Unusual spelling of names?

[Scrappy_Tink]

How would you pronounce this child's name?: "Le-a"

Leah?? NO
Lee - A?? NOPE
Lay - a?? NO
Lei?? Guess again.
This child attends a school in Kansas City, MO.
Her mother is irate because everyone is getting her name wrong.
It's pronounced "Ledasha".
When the mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said,

"The dash don't be silent."

 

[kimblebee]

How would you pronounce this child's name?: "Le-a"

Leah?? NO
Lee - A?? NOPE
Lay - a?? NO
Lei?? Guess again.
This child attends a school in Kansas City, MO.
Her mother is irate because everyone is getting her name wrong.
It's pronounced "Ledasha".
When the mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said,

"The dash don't be silent."

I was wondering when this was going to show up. Lemonjello should be right along too.

 

[NotUrsula]

OP, I knew I had seen "Biehle" somewhere before, and I was correct: on a road sign. It is a very tiny town in Perry County, MO, which was founded in 1876, and named for the usual reason: that was the original postmaster's surname. Biehle actually isn't all that uncommon, it turns out; it's a German surname. Google it and you'll get a fair number of hits. It may well be a family name from somewhere in the young man's family.

Also, just FYI, Micheal is perfectly correct: it's Irish. (Technically it is supposed to be spelled with fadas in it: Mícheál, but these days most people have dropped them because computers make that too complicated to type.) It is pronounced Mee-haul, and we have too many to count in my family.

RE the Chasity travesty; I encountered someone who named his daughter that back in the early seventies. (There are a whole bunch of them around here for some reason.) The story I was told is that they wanted to name the child Chastity (inspired by Chastity Bono, who was a really cute little blond moppet back then), but were convinced by family that Chastity would inspire teasing because of the pronunciation of the second/third syllables, so they dropped the first T on purpose. Even though I've always felt it is kind of squicky to name a girl Chastity, it is one of the "Virtue" names like Charity and Patience, so it's traditional. Chasity, otoh, is just ... odd.

 

[tvguy]

We could start on different pronunciations too, even of last names.

I used to do a lot of announcing of Little League tournaments.......I had a kid on each team with the last name Garcia.
I ALWAYS check with parents in the stands to check pronunciations.......one kid pronounced it GAR-SEE-AH. The other GAR-SHA. Best part, they were cousins, their dads were brothers. Love to know the story there.

And President Carter's Chief of Staff....Hamilton Jordan........pronounced his last name Jur-dan nor Jor-dan......which I hear is not uncommong in the south.

 

[Coconut36]

OP, I knew I had seen "Biehle" somewhere before, and I was correct: on a road sign. It is a very tiny town in Perry County, MO, which was founded in 1876, and named for the usual reason: that was the original postmaster's surname. Biehle actually isn't all that uncommon, it turns out; it's a German surname. Google it and you'll get a fair number of hits. It may well be a family name from somewhere in the young man's family.

Also, just FYI, Micheal is perfectly correct: it's Irish. (Technically it is supposed to be spelled with fadas in it: Mícheál, but these days most people have dropped them because computers make that too complicated to type.) It is pronounced Mee-haul, and we have too many to count in my family.

RE the Chasity travesty; I encountered someone who named his daughter that back in the early seventies. (There are a whole bunch of them around here for some reason.) The story I was told is that they wanted to name the child Chastity (inspired by Chastity Bono, who was a really cute little blond moppet back then), but were convinced by family that Chastity would inspire teasing because of the pronunciation of the second/third syllables, so they dropped the first T on purpose. Even though I've always felt it is kind of squicky to name a girl Chastity, it is one of the "Virtue" names like Charity and Patience, so it's traditional. Chasity, otoh, is just ... odd.

The bold makes a lot of sense and explains why the guy I know is 2nd or 3rd generation with that spelling as I know his background is Irish and likely the name/spelling passed down in the family and the fadas was dropped over time.

 

[momrek06]

Also, just FYI, Micheal is perfectly correct: it's Irish. (Technically it is supposed to be spelled with fadas in it: Mícheál, but these days most people have dropped them because computers make that too complicated to type.) It is pronounced Mee-haul, and we have too many to count in my family.

I am 100% Irish and we named our son MichAEl Patrick. That spelling 'AE' is Hebrew. It was our choice to spell it the Hebrew way and not the Irish way. I can honestly tell you I never see it the EA way.

 

[torinsmom]

I walked into the 3rd grade class next to mine and saw "Autum" written on a name tag. I said to the teacher (my friend) "Oh, you misspelled this girl's name." She raised her eyebrows at me and said, "No, her parents misspelled her name." I know it isn't as crazy as some of the cre8tive spellings out there, but it irks me to no end. Every time I see her name, I am dying to write an "n" on the end.

I was walking by a locker today and saw the name, "Kharisma." Can you imagine that poor child introducing herself?

We have a Karma at our school. I always ask the teacher--"Good karma or bad karma", LOL.

 

[blana]

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

Hmm. I have a friend Sara who is Jewish. No H in her name, though....

 

[Erin1700]

My DD said they are getting a new student in one of her classes and the teacher didn't know how to say her name. Luckily the child (gr 6) was not there yet when the class tried to figure out how her name was pronounced.
It was something like Kuahlya.
Best they could come up with was Kayla.
She starts today so they will find out!

 

[blana]

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.

Dh's grandafather (96), when he was in the service, was required to get his birth certificate. And found out that his parents never officially named him. The name portion of the birth certificate was blank. (The people at the county clerks office assumed it was for a child who died immediately after birth.) Since his parents both died when he was a child, there was no one to vouch for him to allow him to change it. He's very proud of his blank birth certificate....

 

[cornflake]

Hmm. I have a friend Sara who is Jewish. No H in her name, though....

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.

My DD said they are getting a new student in one of her classes and the teacher didn't know how to say her name. Luckily the child (gr 6) was not there yet when the class tried to figure out how her name was pronounced.
It was something like Kuahlya.
Best they could come up with was Kayla.
She starts today so they will find out!

I'm voting for a drunken misspelling of 'Kahlua,' with the added 'y' for extra trendy stupidity.

 

[spacemountainmom]

I walked into the 3rd grade class next to mine and saw "Autum" written on a name tag. I said to the teacher (my friend) "Oh, you misspelled this girl's name." She raised her eyebrows at me and said, "No, her parents misspelled her name." I know it isn't as crazy as some of the cre8tive spellings out there, but it irks me to no end. Every time I see her name, I am dying to write an "n" on the end.

I was walking by a locker today and saw the name, "Kharisma." Can you imagine that poor child introducing herself?

When I worked at the middle school, we had a student named Kharisma. She will be joining me at the high school next year.

I guess my grandma's birth certificate showed her first name as E. She used to joke that she could pick any E name she wanted.

 

[HM]

I did not know that every one was required to have a middle name I thought it was up to the parent

Neither my father or I have a middle name. It was not good back in the 70s when monogramming items was popular and I didn't have enough initials. Getting married solved that problem, as my maiden name is now my middle.

 

[phorsenuf]

You said you want to get a copy of the birth certificate..did you find it online doing a genealogy search and you know for certain it is you? How interesting is that! I wonder if your Mom decided to amend your birth certificate later in life to give you a "full" name of Katherine later on?

It's definitely me. Same date, same hospital, I don't have a common last name either. I asked my dad but he had no clue. I don't think my mom wanted to amend it. She passed away when I was 10 so I can't ask her. Kinda neat though. Curious to see the whole document.

 

[kimmar067]

....MY name's Cgylhnm.....it's pronounced "Kim"

Disclaimer:....it's REALLY spelled CKgylhnm, but I didn't want to confuse anyone....

 

[cornflake]

I thought it was SanDeE*.

 

[khertz]

Oh my gravy, the apostrophes just KILL me. I hate them.

Where I work we see those a lot...We call them "comma to the top."

My favorite story from the ER was they were calling the name of a kid whose name was spelled K'Evan Lastname. They called it every way they could think to pronounce it (Kevin, K-Evahn, K-Evan) and no one came so they kept going down the list. Awhile later a mom comes up asking why they haven't been called yet and they ask her son's name, to which she replies Evan Lastname. The staff starts telling the mom they called the name as all the other pronunciations with the K. The mom snaps back, "His name is EVAN, the K is silent like in knowledge!"

 

[NotUrsula]

I am 100% Irish and we named our son MichAEl Patrick. That spelling 'AE' is Hebrew. It was our choice to spell it the Hebrew way and not the Irish way. I can honestly tell you I never see it the EA way.

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.

 

[Emteach]

My name is Emelie (Emily). Growing up I hated that it was spelled different, no pencils, no special cups nada and quite often got Amelia. Now I like it though It is not the common way of spelling in North America but apparently that is how you spell it in Sweeden!

 

[Green Tea]

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

The only person I know who spells it without an H is Jewish.