What attracts parents to unusual spellings?

Question

I'm genuinely curious and I'm not trying to criticize anyone's choices.

I admit I prefer traditional spellings. When I see fairly common names spelled creatively (Emmaleigh, Jaykob, Maddysyn, etc) I only see the problems and not any benefits. I think little Maddysyn is still going to have to be Maddysyn H in class to differentiate her from the 3 other Madisons. She will constantly have to spell her name for others. People who read her name on everything from essays to job applications may form unflattering and incorrect opinions about her intelligence or personality simply because her name is "misspelled."

Many parents love unique spellings, though, so I wonder if there's a benefit I just don't see. If you've chosen or plan to choose a non-traditional spelling for your child's name, I'd love to know why.

Answer 1

I completely agree with you...people seem to be choosing names that will only be suitable for a baby or small child, and ignoring how the name will hurt their son or daughter when they are in college or interviewing for their career. I can understand taking a name like Jane or Emily and changing a couple letters to make them original, but names today are outlandish enough, they don't need to have 100 different spellings (all with like, 8 y's in them...)

Answer 2

It seems like a one-upsmanship issue with parents and naming their children. In my opinion, there is a certain level of pretentiousness that leads a parent to spell their kids name in an nontraditional way in an effort to differentiate their Maddysyn from other Madisons in class. I feel sorry for those kids. I, too prefer traditional spellings of names. I am not against uncommon names, just spell it how it sounds. When naming my son, I didn't want a trendy name. I didn't want a crazy spelling but I did want a name that would insure he was the only one in his class with that name. We chose Keegan and we love it.

You are totally right about the job application thing and opinions being formed based on a name. Before I had my son and became a stay at home mom, I worked as a human resource manager for a large retailer and employed a lot of high school kids on the weekends. I remember having to sort through applications and I know I was certainly guilty of saying to myself "what a weird name". I wouldn't however, let that bias prevent me from calling that person to set up an interview.

Answer 3

Most people pronounce my name incorrectly, as well as my son's. This is understandable since we are from a different culture. I rarely mind it. A pharmacist or someone like that is probably not going to see my child again any time soon so I usually don't even correct it. I figure, that we both have better things to do. If a teacher mispronounces a name I will respectfully correct the teacher since he or she will see my child for 180+ days. But, I realize that it might take a few reminders because teachers have to learn many names. That being said, if a teacher continually mispronounces a child's name (especially if it is spelled phonetically) even after weeks or months of corrections, I tend to get annoyed because the teacher is with the child for a large part of the day and plays an important role in the development of the child's identity.

Answer 4

Let me start by saying I love your question! I've been wondering this question for awhile now, but didn't know how to put it into words on here!

I totally agree with you!! I'm into traditional names and spellings. We are having a little boy in about 5 weeks and once I say the name, you are going to wonder where the traditional name is. His name will be Nathanial Harriman (hair - a - mun). Most Nathanial's are spelled with an -iel at the end. I changed it because there are no other e's in his name. But my husband thinks that Nathanial sounds better with Harriman than Nathan does, especially for resumes & interviews. But he will be called Nathan, so we will still be able to find everything with his name on it.

As for the Harriman part, that's my husband and father-in-law's middle name, and his grandpa and grandpa's first name. My husband and father-in-law aren't embarrased in the least of their middle name, but when they sign any paperwork or anything, they sign Joseph H or David H. We are carrying on the tradition with our son as well. We'll see when he's older if he uses his middle initial. I asked a question last week about what people thought of the name Nathanial Harriman, and no one mentioned how I spelled Nathanial but a few of them criticized Harriman. Our mind is set on what to name him so it didn't bother me, we absolutely love what we are naming him, otherwise we wouldn't be giving him the name!

The one name I see ALL THE TIME is Nevaeh (the only way I could spell that just now was by spelling out heaven first, then spelling backwards.) I don't know how to pronounce it! And if I can't pronouce it, I'm not too fond of it. I don't see what is so great about that name. I would never put my child through that. I know how to pronounce heaven and I would think most people could spell it, why not just name their child that?

When we have a little girl, we like the name Hannah Marie. I know there are lots of other Hannah's, but we still have a couple years left so maybe the name won't be as popular. I also like Abbigail Madison & Sophia Isabella. For other boys names, I like Jacob Cleveland & Zachary Pike. All easy to spell, but not too common.

This turned out to be much longer than I had planned on. If you're still reading this, thanks!!!

Answer 5

They want to be different I think, but are too afraid to choose a unique name, so they go with unique spelling. I agree it will be difficult for the child or annoying anyways, having to spell their name all the time. I would just prefer traditional spelling also. Sometimes this happens anyways, because there are so may ways to spell names now and day. For example my son Sean has a completely normal Irish name. With the original spelling, yet others have made it Shawn, or Shaun, etc..and so then everyone is always spelling his name wrong or mispronouncing it. Can drive me crazy too. when they look at me like i spelled his name weird. Its the Correct way to spell Sean . Not the made up way. But oh well. So I guess either way you go, normal or not, people will have a hard time with names.

Answer 6

I think most people do it just to be different. In my case I guess it was an accident. My daughter is Nichole with the 'h'. I didn't look up how to spell it and didn't realize until she was school age that the normal spelling doesn't have the 'h' so I can't buy her any of the preprinted personallized items they sell. She is 10 and doesn't mind a bit. She will correct someone if they spell it wrong and doesn't want anything with the incorrect spelling. I appologised to her for spelling it unusual and how everyone gets it wrong. She said she likes it with the 'h' and doesn't mind a bit and wouldn't change it if she could.
So, it works for us and I don't think most people consider it spelled wrong, just different. However I agree, a lot of those unusual spellings just look like the parents were
illiterate and can't spell.

Answer 7

I agree some parents do take it overboard when naming their children. Instead of spelling it the right way they add extra a's and e's and y's. In some cases there are different ways to spell a name, like my daughters name is Julianna, I spelled it Julianna, you can spell it Juliana or maybe Julieana and its not weird looking. Or my name is Jillian, and it can be spelled Gillian. But when people start spelling a simple name like Jessica and change it to Jezikah it drives me nuts! You can be different with some names but don't take it over the top!

Answer 8

I'm like you and prefer traditional spellings and simple names. I think parents who like unique spellings are simply looking to stand out a bit - they want to have that really cool name but they don't realize how hard it will be for the child.

Answer 9

Well I have a Rebecca, Breanna, and a Nicolaas. With my son, Nicolaas, you would think we spelled it odd. But in actuality it is spelled the way dutch people spell it. My hubby is dutch and so that is what we did. I understand the having to spell everything though. My hubby's name is Eduward, also dutch. We just put Ed on everything or it goes through editing a million times and we don't get things we need, like car titles. Our last name is hard enough and even now I think.. my poor son!!!

Answer 10

I like the fact that I have never found another person with the exact same spelling of my name. The most common way to spell my name is Tiffany. But I love that my name is spelled differently than that.... It a common name, but at the same time, mine is different, and I love that!