First I should probably say that I’M not expecting, and hopefully won’t be for a long time!
I love the name [name]Dashiell[/name]…but I hate the way it’s spelled. I always read it as Duh-SHEEL and it just looks wrong to me. I’d even prefer Dashiel, but honestly I like the Dashel spelling the most. I usually hate when people twist spellings around or try to be kr8tive, but I feel like the “[name]Dashiell[/name]” spelling ruins a great name for me. Thoughts?
I love [name]Dashiell[/name]! Honestly, I’ve heard that the proper French pronunciation for [name]Dashiell[/name] is duh-SHEEL, although I much prefer [name]DASH[/name]-uhl. I guess you could respell it as Dashel, but I don’t see the appeal in that at all–I automatically say “da shell”, like “the shell”. I think [name]Dashiell[/name] is probably the best way to go, I’d try to just school myself into saying it right. When I first came across [name]Rhys[/name] I always said it like “rice”, but now it’s instinctively like [name]Reese[/name] for me.
[name]Dashiell[/name] all the way! Dashel just looks very misspelled to me. I would say Dashel as Da-shell as in the shell as well.
The name loses all of its grace and panache if misspelled. Kind of like Feebie.
I think a Dashel would be constantly correcting the spelling of his name since [name]Dashiell[/name] is becoming increasingly familliar to people. But, more than that, I personally find this alternative Dashel spelling unattractive, and I also think (as others have already mentioned) that it might open the way for additional pronunciation confusion.
[name]Dashiell[/name] is so dashing! I would pronounce Dashel like [name]Cashel[/name], and that sounds wrong.
1 Like
I also vote for [name]Dashiell[/name]. Honestly I don’t think it’s that tricky to pronounce. Some people are always going to have problems with pronouncition and might even say [name]Day[/name]-shelle fod Dashel. It’s too hard to predict how people will pronounce so I’d go with the traditional spelling.
After the last [name]Dashiell[/name] thread a long time ago I had a conversation with some friends and on French boards (so I sampled from a decent sized pool lol) and it was decided that the original prn of [name]Dashiell[/name] really can’t be determined because it’s pretty much obsolete but is most likely “de [name]SHELL[/name]” and not “de SHEEL” or however [name]Dashiell[/name] [name]Hammett[/name] said it. So imo your preferred prn is acceptable since the most common one is a misprn.
Semi OT - it’s not likely related to ciel (sky) - not pointing it out because of your comment @ash, just saying in general 
[name]EDIT[/name]: Looking up stuff again, will add any interesting info
I did some research after an old [name]Dashiell[/name] thread and there was a consensus on some boards and with people that [name]Dashiell[/name] should actually be prn more like “de [name]SHELL[/name]” than “de SHEEL” but a misprn has been accepted as correct for so long that imo there is now more than one way to say the name. If I were you I would stick with the [name]Dashiell[/name] spelling but say it the way you want.
We just had a boy and named him Dashel. The more common spelling appears to be [name_m]Dashiell[/name_m], but we were afraid it would be pronounced Da-sheel. Also we thought it looked feminine with the iell. We love the name but already it’s been mispronounced at the doctors office as Da-shell. What are some thoughts on spelling it either of these 3 ways: Dashel vs Daschle vs [name_m]Dashiell[/name_m]? I know it will be mispronounced as its not that common of a name, but wanted to try to cut down on this as much as possible. We want it to be pronounced [name_u]Dash[/name_u]-ul.