Would you tell someone they’ve misspelt their baby’s name?!

[CaptainCabinets]

A colleague has recently announced the birth of ‘Pheobe’ on Facebook and have since referred to the baby as ‘Pheobe’ several times.

Would I be awful to gently suggest the correct spelling or just hope it’s picked up on when they register the birth?!

I'd point it out, in private so as not to embarrass them. Maybe they have done it deliberately though.

I wouldn’t ever say anything

Why don’t you send a message saying congratulations on the birth of Phoebe? If enough people do it she might notice.

On the other hand I know a Micheal (not Michael) and it never did him any harm.

Micheal is the Irish spelling of Michael

Micheal is pronounced Me-hall in Irish. A relative called her son Micheal but pronounces it like Michael.

If you look at the lists of baby names given, there’s some spellings that are awful - even unintentional ones.

I never knew that! Mind you he is Welsh.

I would put a commment on welcoming little Phoebe to the world, but wouldn’t say anything directly x

Yes but the Gaelic version of Michael has fada accents on the vowels, so that's part of the spelling. Pheobe is just plain wrong.

I would send her a text, or ask her. I’d say ‘congratulations on your baby, she’s gorgeous. Before I write the card i just wanted to check how you’re spelling her name. Is it Phoebe like the girl in Friends or Pheobe as I've seen you post on fb?

@AddictedtoCrunchies has it! Good one

One of my friends announced the birth of Saphire on facebook. I knew it was spelt wrong but I didn't want to be the one to point it out. It didn't however take long for someone else to correct her, and now at 5 months I see pictures of Sapphire on a daily basis.

The trouble is people spell names in all sorts of weird ways. It is a minefield these days .

If you look through the National Statistics baby names spreadsheet you find Phoebe misspelled “Pheobe” every year.

In 2017, 29 Pheobes were born vs 2000 Phoebes.

Weirdly I came on to say that I would correct someone if it was something like 'Pheobe' as I think that is more likely to be a genuine misspelling compared to perhaps spelling Mason as Maison (a purposely yoonik spelling)

Hmmm. I don't know. Our son's name, when said, is relatively popular. The spelling is unusual. Someone said we had spelt it wrong - that we have used the female version. We have not and have used the neutral spelling.

Think ie - male, y - female and ey neutral.

At least if you're going to point it out, make sure you're a close enough friend that they won't be offended.

I would have thought that if they have written it that way numerous times then that's how they are spelling it tbh.

When you next see them say 'Oh is this little 'Fee-obe'?

But in seriousness, maybe just drop a congrats message and ask whether it will be spelt Pheobe or Phoebe?

I knew someone who named their baby boy Danielle thinking it was just another spelling of Daniel. Never said anything.

I would congratulate her and comment saying you love the unusual spelling of the name...

I would tell them I've never heard the name before and ask how is it pronounced.

"I knew someone who named their baby boy Danielle thinking it was just another spelling of Daniel. Never said anything."

Hopefully the registrar did!

It's two different names!

I did this, turned out they intended that spelling!

I have a sister called Phoebe and, shamefully, it took me until my twenties to spell it correctly because Pheobe kind of looks right as well. I think I was basing it on the spelling of "people".

But I do think it's one of those that can only have one correct spelling (unlike my name which no one ever spells right!).

I saw someone spell Daisy as Daisey

Feel like sometimes people do it to be unique

My niece had an unusual spelling of her name. Within 2 days the spelling was changed as every reply to the announcement text congratulated them on on regular spelling