Dear Abby comes out against uneek spellings

[muliebrity.livejournal.com]

DEAR ABBY: My stepdaughter is pregnant with her third child. We are all excited about the arrival. We were recently told of the baby's name, which is beautiful. My only concern is the way it's being spelled.

The name will be spelled as "Jasiela," although the mother-to-be is pronouncing it "Gisella." Do I need to address the way she's spelling it, for the sake of the child? -- HESITANT IN HITCHCOCK, TEXAS

DEAR HESITANT: Yes. When the little girl gets to school, her classmates and teachers will naturally want to pronounce her name the way it is spelled. And phonetically, "Jasiela" would be pronounced "Jazzy-Ella." It will cause far less confusion if Mom learns the correct spelling for the name she has chosen.

Dear Abby online

I do think it's funny that Abby assumes the mother just doesn't know how to spell it. I think it's more likely that she's trying to be "uneek."

Comments

[mrsduryee.livejournal.com]

That IS funny! I really really like Gisella, so I hope they spell it right.

[corin13.livejournal.com]

I don't mind unique spellngs, but I HATE when it doesn't look the way it sounds. Kids learn to read through phonics, and it would help them a lot if one of the first words they learn to read made sense phonetically.


I never understood why my name had to have an 'i' in it, when the other word that sounded exactly the same didn't have one (page, vs paige). I kept forgetting to put the 'i' in my name til I was in second grade.

[corin13.livejournal.com]

by the way, i know that paige is phonetically correct, i am just saying that when i was an early reader i never understood why different letter combinations were needed to make the same sound.

[screaming--pink.livejournal.com]

The 5 year old little boy Gehrig I nanny for had the same problem with learning to write the H in his name!

[http://users.livejournal.com/---surfacing/]

haha i just read that in the paper and was waiting for it to come up on here!

[septembergrrl.livejournal.com]

Jasiela definitely looks like Ja-zeela or Jazzy-ella. And it's not like there would be 15 Gisellas in the kid's class.


I don't understand uneek spellings.

[sarahrose.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I read her daily, and rarely agree with her.

However - I still can't see how Jasiela is Gisella. I would have NEVER guessed that without reading the pronunciation.

But, ya know, if the mother really wants to - there's nothing to stop her. More power to her. That kid will just have to be resilient, lol.

[museofmyself.livejournal.com]

LOL! Go Abby! ;)

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

I disagree with Abby. Sure Jasiela is horrific but I don't think people should offer their opinions of names/spellings unless asked.
It's not the step-mother's place to tell her step-daughter the spelling is 'wrong' unless the step daughter asked what she thought.

[julieannie.livejournal.com]

And I don't think people should be smoking the crack pipe before naming kids but sadly that's not how it works. People should tell others that the name they chose might be better spelled in another way or the kid will end up on Maury being sent to teens in crisis bootcamp when they learn their mother was just a lazy person who chose not to spell. Then they will move in with stepgrandma and will be comforted by the fact that she tried to save them.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

Oh please
It's a shitty name that she has every right to give her kid.

[quiteoutofplace.livejournal.com]

Haha.

And I completely agree. It's not like trying to be tactful and not telling someone they have something stuck in their teeth. This is a child.

[ashadelic.livejournal.com]

I think it completely depends on the relationship. I wouldnt tell a random stranger I happened into a conversation with that they were choosing to spell a name wrong, but I would tell my friends/sister-in-law/coworker that I thought the name would look better *this* way. I know for a fact my mom would tell me if she didnt like a name I'd chosen or the way I chose to spell it. Granted, it would ultimately be up to me to spell it however I wanted, but nevertheless this is a hard situation to say "absolutely not" about.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

I agree that it depends on the relationship.
I would never tell anyone I know that I didn't like a name they had chosen, I might say to someone I was close to "oh I actually really like John spelled j-o-h-n..."
But when it comes to the Dear Abby article, this is the way I looked at it: if they had a relationship where she felt comfortable telling her step daughter her opinion, and felt her step daughter would want her opinion why would she have to write in and ask Dear Abby what to do?

[space-monkey340.livejournal.com]

Telling someone the name you have picked out is inviting opinions (easy solution is not telling people before you commit to a name). Naming a child is a responsibility and someone should point out that the women is setting her kid up for lifetime battle. While I think people's opinion's should be taken with a grain of salt, they sometimes have a good point.

[miss-tee.livejournal.com]

That's why I wouldn't tell people IRL the name I had planned to give my child.
On the other hand if the parents use the name despite someone's negative comments isn't that person going to feel awkward when the baby is born, knowing what they've said about its name?

[krosp.livejournal.com]

Really, although the whole name is spelled stupidly, the "i" is the only letter that is causing a major problem. I certainly didn't guess that it was meant to be Gisella.

[space-monkey340.livejournal.com]

I spent a few seconds trying to figure out what 'Jasiela' was supposed to be before O moved on and read that it's supposed to be Gisella. I think Abby was trying to be a bit sarcastic and she probably knows that the women was trying to be uneek (if not a little lame).