much doubt Febee has actually been used, either!

Sometimes it’s cultural- I know
a Lukas and Czarli (Charlie) and I think they are polish spellings.
i also think some names have variations ie Alicia/Alisha Claire/clair/clare Lyndsay/Lindsay etc
My name is s very common 80s name with an acceptable but more unusual spelling and tbh it’s a pain in the arse

Probably because they want too.

Someone should start a thread saying “why are people so thick they believe these well worn urban legends rooted in classism?”

Me too and the parents sending shitty emails because they're fed up of the staff "not spelling their names right"

Well maybe if you'd used normal spellings there wouldn't be an issue