Wednesday, July 15, 2009

I really do love my children

I've recently started feeling kinda guilty about our choices of names for our kids. Don't get me wrong, we love the names and we feel we chose the right name for each child, but we didn't exactly make it easy on them.

I think Zachary is the only one that has a semi-common name with a very common spelling. However, there has been a handful of times since he was born that someone has spelled it Zachery (Although, to me, that spelling changes the pronunciation into something silly).

Stephen has to spell his name wherever he goes. Even when people get the "ph" right, sometimes they still misspell it Stephan.

Marc-Adam....well, let's just forget the hyphen for just a second. Even if that was a concept that everyone could understand, the spelling of Marc still throws people off. And people still call him just Marc. Which is weird to me. Add in the hyphen and I wouldn't blame the child if he hated me when he was older.

And poor Evie. Her name is more often mispronounced than pronounced correctly. We've gotten Geneva, Guinevere, Geneve....it's a beautiful name, just not common enough for people to understand.

The problem with giving names that aren't terribly common is that many people have no idea how to pronounce or spell them.

What have I done?

8 comments:

Unknown said...

When I was growing up, people always spelled and pronounced my name wrong. It is pronounced Mary, but I always got called mARee.
I named my son Night, so I guess it didn't scar me too much!

ALISON said...

Who are all these people?! I won't be outrightly rude to unknown strangers here, but I honestly don't think the problem is in how you named your children. So I will agree that the Marc and the hyphen are a little unusual, but every other name you have given your children is completely normal. Sometimes people just don't know...I get some people who default and spell Elizbeth's name with as Elisabeth or even Elizabath (???). So just know its not all you. That's the end of my rant for today. :-)

bj said...

You think "Cait" is going to have an easy time of it? How often have you ~ever~ heard me call her Caitlyn?

And then there is Alex..."Hi! My name is Lance and it is spelled A-L-E-X" ;)

Alli said...

LOL, bj....that's the same thing with my name! I've dealt with that my whole life!

Kate said...

I have a very common first and last name and have people get BOTH wrong. My favorite was Kathaleen Thompson for my actual name: Katherine Thomas. Yeah, that's the same.

Your kids have fabulous names. And if it makes you feel any better, we want to name a female child Gwendolyn. It's a mouthful and no one will be able to spell it. Child abuse? =)

ALISON said...

Okay..so how ironic. I just realized I misspelled my own daughter's name in my comment! LOL! Its really Elizabeth. :-)

Alli said...

Alison~I knew what you meant (but realize others might not have known), and it gave me a small giggle! ;)

Mommy Daisy said...

I think your children have lovely, easy names. The only one I can see as a potential problem is Marc-Adam, but I love the sound of it.

Kate- Oh, I love Gwendolyn. I heard it again the other day and sighed a bit. It might be on my list for a future daughter.

The only problems with our son's name, Zachariah, is that he gets "Zachary" a lot. It's usualy people that think they're being clever and calling him by his full name, because most people just call him Zac. Doesn't matter how often I correct people, they will still do it.

I think it boils down to people not taking the time to pay attention. With all the unusual names out there, these are a piece of cake.