ext_40652 ([identity profile] ouronlylight.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] babynames2005-10-09 01:20 am

Spellings

On my list of favorite names, there are a number of names that are commonly spelled many different ways. I have favorite spellings for most of them, but then I thought, "What about other people?". And BOOM! Charity came up with another way to spam people with polls. ;)

[Poll #586178]

[identity profile] morphinae.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 11:46 am (UTC)(link)
*faints* Alernate spelling overload. Too many I's, E's..Y's!!!! But seriously, I personally like the normal spellings. I would never want the burden of having to spend my life correcting people from spelling it the most common way. I think I'd kill my mother if she nammed me Gaenyfyr (or something equally horrid) as opposed to Jennifer.

[identity profile] solyma.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:04 pm (UTC)(link)
i think the poll is interesting though, because i know that i may have a different version of 'normal' spellings than others. for instance, the first girl i met named "caitlin" actually spelled it "katelyn". so, to me, that is the 'normal' way to spell it.

[identity profile] buzzy-bee.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:06 pm (UTC)(link)
But, but, but, Katelyn is *nothing like* how you are supposed to pronounce it!

[identity profile] solyma.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
really? how are you supposed to pronounce it? i always thought it was "kate-lynn" ;)

[identity profile] so-there.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I think it's more like cot-leen.

[identity profile] buzzy-bee.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Kat-leen/Kot-leen as Gaeilge.

[identity profile] solyma.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:41 pm (UTC)(link)
hmm. why is it always pronounced kate-lynn then? ;) behindthename.com classifies them as two different ones: http://www.behindthename.com/php/search.php?terms=caitlin&nmd=n&gender=both&operator=or *shrug*

[identity profile] buzzy-bee.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 01:33 pm (UTC)(link)
My views as to why it is mispronounced so frequently would, I suspect, offend.

[identity profile] solyma.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 01:44 pm (UTC)(link)
is it possible they're just 2 different names?

[identity profile] morphinae.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 02:05 pm (UTC)(link)
I went to school with a Caitlin, and she pronounced it "kate-lyn", as have everyone else I've met with the name.

[identity profile] buzzy-bee.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 02:23 pm (UTC)(link)
And whereabouts in Ireland *was* that?

[identity profile] morphinae.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
There's no reason to get snarky, especially to the mod. It just so happens anyone I know with that spelling pronounces it like that. And for your information, I live in South Carolina, where most people are so far from anything Irish it's silly. Most people in New England did the same.

[identity profile] ladyjp.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm Scottish and I know an Irish girl called Caitlin who pronounces it Kate-Lyn!

[identity profile] solyma.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
i think it's possible. i don't know. it's not a big deal to me, though. this is interesting: http://www.livejournal.com/community/baby_names/180894.html?thread=2184094#t2184094

[identity profile] rockstargrrrlie.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 02:41 pm (UTC)(link)
I believe (this is from years of reading baby name books) that Kathleen was the Anglized version of the Gaelic Caitlin...It was the easiest way to get a similar/the same pronouncition, but spelled differently. Eventually, Americans heard the name Caitlin via the poet Dylan Thomas' wife. I'm fairly positive she DID pronunce it "kate-lyn" for whatever reason.

[identity profile] rockstargrrrlie.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 03:08 pm (UTC)(link)
and by "for whatever reason" I mean that I don't know WHY she personally pronounced it Caitlin. I don't know anything about her background or how she got the name, I just know that my best friend Kaitlin is named as such because her mother heard the name growing up when she learned about Dylan Thomas.

[identity profile] krazyhippie.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Agreed. I've only known Kathryns and Katherines. But the two I met this year are both Catherine. Sucks because I spelled it Katherine before knowing, just b/c it seems unusual to spell it that way nowadays, when in reality Catherine should have been the default since that's the original way (I think). But I got so used to the modified spellings.

[identity profile] candicejade.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 11:47 am (UTC)(link)
I like the most common spellings for names, except for when it comes to Katelyn/Caitlyn. I know a girl named Caitlen and i think it looks very pretty.

[identity profile] estrellechica.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm all for traditional spellings, the only exception for me is Kaitlyn, for some reason i love the K spelling. I still like the normal Caitlin spelling too though =)

[identity profile] knightanika.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I love the name Caitlyn and Sarah.

My daughter's name (if and when i have one) will be Anika (NOT Ah-knee-ka Yuck!), Caitlyn :) That way if she doesn't like Anika or Ani, she can go by her middle name or something.

[identity profile] dancing-crazy.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahh. Michaela is one of my absolutely favourite names and its alternate spellings make me cringe. Makayla is seriously just horrible as far as I'm concerned. Sorry. As for the other names, pretty much the same; the most traidtional spelling is always the one that seems best to me, and spelling it differently isn't going to make it any less common. But these are lovely names. I especially like Michaela, Sarah and Connor. Lovely.

[identity profile] elemmennope.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 02:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Aidan (Aiden is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. I just looks wrong.)

Caitlin/Katelyn/Kaitlyn... I'm ok these and maybe a couple other variations. Which is why I would never use this name. TOO many acceptable variations; it would ALWAYS require spelling it out and that's annoying. Forced to choose, I prefer Katelyn probably since it's simple and the original Caitlin isn't really being pronounced right.

Connor only (Conner - one who cons? Not good.)

Michaela only (the others are a bit lacking in class imho)

Haley/Hailey/Hayley (all are fine with me, I prefer Haley though.)

Sara/Sarah (both are fine.)

[identity profile] anystupidname.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 02:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Sarah/Sara
Sarah is prn as you'd expect. (Seh-Ra)
Sara, i've ALWAYS KNOWN to be prn Sa-Ra Which is pretty, but not where you're aiming.

I chose Other for M'iackaieylahaa because I think the child would be better off with the name of Spot. No offence, I just hate that name. With Michaela I thought it was prn Michella (Michelle-a) for some reason. Then when I saw the spellings I worked out what it was going to be.

[identity profile] rockstargrrrlie.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 03:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I hate the name Michaela too...I think it's because I hate the name Michael and I always just want to pronounce it Michael-ah, and then although Mikayla takes that need away, it just looks like someone wanted a name more creative than Kayla so they were like "oh, myyy Kayla! how interesting!!"

Ironically, my name is Michelle which is the female form of Michael.

[identity profile] morphinae.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 04:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I liked it somewhat 10 years ago. Now it's so overused it's insane.

[identity profile] elemmennope.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
I know two people named Sara, one is my sister, where Sara is pronounced exactly like Sarah.

The difference on this I think is regional. I'm speaking of people in the Western U.S. I'm assuming you are elsewhere.

Sara is also pronounced differently when used by Spanish speaking people.

[identity profile] mobilemum.livejournal.com 2005-10-08 05:28 pm (UTC)(link)
Aidan (any other way is wrong IMO, I know this because I'm Irish :-) )

Caitlin (again, the proper Irish way.......but I've met many Katelyn's. This was our middle name pick for our 3rd born had he been a girl. We would have pronounced it Katelyn, even though we know the correct pronunciation when spelt Caitlin is Coy-che-lyn, it was just too harsh and most people now, even here in Ireland pronounce it as Kate Lynn (that got long winded))

Conor (Connor is a surname, and Connors was a surname of lots of rough boys where I grew up, hence the bad connotation for me)

Michaela (I don't mind most of the spellings aside from the ones that don't have i as the 2nd letter, like McKayla or Makala etc)

Sarah (as Sara is rhymes with Lara IMO)


[identity profile] kati-d.livejournal.com 2005-10-09 04:16 am (UTC)(link)
I think for Katelyn you can go anyway you want depending on the middle name. It has to match a flow with the spelling of that and then its PERFECT :)