Mykhaila - will the spelling me too difficult?

[BabyGirlBear]

Just that please baby girl is due next month and it's the only name with both agree on, but the only thing holding us back is would this spelling be too difficult? We live in London.

Sorry for being dim but how it is pronounced?
I don't think it's uncommon that people have to spell their names - I have to spell both my DDs and they aren't that unusual!

No, I know someone who has it spelt the Gaelic way and that's far more complicated!

It's sort of like Macelach or something!

How do you pronounce it? If it's pronounced the same as Michaela or Makayla then it will probably be constantly misspelled. If it has a unique pronunciation then people will ask her how it's spelled every time so it's a bit less of an issue.

What's wrong with the usual spelling of Michaela?

Can you not just spell it the traditional way?
My parents gave me a name that has a ridiculous amount of letters and it's never not annoyed me. I wish they'd chosen the easy spelling.

Is it pronounced like Michaela/Makayla? If so why spell it so "uniquely"?

How do you pronounce it?

If it's a name of non-British origin that reflects your background then let people learn to spell and say it and go for it.

If it's a made up spelling of Michaela because you want it to look fancy then it's awful it's unnecessarily complex and will lead to a lifetime of mis-spelling and random variations of pronunciation.

We're from Ukraine

Is that the Ukrainian spelling, OP?

Sorry, cross-post.

I think its fine.
People on mumsnet tend to hate a 'forrin' spelled name

My reason ( well not only one but a strong one) to marry DH was to get rid of my surname so now I only have to spell my first name.

Think carefully as its v v annoying for people to not able to pronounce or write it ( constantly).

Mikayla is a Hebrew version probably easier to spell!

As you are from Ukraine, it's absolutely fine and certainly easy enough to pronounce in the UK (assuming it's pronounced the same as Michaela).

It would probably be more strange to spell the name in the usual UK way and have DD's Ukrainian family unable to pronounce or spell it!

If you were just spelling a name differently to be "unique" I'd advise against it. But you're not doing that.

So I guess that's the direct translation from the cyrillic alphabet??? Do you need to convert the spelling directly from Ukranian?

My ds has a name that comes from his df's country/language. He had to have a name from that country to be eligible for their nationality. The letters are pronounced differently in English causing him to have to explain every single time someone English reads his name. It has caused him no end of hassle and he is now changing the spelling to reflect English pronunciation

If you plan to bring your dd up in UK and don't have to spell it that way for passport reasons then I'd consider simplifying the spelling e.g. Mikaila?

I have a very ordinary first name and people are always either getting it wrong or asking how to spell it. When I married, I hoped switching to DH's name would also get rid of all the spelling problems I had with my very British maiden surname. It didn't.

If you both like the name, I'd go for it.

I even tried going as a nom-de-restaurant of 'Linda' as I got so tired of the Leslie/Winzy/Dinzy/Nancy/Lindy/Windy (WTF?)/and Susan (WTAF?) debacle. I got asked how to spell that too .

As my previous post wasn't very clear, I would go for the name you both want as even if you name your DD something like Jane it will still come back as Jain, Jayne, Janie, Djane, and Tara

I think it's lovely. You/she will have to spell it out but it's really not that much bother.

I have an unusual name which I have to spell out and I have my DD an unusual name which she has to spell out.

even people called Clare/Claire/Clair have to spell their names.

If you are planning to bring them up in the UK I'd just use the traditional British spelling or its just going to be annoying for their whole life. If you are returning to the Ukraine then use that traditional spelling.

It's the Ukrainian spelling so I think it's fine.

www.behindthename.com/name/mykhaila

Fine. But as you're transliterating from Cyrillic anyway, could you change the 'y' to an 'i' which would be easier for the English and sound the same? Also, I don't know how hard the 'kh' sound is in Ukrainian -- that is cyrillic 'x'. Is it pronounced like Russian, or like Bulgarians who make it more like a 'h'. If the latter, I know some people go for 'h' not 'kh' (so Mihaila, not Mikhaila).

Nice name by the way.

It's lovely. People will just have to learn to spell it.

Honestly, I would use it as a middle name or change the spelling. It looks too made up or 'unique' and I'm afraid lots of people would make assumptions about your child

I think it's fine. People in London at used to a variety of multicultural names and will just need to take a bit of extra care to spell it correctly. Yes, the odd person might write it wrong but same goes for all the Isobel/Isabel/Isabelle's out there who also get incorrect spelling. If you love it, use it