There were many, many reasons we chose Samuel - none of them to do with ease of spelling or pronunciation! He mainly gets Sam (cos that's his initials as well) and I defy anyone to mis-spell Sam! Just wait, someone will now.

As a teacher I really despise names with unusual spellings. I have a particular passionate hatred for names that you see on the roll and have no idea whether you're dealing with a male or female student. I've once had a class with two completely different spellings of Annalise and as a result I could never get any of them right.

I've seen so many kids doomed to a lifetime of having to spell their names for people, or what I think is even worse, continually having to correct pronunciation of their name... It is a little out of control, but I think it depends on your perspective and what circles you move in as to how much you are exposed to it.

Samuel Angus was chosen for the meanings of his names and the initials it gave him, but I'm really glad that he (hopefully!) won't have the spelling/pronunciation problem to deal with!

BW