Another Spotlighter

[orange-poptart.livejournal.com]

I'm sure you guys are sick of people only coming here because it was spotlighted, eh?

I have a kind of pointless question about the spelling of my daughter's name. She's 5 weeks old currently. Ever since I found out I was pregnant (well, even before that, really) I always knew my first little girl would be name Evelynne. I never really found it in a book and I can't really think of any movie or tv or literary characters that gave me the idea for the name, I've just always liked it. And I always thought it was spelled just like that: E-v-e-l-y-n-n-e. I never thought anything about it until I had her and put her name on the birth certificate, and everyone was like "Oh, what a perfect name, but why did you spell it like that?" I was like... "Isn't that how it's spelled?" apparently not. I'm told the 'ne' at the end is superfluous, and that the traditional spelling is E-v-e-l-y-n.

Where did I come up with this spelling and why did I think it was normal? In any case, I like the way it looks better the way I spelled it, but now I'm worried that I've doomed my daughter to a life of correcting everyone who spells her name wrong. I already got some congratulations cards where people spelled it Evelyn. Have any of you seen it spelled the way I spelled it, or did I just make this up without realizing it?

Comments

[behindgrey-eyes.livejournal.com]

Its not totally the same but my mother works in childcare and a friend of hers had a little girl join her nursery and the mother called the little girl "Yivonee". When they filled out the paper work they realised her name was Yvonne and her mother didn't realise that was how it was pronounced XD

I think the spelling you have is nice. I've never seen it like that but it doesn't strike me as weird. Its like the variants of Lynn/e or Ann/e :)

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

I have never heard or read it spelled Evelynne and if I did see it that way, I would honestly jump to the conclusion that it was a made up spelling.

No idea where you thought of that spelling? I've never seen it like that before. Unfortunately, I'm sure she will have to correct a lot of people. But I suppose people with the name Caitlin or Catherine have to be constantly asked how they spell their name?

[orange-poptart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have no clue where I thought up the spelling. I didn't even really think it up, I just honestly thought that was the normal way to spell it :O

[diekatze1.livejournal.com]

My grandmother is a huge fan of Anne of Green Gables. So, she gave Anne as my mother's middle name, and my mom gave my sister Anne as her middle name as well. However, when I was born, I was supposed to be Elizabeth Anne, but my sister told my mom that she knew several Elizabeths, and they hate the name (due to all the associating nicknames, good or bad).

Regardless, my point is that I am ALWAYS correcting people, telling them that there's an E on the end of my name. Either that or they pronounce it Annie.

To OP - I love that spelling, and that is the first time i've seen it. It has so much more finesse than Evelyn.

[orange-poptart.livejournal.com]

Thank you! When I see Evelyn, it just doesn't look right to me. But everyone keeps telling me they've never seen it spelled that way before, so I don't know where I saw it spelled that way!

[turple-purtle.livejournal.com]

I just quote AoGG when I have to give my name "Anne with an 'e'". =) IMO, Ann looks visually unbalanced, just like Jen, I prefer Jenn. lol

I've never come across someone who says Annie for "Anne". That's just odd.

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

my mom's middle name is ann with no E. i always wondered why my grandma spelled it like that. then again, her first name is lynn so she always joked that her mom gave her two middle names and no first name (ya know, since lynn and ann[e] are both common middle names?)


to the orignial poster: i like evelynne. it looks exotic.

[qtshorty1625.livejournal.com]

Anne with an E :)!! I love that series :).

[roxtarrr.livejournal.com]

Yep. I'm a Catherine and every time I say my name I immediately get asked "C or K?" So even with "normal" spellings, there's just some names you will always have to spell out or correct (or learn to pick your spelling battles... ).

[sparklymoon.livejournal.com]

it's not THAT strange, she will just probably have to say "Evelynne, with the -ne!" and it's no big deal. I mean, my name is Sara, and I have to say "Sara, no H" My best friend is Rosanne, and she tells people "Rosanne, with one E"

[orange-poptart.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I figure it's not too odd, I could have given her a super weird name or one that was spelled really bizzare! (one of the nurses at the hospital told me a story about a baby they delivered whose mother named her "La-a" pronounced "La Dash ah".... pronouncing the '-'. Now that's going to confuse everyone- classmates, teachers, even the little girl herself because she's going to think you always pronounce a dash! My kid's name is pretty easy compared to that!)

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

I'm a big believer is going with the most traditional spelling mostly to make the kid's life easier. If I saw Evelynne I would think it's a creative spelling. The -ne is completely superfluous and doesn't change pronunciation, so what's the point really? That being said I really love the name Evelyn so good choice with the name (just not the spelling)!

[orange-poptart.livejournal.com]

I'm big on traditional spellings as well- which is why I don't know how I came up with Evelynne. I thought that was the traditional spelling! And when I look at the word Evelyn, it seems like it's missing something- to me it just doesn't look right because I always thought the normal spelling had the -ne at the end. And I didn't know that Evelyn was the traditional spelling until I spelled the name for the midwife that caught her- and subsequently every nurse, lactation consultant and pediatrician that visited in the next two days said the same thing- "what a pretty name- and oh, you spelled it differently!" I didn't know it was different! :/ Oh well, she'll just have to correct people when they spell it wrong... :(

[allie-sheppard.livejournal.com]

I'm German and here I've seen it spelled Eveline :)

[spaceandclouds.livejournal.com]

Yes, same for Dutch! :)

[arrien.livejournal.com]

I've never seen it spelled the way you spelled it.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

I'm French Canadian and I've seen Evelynne, Evelyne and Eveline. I've never seen any Evelyn in French Canada, so it all depends where you're from I guess.

[sparklymoon.livejournal.com]

I know one Evelyn in Montreal but she's Chilean so I don't know if that counts! ;)

[ghost-light.livejournal.com]

I have seen Evelynne before and always guessed it was either to make it "Eva-LYN" in pronunciation instead of "EV-lyn" or that they were trying to make it look more like a traditional girls name.

[hikerpoet.livejournal.com]

I like it. It is not the kind of wacky unpronounceable creative that makes people giggle behind your back, and it feminizes it, which is good in a way because Evelyn IS officially a unisex name, even though you see it on females more often.
Someone above mentioned the most traditional spelling makes your life easier, but not necessarily. My name is Lindsay (spelled that way) and that is the most traditional way to spell it, and I do very much like having that particular spelling. But I STILL have to spell it for just about everyone precisely because there are so many accepted, reasonably common spellings for it. I won't publicize my last name in the same comment, but it is actually the same thing (not super common nor super rare as a name, but for some reason there are like 6 spellings that are equally popular for it).

[imamaryanne.livejournal.com]

I've never seen it spelled that way, but the name most commonly spelled Lynn can also acceptably be spelled Lyn or Lynne, so I think Evelynne doesn't really look made up.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I've never seen it spelled Evelynne. But misspellings aren't the worst thing that's ever going to happen to anybody. My name is misspelled all the time. Every Katherine/Caitlin/Sara/Anne/Stephen/Jon gets a wrong spelling too.

[doxerssoldout.livejournal.com]

i've never seen evelynne, but it's also not the craziest/most distracting spelling i've ever seen. like other posters have said, i have a common name and people still spell it wrong all the time - i just tell people i'm "christine with a CH."

[gacktyougirl.livejournal.com]

I've seen Evelynne before.

And my name is Allison and even I suffer from name spelling corrections all the time. (One L and an I). Even worse if I try and go by Ally.

[turple-purtle.livejournal.com]

I can't remember coming across Evelynne spelling...but it's not horrible. =) My grandmother's and aunt's first name is Evelyn and neither of them like it, but I do. I think the extra 'ne' gives it a little more elegance.

As others have said, it's not a crazy wacky spelling. I once came across someone who had New Age-y friends and they wanted to name their daughter Jennifer, but not a traditional way. They wanted to spell it, I kid you not: Xien'naisphourx (said "zhen-ay-four"). Poor kid is probably still trying to learn to spell her name.

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

When I look at it, I want to pronounce it "Eve - lynne" not "eh-vuh-lynne."

That said, as far as creative spellings go, we've seen worst. It still looks nice IMO.

[schexyschteve.livejournal.com]

Evelyn in the traditional spelling. I don't think Evelynne is all that terrible though, as far as creative spelling goes.

[avatar-ramika.livejournal.com]

The lead female in The Mummy with Brandon Fraser is named Evalyn, but they called her Evie for short. I've never seen it spelled that way, the way you spell it, before. :\ Sorry.

You've doomed her, poor child. :( I'm not trying to be mean or negative or anything, but it is a fact of life. Everyone who names their child a commonly known name with a common spelling and then switch out letters for other letters that don't go... also doomed to being misspelled. It just happens, nothing to do about it... except spell it right. lol

[mystichik.livejournal.com]

I really love it, I think it's cute.

Also, my name is Jilian, one L, not two. The people who did my birth certificate didn't believe my mom when she told them that and spelled it Jillian, so when I went to kindergarten my Mom had to go in and get my name corrected with the state. Now I have two birth certificates :)

Anyway, as someone who has a name with unique spelling, I'm letting you know that you in no way doomed your child. She will grow up knowing that she is unique and while she will occasionally get frustrated at having to spell her name often, she will ultimately enjoy not having a name similar to everyone else :)

[heyskeleton.livejournal.com]

You haven't doomed your child. It's a different spelling that still makes sense--you could have spelt it Evilyne or named her something silly like Nevaeh...

But honestly, even the most common names with socially accepted spellings are misspelt. If people can come up with another way to spell or pronounce it, they will. My sister's name is Rachael, and she always has to say, "With two As!" My dad's name is Tony and he's gotten Toni before. My name is Kayla, and I always have to tell people that it starts with a K, not a C, or that it's a Y not an E, or even that there isn't a H. Once, I had a guy say to me, "That's an interesting name. How do you pronounce it?" I figured it was pretty straight forward!

[followingwords.livejournal.com]

Even common spellings people mess up. My name is Marie and people call me MariA ALL the time. Sometimes, if I know I'm not going to be around them very long, I don't even bother correcting them.

And let's not even get into the last name. Depending on your last name and/or the name of the person that she'll one day marry, she might spend tons of time correcting people on how to pronounce that (I had to correct constantly for both my maiden AND my married name).

Frankly, I think a name that's hard to pronounce is much more annoying than a name that is spelled weird. I mean, how often do we really spell our first name for someone? I almost never spell my first name but, oh, my last name is spelled nothing like it sounds so I'm constantly having to spell it...

[ghostpassenger.livejournal.com]

Trust me that spelling is fine. I'm sure I've seen it before too.

But with everyone changing spellings of names a new ones becoming common all the time...spellings change.

For example I'm Megan. I get called Mahgen, Meghan, Megen, Magen, Mehgan, Maygen, hell every combination of Megan I've been called.
My best friend is Nicole she gets Nicola/Nikole/Nycole. All the time.
My friend Marie gets Maria, Maurie, Maury, Mayre all the time.
A friend Lindsey gets Lindsay, Lindsy, Lynsy, Lyndsie. Etc

Even simple super common names will get spelled wrong. It won't make her feel bad. She'll probably just think the person who spelled her name like that is an idiot. That's what Nicole and I do.