Calais spelling variations?

Girl Names
1

Hello, I’m due with baby girl #2 in 5 wks. Already have big sister [name_f]Coraline[/name_f] [name_f]Ivy[/name_f] and big brother [name_m]Edmund[/name_m] [name_m]Timothy[/name_m]. One of the names husband and I both really like is “[name_f]Calais[/name_f]” (pronounced “cal-lay”) but I’ve yet to show it to an acquaintance that isn’t familiar with [name_m]French[/name_m] pronunciation and not have it slaughtered :/… So I’m hoping to get some feedback for other possible variations on spelling that would make sense with the pronunciation and still be beautiful! :stuck_out_tongue: Any help is appreciated! Also, we aren’t set on a name yet, so if you have any other suggestions feel free to throw them out there ;). This name is just getting crossed off the possibilities if we can’t find/agree on a better spelling. Thanks!!

3

It’s not bad, but many people will get the prn wrong. If it will not bother you, then use it.

4

Yeah, we know about the stuff going on there right now :(. But my husband visited there about 10 years ago and fell in love with it; this too shall pass. We’ve had some people tell us about Coraline, “you realize there’s a horror movie about your daughter’s name, right??”, but it’s never phased us :P. Some possible alternate spellings we’ve considered are:

Calae
Calay
Caleigh

We were thinking any of the above might be less likely to be slaughtered in America with pronunciation…Thoughts?

5

I’ve always thought [name_f]Calais[/name_f] was a pretty sounding place and it brings to mind more [name_m]Tudor[/name_m]-era connotations for me.

I personally would stick with the original spelling. Anything else seems to cheapen it.

6

I would probably stick to the classic spelling. Of the alternatives I like Calay.

7

I agree with sticking to the original spelling, [name_f]Calais[/name_f].
The alternatives make you want to mispronounce it CALL-ay or CALL-ee instead of ca-[name_m]LAY[/name_m]

8

Please just use the [name_m]French[/name_m]! Since you are using it to honour a place of special significance, changing the spelling makes the whole thing far less meaningful. Your friends will learn to say it properly and take this as an opportunity to educate English-speakers :).

9

My definite favourite is the [name_m]French[/name_m], but if you want to use a spelling variation so that it is unlikely to get mispronounced, then I’d go with Calae.