What is she thinking?

[myiris.livejournal.com]

My SO and I have pretty well decided that if our first child is a girl [we're TTC at the moment] then we want to name her Levi. That was until recently. We were on a road trip this weekend and we passed a sign on the highway for a road called Levy [LEH-vee]. She then starts telling me how she only wants to use Levi now if I'd be willing to spell it one of the following ways...brace yourselves.

Leighvi
Leighvai
Leighvy

We got in a seriously heated argument about it that ended in her telling me to take our time spent conceiving to think about it because she wants to reconsider using it if we don't use one of those spellings. And trust me, it was HARD to find a name we agreed on for a girl in the first place. I'm frustrated, and honestly I wanted to pull the car over and rip my hair out. My wife is a smart, very well-educated, sweet and wonderful woman...so what happens to make someone want to mutilate a perfectly good name?

Comments

[summer-mommy.livejournal.com]

Ick. Don't give in. Please. :)

[hwar.livejournal.com]

I suggest you follow the naming policy my husband and I do. Which is, if you don't BOTH agree on the name and spelling, it's out. There are more fish in the sea. I keep my own list of "names I really really love" but most of them are automatically vetoed by my husband. I didn't choose him for his taste in baby names...but since you will have to write and/or say the name of your child about a gazillion times during his/her lifetime, it better be a name you like.

Another thing that worked well for me and my husband...we bickered about baby names a lot when I first got pregnant. We put a moratorium on baby name discussions until after the big ultrasound that revealed gender. It saved us at least 50% of the fights we would have had! Ha ha.

[myiris.livejournal.com]

I keep my own list of "names I really really love" but most of them are automatically vetoed by my husband. I didn't choose him for his taste in baby names...but since you will have to write and/or say the name of your child about a gazillion times during his/her lifetime, it better be a name you like.

I do this too! My list includes names like Atticus, Thatcher, Malachi, Finnegan, Declan, and Sebastian - all vetoed by wifey!! I'm usually the one who's easier to convince even though she likes cutesy names like Kayleigh, Sunnie, McKenzie, borderline trendy and hippie names, etc.

It's true; it's a bit early to put a lot of stock in any one name, but by the time we find out what we're having, which could be in 6 or 7 months or in more like a year, hopefully not more, we want to have our options narrowed down to just a few.

Thanks for the feedback, seriously :)

[hwar.livejournal.com]

Something else I didn't mention...my taste in names changed pretty drastically once I got pregnant and was contemplating naming an actual human. So your wife may change her ideas, and you may change yours as well. That being said, I love to talk about names and I am not pregnant yet either (with our second). So I am not taking my own advice. ;)

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness. Sorry to hear that. Please don't give in to her--NO ONE would ever be able to pronounce the spellings she suggested! I don't know what makes someone want to do that, either!

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I've remembered that you liked the name Levi for a girl (Levi Daisy was a combo, right? I still think it's so pretty), and while I like it for a boy, once you mentioned here I've thought that it would really work.

But what? What? What are those? I think somebody go to her and said "Levi is a boy's name, but Leigh looks feminine, so if you make it Leighvi, people will know it's a girl!" Those are really ugly, they don't look anything like names. If she's dead set on it being one of those...I think it might be better to not use Levi at all. Don't butcher it.

[myiris.livejournal.com]

yes, AWW, you remember. our top names currently are Levi Daisy for a girl, and either Canyon Asher or Nathaniel Asher for a boy. Boys' names are still holding strong [except now she says she'd rather change Canyon to Kenyon, another total veto on my part]. But I guess Levi may be tossed out. I really hope not, but I want us both to be happy. I know we bicker about it because it means so much to both of us, but still RAWRRR! LOL

[myiris.livejournal.com]

Don't worry - it will never, ever, ever happen. I am just sad that our favorite name is out because she wants to butcher it. But I will not waiver on it at all. We know it's a bit early to be thinking names anyway, but we are a same-sex couple with the same overly-common name [amanda] so it's important we really REALLY put effort into finding something we feel passionate about [my parents arbitrarily named me the day I was born :( ]

Anyway, I appreciate the support. She was like, "go ahead and post about it; they won't agree with you." LOL I knew better.

[retrodancekitty.livejournal.com]

Livai could ok, in the sense that it would the correct phonetic transcription of Lee-vy at least in italian and spanish.
Still a bad idea, though.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Why would she do such a thing to a child she presumably loves?

[requiem-morrow.livejournal.com]

I PROMISE that no one will ever, ever, ever mispronounce Levi. The jeans have seen to that. Levi is pop culture fashion history. Its as American as baseball and apple pie. If you go with one of the alts she suggested you take a perfectly good name, from a religious, historical, cultural, etc perspective its a gravy name, and turn it into a trendy mutilation. All the charm and strength of the name will be gone. I will cry. Tell her I will CRY!!!!

[dararachel.livejournal.com]

actually the Hebrew pronunciation is Lay-vee or even Leh-vee. Until recently I never met a Levi pronounced like the jeans!

[requiem-morrow.livejournal.com]

I have to say that is awesome. I love learning new things! The only two Levis I've know were pronounced like the jeans...not named after them mind you. One was an elderly man and one was a teen (his mom wanted a good Bible name that wasn't hugely popular).

[winninghearts.livejournal.com]

Whyyy? Does she think people won't say Levi the right way? Because I promise you, a huge majority of people would look at Leighvai or Leighvy and be TOTALLY confused. But pretty much everyone knows how to say Levi. Or does she just like the way the other ones look?

[myiris.livejournal.com]

She insists that "it looks so much prettier this way!" It has nothing to do with pronounciation. I made the point that it's the same exact name either way, and somehow she sees that as justifying her opinion on the more illiterate adaptations of the name.

[winninghearts.livejournal.com]

It doesn't look prettier, though! It looks like a garbled mess. I mean, I know everyone has their opinions, and maybe I just prefer simplicity, but it can't imagine how that looks pretty to someone. The prettiness of Levi Daisy, to me, is how small and sweet it is, while still sounding really grounded. Leighvai throws all that out.

I hope you guys can come to a consensus.

[aquilinum.livejournal.com]

No, no, it looks HORRENDOUS. WHAT. It looks mismatched, bodged together, and just generally not intuitive.

Levi is recognizable as a name. I am sure everybody who looked at Leighvy would just stare and blink for a second or two before tentatively guessing at what the name is supposed to be.

[thejoysofjess.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry she seems to think "pretty" means "something vomited up a bunch of letters! Look a name!"

[arbus.livejournal.com]

wow. that is sooooo unfortunate for you.

really digging levi daisy!

[myiris.livejournal.com]

thanks! me too :)

[stormqueen280.livejournal.com]

Ew. I'm not into Levi for a girl, but those pronunciations are ridiculous.

Find another name. It might be hard, but it's better than butchering Levi.

[http://users.livejournal.com/__recidivist/]

"Ghvy" and "ghvi" seem like the noise an old goat would make when being sick.

[ladyfuzzums.livejournal.com]

Exactly this. It is those letters smack in the middle that ruin the whole thing IMO.

[loveinacarcrash.livejournal.com]

aww, if my fiance's name wasn't Levi, I would use it for a girl. Levi Daisy sounds so pretty. Leighvi and Leighvai just looks like scrambled letters trying to form a word.

[smallandneedy.livejournal.com]

lolWHUT?
Goodness, those are horrible :| I really hope she changes her mind, because Levi should only be spelled like Levi, imo.

[juniorfan29.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I think Levi is horrendous for a girl no matter how you spell it.

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

Don't. Really, just no.

You're already giving your child a name that's originally a boy's name. Since it's (one of) the only name(s) you could agree on, I say please go ahead and use it on your little girl. I don't think it's bad for a girl at all =).
However, I don't think it would be fair if you'd saddle her with a horrendous spelling on top of that!
If your SO won't budge, maybe you can make it a middle? If she insists?

[getnikkie.livejournal.com]

Although I prefer Levi for a boy, I adore Levi Daisy, but not if it's spelled any other way than L-e-v-i.

[nicholelynn.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I don't like those. Levi or Levy, fine... but not spelled those ways!