Unusual spelling of names?

[momrek06]

Try taking a look at the Dublin phone book, and you'll see it plenty.

FWIW, for some Irish families, including mine, the decision to stick with Micheal is a political and cultural statement. It goes back to the era when the British authorities attempted to stamp out the Irish language. In some counties, if you tried to give a child an ethnic Irish name, the registrar of births would refuse to accept the registration, or would just Anglicize the spelling without telling the parent. Many families fought this by using the English version for official purposes but using the Irish version at home, and as many of them were illiterate in English, what no one saw written out would not matter. Since Irish independence in 1937, and the subsequent Irish cultural renaissance, it has become much more common in Ireland to revert to the original transliterated Irish spelling of those names that were once Anglicized by officials. In my parents' generation there were a fair number of Michaels and Patricks and Martins on my family tree, but in my generation the children named for them are all Mícheáls and Padraigs and Máirtíns.

Only problem with THAT is there are NO Dublin phone books here in southern California.

My DS Mike is 25yo …. I volunteered at all his schools from elem to hs and as I said in my post earlier, I never see MichAEl spelled MichEAl. I just never see/saw it. Sure if I was in IRELAND … I am sure there would be thousands.

Oh and one of his good friends is Padraig … let me tell you ALL THROUGH SCHOOL … no one could say Padriag's name correctly OR if someone was attempting to read his name, they never ever got the pronouciation correct. I actually felt badly for Padraig as everyone struggled with his name.

 

[NotUrsula]

This being 2012, the Eircom phone directory is available online.

Some of us are bilingual and have family in both countries, and like I said, for some of us the political aspects of a name matter. My parents had recently immigrated when I was born, and they decided to split the difference on my name, Americanizing the spelling of my first name but leaving the Irish language spelling of my middle name. I can tell you that having the Americanized spelling doesn't help at all; it is still mispronounced all over the place.

 

[SaraJayne]

Around here, everyone specifies 'with an h' or just 'I'm Jewish' as then you know it has an 'h'.

No h here...and it really annoys me when my name is spelled wrong.

 

[SaraJayne]

My husband used to work with 2 Sarahs. One with an H and one without. The one without was always referred to as Sara no H.

Yeah, that's how I spell my name, too. "Sara, no h."

 

[design_mom]

Oh and one of his good friends is Padraig … let me tell you ALL THROUGH SCHOOL … no one could say Padriag's name correctly OR if someone was attempting to read his name, they never ever got the pronouciation correct. I actually felt badly for Padraig as everyone struggled with his name.

I had a Padraig in my elementary school, and in high school we added a Padraic and several Patricks. But it was a Catholic school (lots of Irish names, lots of Italian names, etc.) so people got used to the spellings/pronunciations.

 

[stargazer2892]

My full name is Breanne sounds exactly how it is written, not Brionna, Brianna, Brieanna, Brinne,, or any of the 15 different ways of spelling it. For that reason I never bother to correct people as to the proper pronunciation I go by Bre and that is what I tell people. Now that my name is Breanne Brennan it is actually pronounced correctly more then not and the looks on peoples faces is priceless when they have to do a double or triple take on it. DH has a somewhat unusual name as well, it is more of an Irish name, Duane. He has always gotten flack over the fact its not spelled Dwayne and he is (not to be racist, it's the reaction he gets) Caucasian. Growing up it bothered both of us that we never had the personalized cups, pencils, placemate ect. that other kids did and with that in mind we named our son not a super common name but its not obscure Connor.

 

[momrek06]

I had a Padraig in my elementary school, and in high school we added a Padraic and several Patricks. But it was a Catholic school (lots of Irish names, lots of Italian names, etc.) so people got used to the spellings/pronunciations.

My DS' went to Catholic their whole life but there are always new students or new parents coming and going AS WELL AS the fact there was a Church attached to the school. My DS' and Padraig and many of the students were all Altar Servers … I saw all.of.the.time students as well as adults struggle with his name. No one got used to it. I actually questioned MY pronouciation of his name when we first meet him as a youngster. And on the flip side … there were tons of Patricks. Like I said before I felt badly for him as no one could say his name PROPERLY when first meeting him.

 

[blana]

Really? That's a totally new one on me. I've never heard of a Jewish Sarah who spelled it without an 'h.' Have heard of non-Jews who use the 'h' but not the other way round. Did she like, convert? Heh.

Well, she did convert, but she converted FROM Judaism to Christianity. She's of Jewish descent.

 

[vttkdmom]

I met a child the other day here at my workplace. Her name was spelled "Aunestie"

I stumbled thru pronouncing it and mom got a bit huffy and told me her name was Honesty, as if I was the one who was an idiot.... Jeesh...

 

[Sorsha]

My DD18 has a very dear friend named Lief. His family is very Nordic.

Anyhow, one day, being curious, I asked him why his name was spelled L-I-E-F rather than L-E-I-F, as would be traditional.

He said that when he was born, his mom had had a really hard labor, and was whacked out on drugs from the birth. She filled out the birth certificate and had a DUH moment and couldn't remember how to spell it - all she could remember was the "I before E" rule. No one bothered to correct her, so that's how it stayed.

 

[honeydiane1953]

how would you spell the two girls names Skye or Sky Payton or Peyton?????

 

[Sorsha]

how would you spell the two girls names Skye or Sky Payton or Peyton?????

Skye: IMHO the "sky" is the big blue thing above our heads, Skye is a name. BTW I went to school with a Skye and he was a boy. He had a brother named Storm.

Payton = girl (my DD9 has a friend named Payton)
Peyton = boy. Not sure why it strikes me that way, it just does.

 

[Bounce_Tigger]

In high school I had an friend named Sara. We joking referred to her as Sarax because everytime someone mistakenly added the h she would cross it out.

Interesting that someone referred to Sarah as "the Jewish way" because Sara was Israeli.

 

[honeydiane1953]

Ty u soo much. I told my GF to spell her child Skye and she got all upset and used Sky. As for Payton and Peyton ty I agree 100%%%!

 

[PigletsPal2]

2 years ago, my 90 year old grandmother wanted me to help her get her birth certificate corrected.

In the 1970s she had her brother request her birth certificate for her that she had never had. (Their mother had died when my grandmother was 9 years old and their father died in the 1960s.) On the birth certificate it had a middle name that she never knew and it was probably misspelled!

When the dr. had filed her birth record with the state 90 years earlier, his handwriting was illegible and the official name picked up was weird. My grandmother never even knew that name as she always went by her baptismal name as a middle name.

I am a genealogy buff and think the middle name should have been her grandmother's name. A common name at the time.

Here's the kicker. To change the name, the state wanted a statement from the doctor, her parent's, or someone who knew her from birth!! She's 90 years old--there's no one left!! So finally with some of her legal documents marriage license, baptismal certificate and a notarized statement the state changed her official middle name to the one she went by all those years.

It's too bad that she was given such a hard time about fixing her birth certificate. I'm guessing she wasn't in MD at the time.

When my 84-y.o. aunt was to accompany us on an overseas assignment, my DH took her to Baltimore to get a copy of her birth certificate so she could get her very first passport. When she got her copy, there were no first or middle names listed! It just said Baby Girl Lastname. The clerk told her she could pick any name she wanted on her birth certificate, but Auntie decided that since all her other official documents for the past 84 years said "Mary Alice Lastname" she would just stick with Mary Alice.

Queen Colleen

 

[cepmom]

how would you spell the two girls names Skye or Sky Payton or Peyton?????

My DD is Peyton...when I was choosing her name, I had never heard the name around here and I had never heard of Peyton Manning. I like they way it looks better than Payton, just a personal preference I guess.

Also, some cross gender type names are either male or female to me and Peyton is a girl name not a boys name (to me) so it doesn't occur to me that spelling it this way is the male version.

 

[design_mom]

how would you spell the two girls names Skye or Sky Payton or Peyton?????

I had a friend named Sky, but I think Skye is more obviously a name.

(When we went to college, Sky lived in a quad-room in a dorm. The girls in the room were named Autumn, Summer, Sunny, and Sky. None of them knew each other before they moved in. Everyone, including them, thought it can't be coincidence and that someone in the Residential Hall office had a nice laugh.)

I think Payton/Peyton can go either way (at least here. There was a thread recently about the different pronunciations of marry/merry. LOL!)

 

[Janepod]

I have only ever seen the girl version as Peyton. Never Payton.

Peyton List (both of them.) Peyton Hughes. Peyton the character Rebecca deMornay played in one of those 80s movies. Peyton from One Tree Hill. Etc.

 

[Sorsha]

My DD is Peyton...when I was choosing her name, I had never heard the name around here and I had never heard of Peyton Manning. I like they way it looks better than Payton, just a personal preference I guess.

Also, some cross gender type names are either male or female to me and Peyton is a girl name not a boys name (to me) so it doesn't occur to me that spelling it this way is the male version.

I this it has to do with if someone (my DH in this case) is a Huge Football Fanatic, in which case "Peyton" is always associated (for me anyway) with "Peyton Manning".

Also, as I said, my DD has a small pigtailed female friend named "Payton" which is the only reason I associate it with a girl's name at all.

I agree, if you didn't know who Payton Manning is, and had never seen the name before, there's no reason to assume one spelling or the other is more male/female.

 

[MissMichigan]

I have one of those names that can be spelled a lot of different ways. I'm and Elyse, but have seen it is Elise, Alise, and Alyse. I've pretty much never had anything with my name on it, because everything always has the Elise spelling (to be fair, that is the more traditional spelling.)

I always have to spell it out for people. Well, actually, they will say to me "elIse?" and I say no, it's a Y. On the weird side...it gets pronounced wrong ALL THE TIME. I cannot tell you how many times i've had someone call me Elsie. Not really sure how you get the pronunciation el-see out the letters e-l-y-s-e.

I don't understand all these "unique" and "cre8tive" names. I don't know if it's a generational thing or what. Obviously, as a few people have mentioned in this thread, sometimes a mistake is made on the birth certificate. That's one thing, and understandable. But most of them are just intentional...and I do think it's mean to the child. I like slightly unique names, like Fiona, but that is at least how I would spell it. Not like...Phy'ohnnnn'aah.