Does everyone think the spelling of my chosen name is odd??

[MrsMonkeyBear]

Hubby and I just found out we are expecting a little girl.

We have chosen the name Sofee but everyone thinks we should spell it a more traditional way.

Am I just being weird??

[TenMinutesEarly]

I'm guessing Perez for Paris?

[drivenfromdistraction]

Shakespeare still lived in a primary verbal culture where most people couldn't read or write. It's different now, that's why spellings have become fixed.

I once met a girl who told me her name was Why-von When I eventualy saw it written down, it was Yvonne. Apparently her parents saw the name somewhere, liked it, but had no idea how it was pronounced...

[drivenfromdistraction]

*eventually not eventualy

[doziedoozie]

It's the end of the university year - perhaps that explains the many odd threads and wind up posts that have been on MN lately.....................

[StrumpersPlunkett]

Sorry it isn't a good choice. I am all for alternative names but don't mess up perfectly beautiful ones. :-)

[RunDougalRunQuiteFast]

Yes, Paris spelling please? Amsterdam?

[TiggyD]

Your child, your choice. - But it's not her name. It's a name she's going to give another human being who is going to be stuck with it the rest of her life.

[DrFunkesFamilyBandSolution]

I know of a Dayzee.

Don't do it OP, as one with an unusual name it sucks to have to spell it constantly.

[SantasLittleMonkeyButler]

Oh no, please be kind to your DD and spell her name either Sophie or Sofie.

It reminds me of a little Mayzi-Raii I know of. It either makes you look illiterate or stupid .

[florascotia]

OP if you are still reading, and would like an unusual spelling, then - as others have said - there is Sofie. There is also Sophy. It was used about 200 years ago in the UK as a short form of the name Sophia (pronounced So-fye-ah by people at that time).

I've said this before on another post, but the reason why strange spellings upset people is because the rules for reading and writing and spelling help shape the ways we communicate with others or express ourselves and even how we think. Mess with them and you mess with our minds. The same rules for spelling also make the world go round. Others have mentioned the impossibility of getting personalised gifts for children and the life-long irritation/embarassment/bureaucratic inconvenience of having to explain or even apologise for a strange spelling of a well-known name. You may find that some online databases reject non-standard versions of well-known names, as well, making all kinds of internet use problematic.

[Freyathecatt]

Blimey, no need for some of the nastiness on here. Really unpleasant actually.

[mum2jakie]

If you want to have an unusual variation of the name, I think Sofie would work. Sofee will raise more than a few eyebrows and your daughter will probably tire of the misspelling and questions about the spelling quite quickly.

[squizita]

Driven but not proper nouns. They are fixed spellings only in one case: the case of the person/place they name. That's not to say changing the spelling for the sake of it won't look silly sometimes...

[florascotia]

I hope I wasn't being nasty - I was just trying to say that in English spelling the letter o followed by ff - as in 'toffee' or 'coffee'- creates a particular sound: 'off'. If we've learned standard English spelling, that's how we decode it. Automatically.

Therefore, automatically, we read 'Soffee' as 'soff-ee' not 'sow-fee'. We then ask ourselves, 'Can that be right? ' We have, separately, learned the widely-used proper nouns 'Sophie' and 'Sofie'. We read them as 'sow-fee'. But the unusual 'Soffee' = 'Sophie' does not fit this pattern. So we feel puzzled or irritated or confused.

Of course, if we meet little Soffee every day at school or in the park or at playgroup, and are told by OP or another how they would like us to say her name, then we soon learn it, just like we learn any proper noun, and it stops being a problem. But for the countless other people who Soffee might meet during her lifetime - either for the first time face to face, or through the medium of written language (forms, computers etc) the puzzlement reaction is likely to occur with each fresh encounter, and may not be nice for her.

However, it's entirely up to the OP whether she thinks all this matters.

[beatingwings]

If I saw it written I would pronounce it soffee to rhyme with toffee.

Sorry, just seems silly.

[CaulkheadUpNorth]

I have a friend called Sofia, nn sofy. Would you consider that?

[choochootrain1]

my name is spelt with one of the letters changed from the normal way to spell it, at times in my life I have enjoyed it's uniqueness, at other times I deal with the rolling eyes. I wouldn't do it... let the kid change it to being spelled that way later on if they really want to

[BrianTheMole]

No I don't like that. It reminds me of sofa. Please don't call her that.

[MewlingQuim]

I have a non traditional spelling of a traditional name.

I have spent my life spelling it out and I do wonder why the fuck my parents couldn't have just spelled it normally

Both my parents were literate. They just thought it would be nice to be different.

[HerRoyalNotness]

thinkivebeenhacked p a r i c e for paris, which is a completely valid name in itself, but IS NOT, and NEVER will be PARIS!

[Viviennemary]

Yes. It looks ridiculous.

[Marnierose]

Yes