We’ve talked about naming cell phones, robot vacuums, bikes, cars, and gnomes. (Also: toaster ovens, fridges, ice machines, plants, in-car navigation systems, mass spectrometers, and microscopes – you name it. Pun intended.)
We’ve explored Q&A’s about our own names.
We’ve debated word pronunciation, grandparent monikers, and quirky colloquialisms.
And yes, I still have more to say about names! (You probably saw that coming, right?)
Two friends have recently – independently – texted me this picture from Brussels:
Back to names. As you can imagine, my own name gets misspelled quite regularly. Honestly, I don’t mind. It’s actually kind of thrilling when someone spells Elisabeth correctly with an “s.” It’s a small victory that tells me they’ve put in extra effort.
But here’s the thing – I don’t always return the favour when it comes to others’ names. With all the experience of having an “unusual” name, you’d think I’d be a pro at remembering tiny nuances, but nope!
- Is it Allison or Alison? (I know three Allisons. Two spell it with two “ll’s” and one with just one.) Glenn – double “n” or just one? (For my friend, it’s a single.) For our friend Stacey – do you add the “e”? (No.)
- Then there are the names where only constant attention can keep you on track. Like Aoife (pronounced ee-fah), Siobhan (is it one “n” or two? I know two Siobhans, and they spell it differently), and the many ways to spell Stephany (Stefany, Stephanie, Stefanie…).
- The first time I e-mailed Kristen, I spelled it Kristan.
- Sarah – should it have an “h”?
- Anne – does it get an “e”? I know people who spell it both ways!
- My husband is John, but I know two “Jon’s”.
- And then there’s Kyria – I knew how to spell it, but I had no idea how to pronounce it. It’s Keer-ee-ah, in case you were wondering.
- I mispronounced Kae’s husband’s name for years. It’s not Eye-ven, it’s Ee-vahn. Oops!
And sometimes I’m just a terrible speller. Like a family we’ve known for years with a son named Isaac. For almost a decade, I addressed every card and gift to “Issac”. No one ever corrected me – so I kept doing it. (Sorry, Isaac!)
Your turn.
- What’s the most unusual way you’ve ever seen your name spelled?
- Do you have any name-related mishaps (spelling or pronunciation) that still make you cringe?
- Are there any names you just can’t seem to get right, no matter how hard you try?
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Grateful Kae
Ha, glad to see Iván made your list!
(It probably would have helped you if I knew how to make the accent mark in WordPress on my computer… I was just able to do it on my phone but never can make it happen on my computer in WP!)
My own full name (Kaelyn) is VERY often misspelled, which is understanding as there are many spellings of my name! So I wouldn’t expect people to know. (Could be Kailyn, Cailyn, Kailin, Kaylin, Kailynn, etc…) Very often I get a “t” added (Katelyn). Or, then, it could be Kaitlin, Caitlin, Kaitlyn, etc…
It really doesn’t bother me though. The only time I raise an eyebrow a little is if I have interacted with someone repeatedly and they have literally seen my name in print many times and they still call me “Katelyn”. But I assume it’s one of those things where their eyes probably just expect it to be Katelyn so they don’t even really realize there’s not actually a “t”? Oh, and I also get called “Kay-LYNN” (emphasis on the 2nd syllable) sometimes, instead of “KAE-lyn”. (I had an elementary school music teacher who called me Kae-LYN for like, 6 years. 
) Eh, it’s fine! Names can be complicated and I know there’s no ill will there so it’s not worth ruffling my feathers over. Lol! 
Grateful Kae
Oh, and I forgot- one that trips me up personally is Mehgan with an h. Or is it Meghan?! I have a coworker with that name (in her case it’s Mehgan) and I swear every time I message her I have to double check my contact list to make sure I’m spelling it right! Ha.
Elisabeth
Oh my goodness, YES! When I was in my project management position I worked with TWO Megans and one was Megan and the other was Meghan and I had to stop and think (hard) every single time I went to write them e-mails.
I still have to stop and think about Isaac, too!
Central Calif. Artist Jana
I know a Megan who pronounces her name MEE-gan. No clue how she spells it.
Elisabeth
The actor who plays Anne of Green Gables (spelled Megan Follows) pronounces her name MEE-gan.
Elisabeth
Yes, the accent would help, but mostly I should have processed the fact he’s from Mexico.
John was born in Portugal and there “John” is actually “João” (zhaw-AWN, with a very nasal awn, where the awn sounds like the “own” in clown).
At least with Elizabeth/Elisabeth, it basically only every gets spelled with one variation. Kaelyn has so many options and since it’s not as common as “Caitlin” I can see how people might wrongly fill in the blanks with a “t”. You’re the first Kaelyn I’ve ever known which I love!
Same! There are some people I have known for literal years and they still spell my name wrong. Just yesterday a colleague wrote me an e-mail apologizing for misspelling my name wrong for years (we don’t interact a lot, but a few times a year). The timing of it made me chuckle with a post all about names today.
Allison Walters
You named the two most common spelling variants of my name. But there is also the difference between I and Y following the L.
I think the oddest way I have seen it spelled was Alicen. Yep, Alice, with the ‘n’ pronounced as a separate syllable.
~===,===,=^•~
Elisabeth
I’ve never seen the Alicen variation but…it makes a lot of sense in terms of sounding it out!
And I forgot all about the “y”. And now that you mention it I have seen – but don’t know – someone that spells it Allyson.
One of the Alison’s I do know (single “l”) goes by Ally to all her friends and family.
mbmom11
I have a common name, so no misspelling mine. However, I named one child Catharine – and no one gets it right on the first try. ( K is used,or an e, or no second a or…many varieties!) And my husband’s last name is Irish like Yeats, and it is never spelled or pronounced correctly.
I had one student I called Don for the better part of a semester; his name was actually Dan. Whoops!
Elisabeth
Years ago, when my kids were in preschool, there was a mom who – somehow??!! – got it in her head my name was Anne. The first time she called me that so enthusiastically I was so shocked I went along with it. And I think, to this day, she still thinks I’m Anne. What always puzzled me was the fact I organized the parent gift for the teachers two Christmases in a row and I very clearly signed my name Elisabeth (and she knew it was me organizing the gift). So I think “Dan” to “Don” doesn’t sound too bad.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it Catharine, before! I had a cousin Kathryn, and so that is the default I always think of in terms of spelling. I’m sure we all bring our own biases to the table in terms of spellings because if we have someone in our family/close network with a name, we likely assume that’s the most common spelling? To me Rebecca is only every Rebecca…so I’m thrown for a loop if I see Rebekah!
Hana
I’m Hana with 4 letters and no one in the history of my life has ever spelled my name right on the first go lol. I’m also a teacher, so I get alllll sorts of fun names to awkwardly try to pronounce on the first day of school. Some jems from this year include: Yoszuef, A’V’ianaa, Dazeriah, Ti’keyvus, Rocio, Hazlee, and Latique. None are pronounced how you might think they would be pronounced
Elisabeth
I was sitting her trying to pronounce all the names you wrote out, and had to chuckle when I got to your qualifying sentence that none of them sound like I’m trying to pronounce them!
I will admit you are the first Hana I’ve seen that isn’t Hannah! I love this exposure to new spelling variants in the comment section
Central Calif. Artist Jana
Hana Banana, when people ask how to spell or pronounce my name, I always say, “It’s Jana, like banana”.
Elisabeth
It really does help to have “sounds like” comparisons!
Birchie
I like to think that I’m good at keeping track of how many L’s are in Alison/Allison, but I’m a disaster with Isaac. My current struggle is that I know a few Lindsay’s, but I work with a Lindsey, and I end up typing her name several times each workday. I used to work with two Joann’s and one Joan, and I still have not recovered. If I ever met a Joanne, I think it would break me.
I have dyslexia with two names, one female and one male. The female name that I have a lot of trouble writing is Denise – without fail I type Densie and have to correct it. The male name that I have trouble with is my husband’s! I’m fine with the nickname, but the full name trips me up. Luckily we are on casual terms, so I don’t have to write his full first name very often.
I would like to start a campaign to make Siobhan a more common name. For whatever reason, I just like it.
Elisabeth
Birchie, I am SO glad I’m not the only one that struggles with Isaac. It’s tricky, right? You have made me feel vindicated for my oversight. (Though, I am a Christian and Isaac is a big character in the Old Testament, so you’d think I would pay attention a bit better??!)
So was Joann pronounced “Joe-n”? My SIL is Johanne (Danish) and it’s pronounced “yo-hannah” and I know a Heide (German) “Hi-duh”. I know someone from the Netherlands that is Hanneke – pronounced like “Hanukkah” the Jewish celebration. And one of my bosses was Joerg (German) and it took me a solid year to get the pronunciation on that correct.
Okay, that fact your husband’s name is tricky for you makes me smile
I’m glad he has a simple nickname.
Jenny
I agree, names are hard! I still get tripped up with Anne/Ann and Stacey/Stacy. My own name seems so simple and straightforward- Jenny. But people ALWAYS misspell it- Jennie, Jenni, Jeni. Starbucks is especially bad- I know they’re notorious for getting names wrong, but my son has a friend named Jenny, and the Starbucks barista once wrote “Yanni” on her cup.
Elisabeth
I would definitely default to Jenny with a “y” so I’ve got your back
Yanni from Jenny is…a long stretch!
Nicole MacPherson
I don’t usually have my name misspelled, but sometimes I will get Nichole. Although once the nail salon wrote my name as Neco, which I chalk up to a language barrier!
Elisabeth
You do have a fairly straightforward name. I’ve never once seen Nichole; I think I’d default to Nickole before using the “h”, but I bet there are more Nicole variants out there than we’d expect!
Colleen Martin
I’m Colleen but I have a friend also named Coleen Martin but just one L. To me that reads Co-leen like colon, where as the extra L makes it like Call-leen. My husband is Philip with only one L (like the Biblical Philip) but almost everyone spells it with two Ls. It would probably be easier if we both just had two Ls or one L in our names!
And yes, you must go to that chocolate shop now!
Elisabeth
Can you imagine? What are the odds of knowing another Col(l)een Martin?! Apparently, 100%.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it spelled with just one “L”.
I didn’t know people spelled Philip with two ll’s???
Kate
I love names and spellings and all things linguistic, so this post and the comments were very fun to read! My full name is Katharine and I love it. I love the K and the double a’s. I guess I’m just partial because it’s my own name! But yes, I always have to specify “with a K” and half the time my name ends up getting spelled with an /e/ instead of a second /a/.
We debated long and hard about the spelling for our daughter’s names, Cecilia (Cecelia) and Elizabeth (Elisabeth, of course). I prefer Elisabeth visually — I think it’s prettier and more elegant. But we decided to go with the traditional spelling of St. Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin.
I *love* Irish names — Aoife, Siobhan, and my absolute favourite name of all time, Saoirse (pronounced “seer-sha”). I had an Irish friend in college whose name was Aodh (pronounced “Ee”). Gaelic phonetics are just so intriguing to me!
It’s usually fairly easy for me to remember the specific spelling of a person’s name (I’m very visual and a misspelled word or name jumps out to my eye). If I ever do find out I’ve misspelled a name I’m absolutely aghast, haha. One name that trips me up in pronunciation is Yvonne. I don’t actually know anybody named Yvonne but if I had to say the name I would waffle between voicing the Y (as “yah-vohn”) or not (as “ih-vohn”). Or maybe both of those are totally wrong?!? I don’t know!!!
mbmom11
I would say that name as Ee-vonne. So who knows?
Elisabeth
Yup. Everyone I know who spells their name Yvonne says it that way.
Kate
Ha!!! Well, obviously both my ideas were wrong and I’m glad I know now in case I ever do come across a Yvonne in real life!
Totally unrelated but how would you pronounce the name Eva? My husband and I had a huge debate about this. The name was a strong contender when we were choosing Victoria’s name but I ultimately nixed it because I thought it would lead to pronunciation confusion. (We would have pronounced it like “Ava”, but at least the US I think the vast majority of people would see “Eva” and pronounce it with a long ee, which is a totally different name and I just didn’t want to do that to her. I’m not sure Nick has totally forgiven me for putting my foot down on this!)
Elisabeth
Okay, this is HILARIOUS, because I just talked about Eva/Ava in the comment section (a response to Jana).
“One of my best friends from university spelled her name Eva, but it was “A-vah” not “Ee-vah”.”
Maybe because she was the first Eva I knew, but I prefer “A-vah” to “Ee-vah” and loved her name. But she was FOREVER frustrated because of course everyone would hear her say her name and assume it was spelled with an “A”. She was named after her mother’s best friend who spelled it Eva, but pronounced it with the “A”.
Elisabeth
I don’t think I knew your name wasn’t “Kate” although I realize it’s almost always short for Katharine. There are MANY ways to spell your name, and I’m sure you’ve seen lots of different variants.
I will admit that I love Elisabeth with an “s” but I think that’s just because it’s all I’ve ever known. Your Elizabeth will rarely have her name misspelled!
Saoirse is such a lovely name but I can’t imagine ANYONE spells it right. I actually know quite a few Yvonne’s!
Lindsay
I get a lot of “creative” spellings: Lynzi, Linzey, Lynsie, etc.
I have so many name-related mishaps. There is a man I have worked with for decades who calls me Linda, even on email trails where my name is in my email address. My mother was a “Leslie” and I get called that by so many people because of the similar musicality… No wonder I grew up being called “Lucy” haha!
Central Calif. Artist Jana
There is a town in my county named Lindsay, known for its olive processing plant. When my best friend from high school had her first daughter, she named her Lindsey. In spite of the spelling variation, I said to her, “Really?? ‘A nice town, a great olive’?” She said no one would think of that in Washington.
Elisabeth
I will admit some of the “creative” spellings would never cross my mind – I just never know if it’s an “a” or an “e”???!!!
I’ve struggled with Mia and Mya. I know two Mia’s – one is “my-ah” and the other is “me-ah”. One of my best friends from university spelled her name Eva, but it was “A-vah” not “Ee-vah”.
Central Calif. Artist Jana
In my era, Lynne was the most popular middle name. I grew up with Kelly Lynn, Kathy Lynn, Jenny Lynn, Diane Lynn, and later met Stacy Lyn, Jodi Lynn, and Nancy Lynn. I was the only one whose middle name was spelled Lynne, which I was informed by a woman much older is the correct female spelling. I dumped it and substituted my former last name when I got married, because it only tells people my age, whereas my maiden name connects me to my dad.
Lindsay
That is so wild – I know the olives, though: People send me pictures of the cans! I was named after Lindsay Wagner, the Bionic Woman; but here in the northeast US, there are many more LindsEys than LindsAys. I tend to introduce myself as “Lindsay with an -ay” but it doesn’t always help haha!
Elisabeth
Yup. I almost always will say: Elisabeth with an “s” when I am giving my name to someone over the phone. And when someone has taken down my e-mail address, even if I’ve told them there is an “s” I always, always check to make sure they have it with an “s”! I won’t get e-mails that go to elizabeth with a “z”.
Elisabeth
I know a lot of people with Lynn as their middle name. It really WAS an era. (One of my sister’s middle names is Lynn, though I’ll have to admit I don’t know if it’s Lynn with an “e”…I don’t think so?)
How wonderful you were able to memorialize your dad by keeping his family name.
Lisa's Yarns
My first name is not prone to misspelling since it’s such a basic name. There are other spellings for it but I rarely encounter them. My last name is very easy to spell but a handful of people transpose the g and n. One is a good friends and Phil has said I need to mess you the spelling of their last name on their Christmas card to get even. Lol. But I just don’t care. When I was going through the process of changing my name at work after I got married, HR also messed up and transposed the g and n. That was a HUGE pain to fix.
Elisabeth
I’m sure there ARE some unique spellings, but I think the default is pretty standardly Lisa!
My last name is golden; NO one every misspells it. My maiden name did get misspelled occasionally and was late in the alphabet, so I was more than happy to get a new last name.
I once had a work-issued e-mail address – requested by my boss – with elizabeth spelled with a “z”…I informed her that would be a problem! She had misspelled my name wrong for years but it didn’t matter because of my e-mail handle, but when it became my name, it was rather important to me to have it spelled correctly.
Diane
My first name sometimes gets spelled with two “n”s. Or I get Diana a lot. Or a pronunciation twist, some people pronounce my name the French way.
My last name used to get spelled wrong all the time. It’s only three letters, but there is a common English last name that sounds the same. (I’m Taiwanese…). But if I ever had to give my last over the phone people would always assume it was the English and spell it that way. It’s an interesting cultural shift that it doesn’t happen as much anymore.
I have a very dear work colleague whose last name I’m ALWAYS spelling wrong. And I’ve worked with her for fifteen years. *face palm*.
I work with a lot of people who come from abroad so I’ve learned to just ask on the first day of rehearsal how to pronounce names. I’ve had singers come up to me and correct my pronunciation, which when you’re paging people over the loudspeaker is very embarrassing to find out you’ve been doing it wrong. I once worked for a company that put out pronunciation guides. That was helpful.
Elisabeth
A pronunciation guide would be so helpful! It’s like a little cheat-sheet.
My son has quite a few unusual names in his class and I always butcher them. He gets so frustrated I can’t remember but they are NOT typical names so it’s tricky for me to recall the correct pronunciation.
Michelle G.
I’m so bad with names – I’ve been embarrassed so many times because I couldn’t remember someone’s name, or called them by the wrong name. I once worked with someone named Earl, and I kept calling him Duke! It was awful, and I’m pretty sure he hated me!
I’m Michelle with two Ls. Some people spell it with one L. There was a lady I knew who spelled it Mychelle, and another who spelled it M’chelle. Those poor ladies.
Elisabeth
Earl and Duke…they both sound like royalty, so how could he be upset with that?
Wow. An APOSTROPHE? No one would EVER spell that right.
J
Julie is pretty basic, but I do occasionally get ‘July’.
You know my daughter’s name is pronounced ‘May-uh’ not ‘My-uh’, but you may laugh when I tell you the people who have mispronounced it: My SISTER Maya (who pronounces it the same way, May-uh), my sister’s mother (Who helped PICK OUT THE NAME) and my sister’s step father (who had nothing to do with the picking of the name, but did help raise my sister and had known her pronunciation for about 50 years). LOL. One of my sisters’ best friends is named Maya and pronounces it My-uh. (She’s the friend of both of my sisters, thus sisters’ instead of sister’s).
Ted has a terrible time giving his name over the phone. He has no accent (I mean, California I guess, but we live in California) but people come up with all kinds of things. Chad, Tad, Chet…my favorite from a take out place during lock down, ‘Ped’. LOL. We laughed thinking of some guy named Ped coming to get his takeout order and discovering that it was gone, some guy named Ted took it.
Elisabeth
July for Julie! Now that’s a first for me.
The irony of who are regular culprits for mispronouncing Maya’s name!
And Ped and his missing takeout order – haha.
Alexandra
I’m endlessly fascinated by names and the different ways to spell even a straightforward name. It get’s even more complicated when the names are not standard English, and you have to figure out pronunciation.
And the amount of times both my names get the misspelt treatment is endless. I’ve been Alexander way too many times, and plenty of Alexandria and Wolf to Woolf, to even Woolfee one time, which cracked me up no end.
As long as my credit card comes with the right spelling I’m happy.
I’ve also been told my signature looks like a work of calligraphy art. Ha! Ha!
Elisabeth
Indeed – as long as everything matches up on official documents, I’m okay with mispellings!
Maria
My whole life people have occasionally confused my name with Marie. Not too surprising! Our oldest has a name that can be spelled with a C or a K at the beginning, and the youngest can have a double letter on her name or not. Our son’s full name only has one English spelling commonly used and far as I know, but the Romanian nickname we use is easily confused with the much more common Italian nickname – the difference is u vs o at the end. Our last name frequently gets misspelled but since it’s very unusual I’m not going to share the exact name online.
It’s similar to Morvulescu and it gets mangled to Morvulascki, Movulescko, etc.
The funnier name thing is that I know a lot of Romanians, Russians, Ukrainians, and Greeks, and there have been several instances where they translate my name into English and call me Mary, presumably assuming that I’m telling them my name is Maria as a nicety to them?
Elisabeth
Ha – that is interesting about the Maria/Mary; you’d find the same thing in Portugal where basically every female is named Maria.
I’ll admit I am so glad my last name is rarely misspelled. And my kids names are pretty easy. It’s just my “s” that I need to watch out for!
Suzanne
Elisabeth, I love this topic. As I have whined about numerous times on my blog, people most often misspell my name as Susan. I can understand Elizabeth vs Elizabeth, or Kristen vs Kristin, because those are variations on the same name… but Susan is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT NAME THAN SUZANNE. * pant! pant! * It makes me crazy.
It’s possible I have shared this with you already (I need to get some new stories!) but once I thought a person I was working with had misspelled her own name… but in fact I just didn’t know it was a legit name! (It was one letter away from a name I was familiar with — like Katlyn vs. Kaitlyn.) I still feel like a complete idiot for looking at her email closing and thinking, Wow, I can’t believe she misspelled her own name. Oh the shame is still fresh!
Elisabeth
And it’s so hard to know how to respond in that instance.
Ha! Yes, I’ve been asked if I recently changed my name, them assuming they’ve been spelling it right with a “z” and I’m “wrong”! So I can understand both sides of the “Wow, I can’t believe she misspelled her own name” situation.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
This is interesting. I think the very many spelling of names is a bit unique to the Americas.
In Europe it is not as varied when it comes to names. However in recent hears and more globalization there is more flexibility and therefore the spellings are more varied. Knowing where a person comes from kinda indicates the spelling – Stefanie is common in Germany. Stephanie is more the French version. Marta – Easter Europa, Martha – Western Europe.
That said there is no different spelling of my name. Yet people don’t get it right. Or let’s say they add letters because they can not fathom I manage to write my name correctly. So….
Stephany
It’s funny; my mom and I were just talking about my name today! I hated it growing up because I could never get anything personalized from any kiosk (like keychains or magnets or whatever), but now I love that spelling and think it looks prettier than the normal “Stephanie.” (No offense to any Stephanie’s in the comments, ha.) People misspell my name all the time and it bothers me a bit, but I know people don’t mean harm. But it means I try really hard to spell people’s names right or apologize if I spell it incorrectly.
The worst part of my name is my last name. It’s hard to pronounce and nobody knows how to spell it. I want to get married to someone with a very simple last name just so I could stop spelling out my last name every time I have to say it out loud, lol.
A lot of people spell my name phonetically, so “Stephine” is common.
Elisabeth
Yes! No kiosk stuff ever. Have you ever noticed how those places sometimes don’t have common names but then have these super obscure names? I always found that bizarre.
My maiden name was a bit trickier to spell (not bad, but I always spelled it out when I gave it to someone). It was also late in the alphabet. I LOVE my married last name. It’s short, easy to spell…and comes earlier in the alphabet. I hated as a kid when things went in alphabetical order because I was often the last person called. ARGH.