Kaitlyn, Caitlin and Kate-Lynne - Baby Names and their Crazy Spellings

  • Added:
    Jan 24, 2013
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    2046
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    481

What is it about parents these days and their habit of naming their children something relatively normal, but then taking all sorts of bizarre liberties with the spelling? It seems like almost every name these days has several variations on its spelling and parents are not content with a simple “Ashley” anymore. It has to be Ashleigh, Ash-lee, Aeschelay or something equally bizarre.

These children will also be subjected to an entire lifetime of having to spell out their name every single time someone asks for it. Most of the time, people will spell the name the most common way so they will have to correct their name on all sorts of documents and name tags. It’s not fun to be the only kid in class who has to suffer the embarrassment of the teacher mispronouncing their name at first roll call every year. It’s not fun to have to spell out your name over and over again to the customer service representative because your moniker resembles a random scattering of Scrabble tiles thrown on the floor.

Another disadvantage of having a difficult to spell baby name is the difficulty that it will cause the child when they start to learn to write. Usually, the first word that a toddler learns to write is their name and if this is a complicated task, it can really leave little ones discouraged. It is simple to learn to write and sound out the letters in “Devon” but if it is spelled “Dheyvn” then you are going to have a lot of explaining to do!

Certainly these well-meaning parents are trying to give their children a name which is unique and interesting, hoping that along with their designer new-born baby clothes these names will help them become more interesting people as they grow up. However, all it is really doing is making it incredibly difficult for their friends and relatives to buy personalised baby clothes for them. (Is Jason spelled with an S or a Z?) In fact, having a strange name can actually distract from the person’s interesting personality, because people they encounter will focus more on their name than who they are. When you have an ordinary name, such as Dave or Robert, the focus is on your personality instead. Every initial conversation that you have with someone will not be spent explaining your name, which gives you more of a chance to let your personality shine instead.

There is nothing wrong with giving your child a simple, conventionally spelled name. Not only will it make personalised baby clothes less of a guessing game, it will save them from a life of people misspelling, commenting on and getting confused by their name.

Have you ever tried to buy personalised baby clothes for a child with a creatively spelled name? Parents might think that they are being original, but are they really doing a favour for their children?
 

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Avril James is a frequent contributor for Nappy Head the well-established and fashion conscious baby clothes and quality kids clothing. She has written many articles on childrens fashion and personalised baby clothes.


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