I understand unique names, I love those. But not bizzare spellings that the child will suffer with. My name, for my age group, is uncommon enough that I could have had a normal spelling and been the only one in the school (bar teachers). As I said before, my name ages me by a decade or so. OK, without the spelling we're looking more 15 years older. Having said that, I've had the "strange spelling" of both my old name and my new one commented on today, so I guess I can't completely back away from alternative spellings, although mine do have a precident.

What about normal names that just aren't used these days? Not really strange ones either: Adeline, Domonique, Dorcas, Cordelia, Mariah, Jean, Alison - how many babies with these lovely names do you hear of right now? You don't have to invent a spelling to have a different name.