"Unusual Spellings of Baby Names Out of Control"

[briggsy's girl]

hmmm, i haven't commented in this thread cos i'm torn - i don't think that "traditional" spelling of a name is any better or worse than something that has been "tweaked" - provided the tweaking make sense. having a name like thomas and throwing a silent L in there just to make the spelling unique - that doesn't do it for me.

i think it's more a product of the multicultural society in which we live, than being about "class" that we are prepared to venture more into the spelling of our childrens names. we, as in a general "society" we, tend to be embracing our heritage more (as Maz has with her kidlets names) and celebrating that, sharing it with the next generation. but those of us who haven't embraced our heritage (how the hell i can embrace German on one side, Yank on the other, and DH with his ummmmm i think something European and NOT offend anyone i don't know!) - well, we still want our children to feel unique and that comes through in what we name them - a choice that is ENTIRELY up to the parents.

we chose a much "older" first name for our DD - Emerald isn't common as a name now - but it is her name. does using a 'dated' name and using the traditional spelling speak about us? who we are? does it sound like we're from a certain "class" of people? do her middle names speak about us? does Nevaeh, a name that appears to be popular amongst "lower class" African Americans, make us sound like we're from "the ghetto" (damn, been around mum today - listening to Elvis and that is stuck in my head - please don't take offence - it isn't intended)

i think, if you believe you can judge a childs background based on their name alone, you're not giving the child credit on their own abilities. my DD's name can't possibly label who she is and where she comes from. we're not "upper class snobs" choosing a first name to make her something she isn't - she will be what she will be.

FWIW - incase anyone is wondering how we came up with DD's name - Emerald is my birthstone - DH decided it would be a pretty girls name well before we fell pregnant - he wanted a name that was in honor of me, and i wouldn't let him use my name (very "common" - was one of four in my class all through school - and it's a non gender-specific name that can be spelt soooooooo many ways so a PITA!). Nevaeh is "heaven" spelt backwards - i wanted it to honor the five angel babies that came before her. Rose - well, DH and i have so many in the yard, it just felt right.

[Fleur]

I'm just curious...
Does everyone see a difference between

1. unusual names
2. variations on spellings of names
3. totally completely different spellings of names
??

JMO but I do... (I know one of my earlier posts was misunderstood) ... I see 3 different things here - is it like that for anyone else or do you tend to lump all 3 in together?

A lot of the discussion I see is on variant spellings (such as foreign variations) - which (again, JMO) - I think is different to changing the spelling altogether so the name is totally different.

just wondering if anyone else is seeing that seperately or if it's all one & the same to you

ETA - briggsy's girl I think Emerald is a beautiful name, it brings to mind that she is a precious gem & sounds lovely too

[~clover~]

I think its all the same. I love different names & different spellings. But I feel I'm being more attacked because I changed the spelling of a basic name. If you make a name up you can choose how to spell it.
I always wished I was creative enough to make a name up like Mel's babies names I just changed letters for no apparent reason at all... Not nearly as exciting!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Yes. There's a difference, to me at least, between names that are not common or using a foreign/family spelling and names that just don't make sense.

Bus Stop 7 is a "bad" name, IMO.
Kerulyn for Caroline is a "bad" name - unless it's a genuine name somewhere in the world! I hope I've just made that up. I'm not a fan of Jaymz (James) or Mykel (Michael) either.
Matthias, Mattheau, Matthew... any other regional varient, that's just fine and celebrates the world people that we are and our heritage.
Gladys is not popular atm but still a good name. (I wouldn't go for it as it means "lame" but there's nowt wrong with the actual name.)

eta- Skye, just because I wouldn't have chosen the spelling Jazmyne, doesn't mean it's wrong. At least you can look at the name and see how it is pronounced. It's not in my top 10 - but I bet the names I would have in there wouldn't be anywhere near your top 10 either. We're different and that's good. But crazy spellings I do dislike a LOT. Different spellings I can at least risk a pronounciation of - not phased. Not a fan but don't really dislike them either. I can see how they sound, that's the main thing.

[~Saram~]

lol, when i choose Hunters name (he is 6), there wasnt another another hunter out there, so i thought it was unique and his name came to me in a dream, it was after watching the movie, perfect storm, with cyclone grace and cyclone hunter, anyway, my family was like o thats such an american name, now there are Hunters everywhere, its not so unique anymore, and when we here of another hunter that is younger than mine, my mum says, we had it first!!
My Hunter is the only one in his class and he loves it.

We were the same when we named our DS Xander. It came from a discussion where DH liked Xavier but the male family names were Robert (Bob) - DH and Dh's father or Alexander. So somehow we came to Xander - basically a shortened form of Alexander although his registered name is Xander not Alexander which a lot of people call him -assuming Xander is a nickname. Just after we came up with the name we saw the movie XXX with Vin Diseal and once we had named him Xander we had a lot of people ask if it was from Buffy - which I had never seen so Now I have met a few Xanders or Zanders but I still feel as if we were the first Just recently I noticed an old work friend had named her child Xander and I was a bit... put off. I thought she could of at least bothered to say hey we like the name so much we decided to use it too IYKWIM.

Ariya - Dh and I found in a book that we both loved and her name was either going to be Ariya or Linnea (pronounced lyn na ah) but it needs one of those dashes (omlout???) and I can never work out how to put them in on a computer :-) Ariya's name is actually spelt Arya which is a traditional Indian name but we figured in OZ she would get called Are-ya so we changed the spelling to make the pronounciation a little more straight forward. We figured we couldn't have a Xander and an ordinary name.

[~clover~]

Lady Zaidie I never took any offence to anything you said. It's more the people saying I'm trying to make myself out to be better than I am (or my DD is) by changing the spelling of a name. I don't think that is fair at all.

[maz]

It's more the people saying I'm trying to make myself out to be better than I am (or my DD is) by changing the spelling of a name. I don't think that is fair at all.

our girls can go lap dancing in the hood together hon

you know what...at the end of the day who really gives a rats arse!!!!

We have called our kids a name WE ARE COMFORTABLE WITH. There is no need to judge anyone, make comment on the way we live socially, how we view the world.....as long as that child is feed, dressed, hugged and made to feel special from YOU is all that counts.

You cant go making judgement on a child or person by the way they express themselves in life and you sure as hell cant blame their name for the person they are or will be in the future. You should except the child/person for the person they are!

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

Girls, you can't just let your little ones off lapdancing on their own.

Let old weirdy name here take them the first few times to make sure they're OK.


BTW, my least favourite comment is "so why do you spell it like that?" You mean I got a choice? I came out the womb screaming "give me a freaky deaky name!"? OK so NOW it's my choice but it wasn't when rude people asked that question.

[*TripleJ*]

but then think about some ppl dont like names coz their normal coz their boring say James like i named my son ppl always say why such a boring name but i chose it for my stepdads best friend who sadly passed a few years ago and having a friend who said she 'saw' him watching over me convinced me even more even more freaky they both had the same birthweight also a maori middle name kai for my nz heritage and george for DH's grandad that passed away when he was 16
back 2 topic there are ppl who dont like normal spellings KWIM

[nickers]

Im a bit of a fence sitter with this one.
I used to go out with a guy who had an extremley common name in our era but spelt differently, it made his name seem different all together and there was never any confusion on the others always had to go by the first name and first inital of their surname.
The girls name i have always wanted was primarily a boys name and so i changed the spelling to suit a girl. (not that i had a girl so never used the name lol)
But in saying that i think some traditional names can get out of control with changing of spelling.

[visitor1]

BG how do you pronounce Nevaeh?

I cop it cos i spell Zachery the wrong way.....it should be ZachAry....do i care...Nope....he is my son and ill spell it my way.

I had lots tell me i should have spelt Jasmine...Jasmin so it doesnt sound like Jas-Mine but Jas-Min

Im all for weird names but can never get creative....id love for my kids to all be unique and different

[Fleur]

I had lots tell me i should have spelt Jasmine...Jasmin so it doesnt sound like Jas-Mine but Jas-Min

Mine is Jasmin & I always end up with an 'E' tacked on the end, even by those who have known me for years.
And sometimes, people who want to pronounce it 'Yasmin' (which, I think is another pronounciation?)

[Phteven]

Yep Jasp, I get the difference



Here are a couple of articles about names that I thought were interesting.
I was going to post this one about jobs a month or two ago when it was in the news but I decided against it.
PM - Study finds employers shun minorities
Among the last names surveyed were Rosso, Ferrari and Romano (Italian), Chen, Huang and Chang (Chinese), Kassir and Baghdadi (Middle Eastern) and Tjungarrayi (Indigenous). They were pitted against Anglo-Saxon last names including Abbott, Adams and Johnson.

This article is based on the Freakonomics article about names which basically said that statistically the names that are popular amongst the wealthy and/or educated tend to be popular amongst the poorer and/or less educated about a decade later so the driver behind the cycles of popularity is keeping up with the Joneses. The author has been tracking the Freakonomics predictions for the most popular names of 2015.

This is a Freakonomics article about black names.

OT but if you can get your hands on a copy of Freakonomics read it. You may hate their ideas/conclusions but it's still fascinating

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

I do remember reading that "traditional" names were paid better; variant spellings and made-up names less well.

That's in the UK though: foreign names weren't penalised as much as changing an I for a Y or a C for a K oddly enough.

[Marlene]

Perhaps a sample of names from more affluent suburbs -vs- more rough suburbs might give a similar result.

WOAH!!! So if it's not an affluent suburb it's rough???

Among my recently delivered friends, we have Agnes (Aggie), Emma, Harold (Harry), Ryan, Kate, Caroline and come to think of it...not one ******, ***********, ********-***, ****** or ******-****** (all omitted to save feelings!). Perhaps it says a lot for the social circles I travel in. I won't make any apologies for it.

I have an Ashleigh, Sarah, Mitchell and Jack...all very "ordinary" names. I certainly don't come from an affluent area, and obviously don't travel in your type of "social circles" and I think I just may be very happy about that!

[expat]

Jasp - your point is what everyone needs to keep in mind in this thread. It's not about ethnic names, nor unusual names, it's about the phonemic mangling of what would otherwise be a totally regular and totally nice name.

Saram - I love both of your kids names. My Friend in Sweden named her son Xander about 4 years ago so that one's gone for us! Ariya is very similar to another Indian name, Aaliya, which was one of my best friends in schools name. I've always loved the Sanskrit name Priya for a girl which means 'beloved'. I also love the Slavic name Milan for a boy (emphasis is on MI-lan) but too many people would think I'm naming him after the Italian city!

Maz - I never said you were a dreadful person. There's just the unfortunate fact that many people will judge a person by their name on a resume and put it in the 'NO' pile because they sound 'socially' less suited to the job' My dad had a woman come to interview for the position of dental nurse who had decent qualifications but whose name was Sindy. The fact that her name made her sound like a stripper rather than a medical professional precluded her from employment in a well paid job in a prestigious clinic. Yes, my dad is a fuddy-duddy and very conservative but so are many employers offering worthwhile jobs.

Someone I know named her son Maleek because his father was African. He's now 15 years old and it very well may have the same effect on him in this increasingly Islamophobic society.

I went to Uni with someone who changed her name as soon as she legally could because she wanted to get away from the dippy-hippy name her lovechild parents gave her. She said she always dreamed of a regular name.

In Denmark there is a list of 12,000 approved names you can call your child which includes a comprehensive list of ethnic minority names and is not at all racist. It is published for this exact reason; to stop parents claiming too much creative licence and allow the child to have a decent name. If you want a name that's not on the list, you need to petition the authorities and state a valid reason. If that fails, you can make it their middle name but legally they'll have one of the 12,000. This system stops parents giving their kids names like that NZ couple who wanted to call their son '4-real' and I think it's fair enough. It stops the courts getting clogged when parents want to call their kid 'Jeff the stopsign' or 'whalingboat' or whatever they think sounds fun at the time.

-And Yes, the celeb's can call their kids Tallulah-tuba-monkey, Apple, Prince Michael II....but with wealth comes many freedoms not afforded to you nor me.

[expat]

OK, I'm making back to back replies but I saw that a few more popped in whilst I was putting my son down for the night. Lady Z, you reminded me of an article I read on a study showing the tracking of given names in criminality. It was found that proportionate to the name's representation in society, people with unusual names were more likely to be involved in violent crime both as victims and perpetrators. Now the question is which came 1st? Did the kid get a certain upbringing and exposure because of the name, or did the kid get the name because of the upbringing and exposure of the parents?

[Phteven]

OK, I'm making back to back replies but I saw that a few more popped in whilst I was putting my son down for the night. Lady Z, you reminded me of an article I read on a study showing the tracking of given names in criminality. It was found that proportionate to the name's representation in society, people with unusual names were more likely to be involved in violent crime both as victims and perpetrators. Now the question is which came 1st? Did the kid get a certain upbringing and exposure because of the name, or did the kid get the name because of the upbringing and exposure of the parents?

I'd also wonder how the study defined an unusual name. Lots of people from minority groups have names that are popular within their culture but rare in the broader community. Cultural, social and economic exclusion tend to push people into crime so it may also be a result of broader social forces as well as upbringing and parenting.