I'll TELL you what's in a name, mister

[slemslempike]

Poll about spellings, inspired by Anne Shirley's assertion in Anne of Windy Willows/Poplars that "Catherine with a C is smug", causing her bitter colleague Katherine to start writing her name with a C in notes to Anne. Assume that both names would be pronounced the same (they are by me), just which spelling you prefer. I promise no repercussions for q5, I am just curious!

[Poll #1448127]

Also - can't be bothered to edit the poll to put this in - does your name get misspelled often, and does it annoy you?

Comments

[birdsflying]

Yes, my name gets misspelt (and pronounced!) often and it drives me nuts - particularly if it is in a situation where it is already spelt out for them. As a result, I often stick to using Meg, although that does occasionally lead to people deciding that my name is actually Margaret, Peg, Peggy etc.

I am amused by how many of the names I have selected are because people in my family have that spelling and therefore it is The Right Spelling. I am an Anne, my baby sibling is a Graeme, for example.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I want to start calling you Maggie now. Or Magghie, perhaps!

[whatho.livejournal.com]

I think mine are quite arbitrary. As in 'Graeme because that's how Garden spells it'. Though probably I prefer spellings that look a bit Celtic. And etymologically speaking I tend to favour words that preserve the root to words that simplify the spelling 'cause you can deduce more about its origins that way. But otherwise it's quite random.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

I did pick Jon over John purely because of Mr Pertwee, I confess.

[chiasmata]

Hee! You have both my first names in there. Also, when I am not being 'Kate', I am 'Katie' and not 'Katy', thank you very much all the dozens of people who have misspelled it over the years. My supervisor had deep shame because for some reason he thought I was 'Catherine'. Which I'm clearly not.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

My friend Katy is that as a whole name, not a shortening, and she gets properly furious with people who either misspell it or try to give her her "proper" name.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Generally I prefer the more 'normal' spelling of names. If they're equally normal I pick the one with fewer letters.

I'm amazed by how often I'll introduce myself as Alice only to be addressed as Alison five minutes later. It's not like Alice is a made-up name.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I once got Gladys. They were Americans who were baffled by my accent, to be fair.

Normal as in most common, or normal as in looks most right to English eyes?

I'm glad you chose "Jon", I was starting to feel sorry for the no-votes.

[ruudboy.livejournal.com]

My surname is Emanuel which gets mis-spelt all the time. Emmanuel and Emmanuelle are the most common and understandable ones, but people sometimes go mad and come up with things like Emannuel, which is just odd.

Also, mis-spellings of Timothy are getting more common, like Timmothy. Idiots.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I have never seen a multiple "m"ed Timothy. Tim Mothy. How peculiar! Emanuel is a cool surname - my surname is unusual but close to several other more common ones that I am constantly having to correct for. My sister's new surname is Cassell and people keep thinking she's trying to say Castle and correcting her patronisingly.

[morganmuffle]

SARAH AND SARA ARE NOT PRONOUNCED THE SAME THEYA RE TWO ENTIRELY DIFFERENT NAMES!

*coughs*

Except I realise quite a lot of FOOLISH people called their children Sara but pronounced Sarah and I pretty much hate them all. It is a bit of a thing. I don't see why I should have to spell my name out on the phone because people can't pronounce their own names right :P

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Hee! Last summer I sat opposite a woman whose nameplate proclaimed that she was a Sara, and I had to listen out for other people calling her name before I addressed her with anything other than "um, excuse me...". (She was one of the banes of your life, it turns out.)

I always think Sara will be Sahra not Sarah.

[cellardor.livejournal.com]

Yes about my name, it gets variations of Carry (seriously, who spells Carrie like that? Cary I at least understand), Carey, Kerry and a whole other bunch that seem ridiculous to me. Yeah, it does bug me a little.

And I think I prefer Katherine only because of Forever. :)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Kerry and Carrie are really clearly different in my head, but when I try to pronounce them it's quite a minor difference. Carry Carter (in the Abbey Girls) spells Carry like that, and she's a villain.

Oh! I should have done Ralph/Ralf.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I'm interested in my preference for C rather than K in women's names contrasted with my dislike for Marc as an Anglophone spelling. These intuitive things are so often just what we are used to seeing.

Also, i don't think of Jon as a variation on John, but as the short form of Jonathon.

My name getting misspelled and mispronounced a lot. Which mostly I'm OK with as long as people will listen and learn. People who consistantly do it are just being rude (I had a boss who misspelled it in my appraisal document and when I pointed this out he just shrugged.)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I once had someone misspell my name AND give me the wrong title on a library card, and then when I pointed it out say "oh, it's only a library card", as if it wasn't an important thing at all!

I don't know which I prefer out of Katherine and Catherine. I think I prefer Cathy to Kathy, but Katherine. School story people called Catherine tend towards the soppy, though I may be over-extrapolating from Enid Blyton.

[jinxremoving.livejournal.com]

My name gets mispronounced all the time, but rarely misspelled - people frequently ask me how it's spelled rather than take their chances and spell it approximately the only way it could possibly be spelled.

The rare exceptions have been when people decided it must be Nayin (I think this happened once, over the phone) or Niamh (when they've figured out that I'm Irish and they've seen the name Niamh around without knowing how it's pronounced. Marks for trying, I suppose).

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think if I were spelling blind I might have gone for Nain, as something I have seen people being called but not knowing how it's spelt. When you rang me at work last summer my colleague had about three question marks next to your name.

[sollersuk.livejournal.com]

I don't have views on most of those because it depends so much on the background of the person (or rather their parents). Also, with regard to the original bone of contention, you didn't give the option I prefer: Katharine. "Catherine" is most common in the UK, having come via French; "Katharine" is closer to the Greek original, and also the way in which the name of at least one of Henry VIII's wives is spelled on the portrait. "Katherine" looks to me like a clumsy hybrid.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that about Katharine/Catherine. There are other options of that name, I know, but I was keeping it to a choice of two for simplicity.

[antisoppist.livejournal.com]

I once got a Christmas card from someone in my class which was addressed to "Caffrin". (I grew up in Essex).

My children are half Finnish and we considered calling the eldest Joosefiina but thought England would decide we were illiterate if we did.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Ha! I quite like Caffrin. I had a friend called Kathryn, which I also like. I am generally quite in favour of "y"s, as long as they're not overdone.

Is Joosefiina pronounced in a similar way to Josephina? Or with an elongated oooh sound?

[oursin.livejournal.com]

My name gets misspelt even by people who are responding to an email and have the correct spelling in front of them.

And let's not get in to the region of gender confusion...

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think that your name is one of the ones I have a mental blank with, that I always try and double check because I get confused which spelling is meant to be which gender (and of course it's not always used how it was), and then I worry about the e.

[sweet-adelheid.livejournal.com]

My name gets mispelled or mispronounced all the bloomin' time (by which you may guess that it annoys me mightily.

(Also, I do NOT know why I picked Sean over Shaun, as I have spent my whole life agitating against words that are not spelled the way they're said...

... too quote my father's Indian lecturer, "bloody British!")

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I don't think we can blame the British for Sean! Or am I wrong and that's an anglicised spelling of an Irish original too?

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

You missed Rebecca/Rebekah!

I found that quiz quite hard and I'm not sure I answered for how I always feel. I also found it interesting that there were only 2 choices for some names when I think of them having 3 choices, e.g. Isobel/Isabel/Isabelle, Katherine/Kathryn/Catherine or Eleanor/Elenore/Elinor.

So many options you could have had, my mind is just disappearing as I think of more names. I love the spelling of Ruaridh instead of Rory as well.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Not included is not the same as missed! It's a short poll of names that I wondered about, not an exhaustive list. That's the same reason for only two choices, the questions were "which is your favourite of these two spellings" rather than a favourite spelling for that name. Else I might have had Claire/Clare/Clair/Clayre (which I have seen), as well as all the K/Cathe/ari/yn(e)s. I do like all the different variations of names.

I don't see Rebekah very often, do you get it a lot?

[metamorphosa.livejournal.com]

My married name gets misspelled and mispronounced all of the time, and yes, it annoys the hell out of me. Atkin. It's not hard, and I'm *very* careful to over-pronunciate it and yet people still shove random extra letters in. Aitken, Aiken. Atkins. Aitkins..

My maiden name on the other hand never got misspelled or mispronounced once - Kilbane - in the 22 years that I used it.

This is actually a contributory factor to why I'm seriously considering changing my name back.

Also, I would say Sara and Sarah are pronounced differently, and my preference would be Sara, but that might be because my speech (in glass for example) favours 'glas' over 'glahs', so 'ah' is pleasantly more unusual. I did know somebody called Sahra. Not sure what you want to do with that.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

No, Sara can be pronounced in two ways, and especially in Scotland (I think) Sara like Sarah is very common.

That sounds a perfectly sensible reason to change your name!

[daegaer.livejournal.com]

My name is misspelt all the time, including by people who have known me for over 20 years, who sometimes go "Whoops, I'm spelling your name wrong" and who then keep misspelling it! It used to drive me nuts, now I resignedly accept it (and sometimes do a double-take if someone spells it correctly).

[biascut.livejournal.com]

Your name is one of the few that I have a complete mental blank on: in my head, -ie is feminine and -ey is masculine, so I always have to correct myself, and then I wonder whether I had it right the first time around and have corrected it wrong, etc. So I apologise if I'm one of the people who's got it wrong!

[white_hart]

My name doesn't usually get misspelled, just mistaken - people who realise that it's 'Sadie' usually spell it right, but a surprising number of people call me Sophie, Stacey or Sandy instead!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

That is surprising! Do you ever get Zadie?

[sierra-le-oli.livejournal.com]

I've just realised my choice of Katherine and Karl may be out of egoism rather than following Anne's choice, as I'm the owner of a K name. That is, Kimberley with two E's or, Kimberley, L-E-Y. Both friends and family are capable of getting it wrong.

I stopped being annoyed by it when I realised people really couldn't see the second E. There's this reading test where you have to spot the frequency of a particular vowel, which I can't find atm. Anyway, most people fail.

But since moving to the UK, I'm more boggled than annoyed at the bizarre variations on my name. I don't get why this is when French and Dutch people generally get it right.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of K-solidarity! I think I quite like Ks in names, even though I have a C name. Is Kimberley more common in other parts of Europe? I know some Kims in the UK, but no-one who uses Kimberley.

[listersgirl]

Seeing as my name is Rachel, I often get the other option you provided for the poll, or Rachelle. And it's also frequently mispronounced in the French manner (usually by anglophones, oddly). My last name is also extremely common, and also frequently mispelled, which I find kind of amusing.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I taught a Rachelle, and I mispronounced when I first did the register. I had to keep reminding myself not to get fancy when I talked to her.

[iliketea.livejournal.com]

As I look at it, the two Cla(i)res are tied. *amused*

[iliketea.livejournal.com]

I should also add that it is really Seán I would go for. Because otherwise it is a foolishly-spelt name whose pronunciation makes no sense.

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

I HATE when people spell my name Lizzy. Especially if I've already told them it's Lizzie. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME.

But, much worse is when people hear that I'm called Lizzie and then immediately shorten it to Liz. Liz is NOT my name. My passive aggressive response is to immediately shorten their names to the first syllable as well. A guy at work called Lionel calls me Liz, so I call him Li. I suspect the subtlety is lost on him.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I've spent about twenty years trying to train my parents out of calling Peter Pete, so I share your pain and incomprehension. The bizarre thing is that one of my uncles and my father's old business partner are both called Pete, leading to a constant low-level confusion about which Pete they're talking about, so you'd think they'd be grateful not to add another one.

[jinty]

My name's not unusual, but it sometimes gets misspelled - partly me own fault for opting for being a "Jenni" not a "Jenny" (but then there are examples of famous "Jenni"s so I don't think it's particularly hard to get right.

I've had to send stern replies on occasion when someone has misspelled my name in an email, despite the fact that a) they're replying to an email in which my name is correctly spelled and b) my email address is "jenni.scott@...". Bah!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I do have problems with i/y endings of names, but I try to remember to check before sending. When it's just up there in an email address there's no excuse.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I spell my name funny, so I'm not surprised when people get it wrong. People occasionally think it's Evie or Ivy, but I don't mind that, because it's easy to mishear names.

I do mind very much when they extrapolate back to my given name and come up with some other shortening, generally 'Steph'. I don't answer to Steph and I resent the hell out of them assuming that I do, or that I will be charmed by their friendliness and informality in calling me something that I don't answer to. I don't go to Elizabeth Becton levels of nuttiness about this - I mean, if I was her, I'd have let it go after the apology - but it does irk me.

Some cousins of mine have a daughter called Issabelle, which I think is cruelty to consonants as well as children.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Is Issabelle pronounced the same as Isabelle would be? I would automatically hiss that if no-one had told me.

And gosh at Elizabeth Becton. I think shortening without permission is rude, but that really is rather an extended anger.

[zoje-george.livejournal.com]

You've seen my name. You can imagine how it gets spelled. I've ranted long and long on this particular issue. Especially when I've had people cross it out and spell MY NAME they way they THINK it should be spelled: like the Famous Author. And then I get all smug when I tell them that not only is My Name not spelled like that, but they've gone and spelled Famous Author's name wrong as well.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I got confused reading this and wondered who was doing what to your first name! But yes, I can definitely imagine what people do to your surname.

[biascut.livejournal.com]

My first name is nearly un-misspellable by native English speakers. I remember it being misspelled in a Christmas card from a Muslim guy in my class (as "marry"), and I was kind of startled because I'd never seen it misspelled before.

Also, my middle name is Kathryn, and it is clearly much better than any versions with silent Es or As in the middle!

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I like Kathryn as a spelling, but it does seem less common than the more plentifully vowelled versions!

Do you ever get Marie? Or am I confusing it with another name where there's a different pronunciation that baffles me?

Oh, also, entirely unrelated, but I think I've seen you mention somewhere that you do pilates? Do you know if it particularly matters whether or not you breathe in the specific ways? I have discovered that I can either breathe out when I'm meant to OR balance on one foot.