Interesting spellings.

[TwigsRidesAgain]

I saw this one today. Lileigh.

Not saying it's good or bad. Never seen it before that's all.

As others have said, Jorja is not a legitimate form of Georgia, it's an abomination of a spelling.

People sometimes wrongly assume it's a Spanish form, as the Spanish form of George is Jorge, but it isn't. In Spanish, the J is pronounced with a H sound, so in that case Jorja would be HOR-ha.

The Spanish feminine of George is er, Georgina. (No I'm not sure why it's Jorge for a boy, but Georgina for a girl, but there we are).

I know a Jorja instead of Georgia and saw an Ayprill instead of April the other day.

I think people just go for a different spelling because they think they're being 'exotic'

AWFUL

Anyone who wants to tinker with the name Molly should be aware that a mollee is a kind of curry.
As in, fish mollee.
I make it sometimes.

Mai for May.
Especially seen as a middle name or second part of a hyphenated name. Reminds me of a mai-tai cocktail.

I taught a Chevaunne once. At that school there was also a Cea-enna. Makes life v complicated for the teachers!

All very tacky....

I saw Ayprill today as well on the Facebook page of the 16 kids and counting family (name escapes me) there were LOADS of nasty comments on there.

I absolutely adore Alys and much prefer it to Alice, but probably wouldn't use it because they would be constantly having to say "no not like that"

My DCs have traditional names and yet loads of people get my DS' wrong - it's Isaac but it's always being written as Issac?!

Mykayla - on some TV prog. recently.

I know someone called Neesha.

Aren't a lot of the 'unusual' spellings due to the parents being illiterate and spelling names phonetically?

Would explain things like Steffanny or Shevonne?

Surely no-one deliberately condemns their offspring to a lifetime of having to spell out their name and correct misspellings and mispronouncements in the name of 'individuality'?

You'd have thought a few weeks of the parents having to do it when registering the birth, signing up at the doctors etc would quickly illustrate how misguided unconventional spellings are?

MrsFlint I just looked up that p[age and there are some very interesting spellings in the comments.

Alyisha instead of Alisha

Emilia, said like Emily-a

Kiera-Rae instead of Keira

Chynna instead of China

Enola, not sure if this is a unusual spelling or not. Made me think of Ebola though.

Poppy-Mae

Ayva instead of Ava

Charleigh instead of Charlie

Ayden instead of Aiden

Esmae instead of Esme

Elliazbeth instead of Elizabeth

Kaila instead of Kayla

Konnie instead of Connie

Cailie instead of Kayleigh

Symon instead of Simon

Another one here who saw this thread and immediately thought of Ayprill that popped up on my FB news feed. No idea why, American tv programme?

DD at nursery with a Ripleigh which I assumed was a boy. Nope.

Ooooh, flowerygirl and princessdave. I've just seen a new baby Ayprill, too. I wonder if it's the same one?

Sanity - I've seen a new baby Ayprill on my face book today too - the mn world is smaller than we think!!!

From The Apprentice. Chiles for Charles.

These are all people I've actually met (all ages):

Jayson
Mea (pronounced Mia)
Symon
Cathreen (pronounced Cathryn)
Luci
Jena (pronounced Jenna)
Jaymie (boy)
Jaimee (girl)
Lea (pronounced Leah - I thought it would be Lee)
Nikola
Nicolla
Ashlee
Lukas (wouldn't be unusual in Germany but this one is English)
Mai
Charli
Sofiah (soFEEa not soFYEa!)
Sharne
Katlyn (Kate not Kat)

Not saying it's good or bad
It's bad, JS.

Aydan is an Arabic name. Cathryn is an acceptable variant. La-a never happened.

I met a child called Karman (carmen) whose mum wanted her to be unique (yes that's what she said). I didn't point out that her child's name should have been pronounced car-man.

Maison is another one. I read it as maison as in French for house rather than mason which is what they were going for.

Some of the odd spellings we come across are international spellings of similar names, kacpar, danyall, zacariyya for example, might look yooneeq at first glance but they are actually foreign spellings. There is no excuse for most of these though.

lighthouse you should be so relieved you spelt it Molly. Any of your other variants were bloody horrible.

Maison

"zacariyya for example ... but they are actually foreign spellings"

I one knew a Hindu girl called Neeyantee (rhymes with chianti). I couldn't help thinking that since the original version of that name would have been written in an entirely different alphabet, it wouldn't have hurt to transcribe it in English as something a but more streamlined!

I love names and the etymology behind them, so I'm cool with accepted variants, international variants, names from other alphabets/cultures/languages. The names that make me wince a little internally are where people have chosen to change a name to a spelling they prefer (so a pure choice, not influenced by culture/background) but the chosen name simply doesn't follow the rules of English. I appreciate those rules are often complex and sometimes contradictory, but they do exist and I'd guess that over the course of a person's lifetime, they are going to come into contact with more people who do recognise and understand the basic/general rules than those who don't and are therefore going to automatically apply those rules to names that they hear or see written down. So to use Jena, as mentioned above, as an example: she is going to spend a proportion of her time correcting the spelling of her name to people who hear her introduce herself first and assume it's spelled "Jenna", and correcting the pronunciation to people who see it written down first and assume it will be pronounced "Gina". All because her parents wanted to be yooneeq.

I met an Emilee the other day. I have to admit that the spelling did make me raise my eyebrows a bit as I've never seen it spelt like that before. I have no idea whether it is a legitimate alternative spelling.

I know of an Emilee, her sibling is called something beginning with K and ending in lee (a yooneeq spelling) and they wanted them to match.

Jorja just looks daft, I don't care if it's legit.

What about Annabelle? How many superfluous letters in there? Anabel looks nicer and Must be easier to spell.

Isn't Annabelle much more usual than Anabel? Anabel looks wrong and a bit too close to anal for my liking!

Anabel would surely rhyme with arable.

I liked Annabel for a girl, and I do understand Annabelle etymologically.

Abu for Abi... No idea, as I say it as 'Ab-ooo' not Abi, but apparently it is!