So a friend of mine from high school called me a couple days ago, and told me she was having a baby! Being the name enthusiast i have become, i asked about her name possibilities. We started talking about the show 16 and pregnant, in which she said she liked the name [name]Aubrey[/name] [name]Sky[/name] (from last week), and i said “yea but i really disliked how they spelt it, [name]Aubree[/name]” then went on to have a miniature rant about how its not unique because everyone thinking its unique and ends up spelling them the same, so all the Addysons and Mikayula’s end up being [name]Addyson[/name] A. and [name]Addyson[/name] H." and she came back with “No i like them. I want to spell [name]Michael[/name], Mykaell because its unique. I dont want my son to be like anyone else” I about had a heart attack! Thats just horrible and illiterate and wrong! [name]Just[/name] thought i would share, thought you might all enjoy. Comment away! 
I’m not a fan of unique spellings - but i guess its each to their own. Maybe when baby is old enough, they will change their name to the ‘proper’ way of spelling it.
I think it is a shame to change a name spelling to that extent, but then i suppose i have done it to my son, who has the relatively normal name ‘[name]Fintan[/name]’ which everyone spells ‘[name]Finton[/name]’ and he’ll have to spell out his surname too!! Also, I am an [name]Emma[/name], which i sometimes have to spell out because people hear, [name]Anna[/name]! If you’re already having to spell out names, you might aswell be a ‘Mykeal’ or however she spelt it!!
I just can’t get on the whole, unique spelling, bandwagon. I was a 7th grade teacher for 5 years and in those 5 years I came across a lot of hideous spellings. I had one set of twins named LemonJello (pronounced: lee-mon-gee-low) and OrangeJello (or-ang-gee-low). Yes, that is the exact spelling that mom put on the birth certificate. I also had a student whose mother thought she was being creative when she spelled his name ”[name]Colon[/name]” instead of ”[name]Colin[/name]”. Needless to say he was the butt (no pun intended) of a lot of jokes. I was also amazed, and annoyed, at all the different ways the parents decided to spell ”[name]Jasmine[/name]”. In the end, even thought I had 6 Jasmines with 6 different spellings, when I called their names in class they were still ”[name]Jasmine[/name]”. I still had to specify which [name]Jasmine[/name] I was calling on. So in the end it”s not unique just annoying to the child who has to constantly correct people on the spelling of their name.
My own mother decided to be creative when she named my sister ”[name]Hollie[/name]” instead of ”[name]Holly[/name]”. My sister in now in her mid 20”s and still hates the fact that every time she gives her name she has to spell it for the person. If you want a unique name, pick a unique name, not a common name with a strange spelling.
I can’t stand misspelling names!!
Off topic…how does everyone know twins called “LemonJello” and “OrangeJello?” I swear I’ve heard someone say that and read it here a million times. Is it really that popular? Or does everyone know the same set of twins? Lol
[name]Amen[/name]!
It must be semi-common. Which is really terrible and kind of scary! My aunt was a nurse at a high school in [name]Georgia[/name] and there were twins there called Lemonjello and Orangejello… I couldn’t believe it at the time, but I’ve heard lots of people say they know twins with those names… too weird. Why not Cherryjello and Limejello?
The Orangejello/Lemonjello is an old urban legend: Have Babies Been Named After Embarrassing Medical Terms? | Snopes.com
[name]Laura[/name] Wattenberg has done some commentary on this here: Pregnancy, Parenting, Lifestyle, Beauty: Tips & Advice | mom.com
Well my student’s parents must have gotten the names from the old urban legend. Or maybe someone told them the legend and they thought “what cute names” because I swear in 2001 I had two students by those names. I was teaching at a school in [name]Baltimore[/name] City, MD. I didn’t know of someone, who knew of someone else with these names, I saw it in print on my student roster. To think that other people out there actually named their children this is scary. I really, really wish it would have just stayed an [name]Urban[/name] legend…for the sake of these two children at least. But I guess in a world where people name their babies “[name]Pilot[/name] Inspektor” and “[name]Moon[/name] Unit” thinking outside the box just becomes thinking up strange names or spellings.
Mykaell doesn’t even look like [name]Michael[/name] to me. At best it looks like a girls name pronounced My - K - Ill.
I’m so sad that someone would name their kids after Jello flavours.
wai shood ne1 naym there kidz aphtur jelo? im kolin mai baybeez tuna an salmon 8D
[name]Just[/name] kidding. 
Really though, drastically changing the spelling of a name doesn’t change what it is any more than misspelling those words made that sentence more unique than it would have been if I’d ever cracked open a [name]Webster[/name]'s. It just makes a person look illiterate. This coming from someone with a phonetically-spelled name, mind. I’m not some clueless hater.
Calling for an EzaBellah in a sea of Isabellas is not effective, lol. It sounds the same. And writing EzaBellah on a birth certificate just makes it look like you were still hopped up on medication when they gave you the pen.
Oh, that [name]Orange[/name] and [name]Lemon[/name] Jello thing is an [name]Urban[/name] [name]Legend[/name].
My grandpa likes to tell me about the Ware siblings, Tupper and [name]Silver[/name]. Lordy!
But, he seriously did - and still does - know a set of twins, boy and girl, called Soda (G) and [name]Lolly[/name] (B). And, yes, you guessed it, their last name is Pop. Goodness me!
Now I forgot how that [name]Michael[/name] was spelled. Was it Mykaell or something? It looks more like [name]Mikhail[/name] to me, honestly!
[name]Lemon[/name] 
[NOT [name]Lemon[/name] Jello!]
i just dont understand why its “unique” i think thats my main problem. Soon normal spelled names are going to be “unique”, i dont understand why they arnt fine the way they are. If you want something unique. Pick a unique name, check popularity charts where you live, search your family for names. There are so many options with meanings that are just overall better then misspelling a name. It makes me sad that one day i might have to say “no [name]Michael[/name] spelt M-I-C-H-A-E-L not M-Y-K-A-E-L-L” i just want yooneck spellings to go away! D:
This is why I don’t rail against unusual spellings. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to have a name that can be unambiguously spelled or pronounced. My first name isn’t rare and is spelled the usual way, but is often mistaken for completely unrelated names when said. I always have to spell and pronounce my last name anyway. My brother, whereas, has an uncommon first name with a variant spelling and a rare middle with extreme variant spelling and pronunciation. His name would be unusual with the ordinary spellings - and that’s an advantage. He says nobody even tries to spell his name, and likes its uniqueness.
I don’t find unusual spellings look “illiterate”. In most cases, it’s clear the parents know what the common spelling(s) are and are trying to be different. The only ones that actually are misspellings, as far as I can tell, are [name]Kiera[/name] and [name]Neveah[/name]. The first probably comes from people not knowing that [name]Keira[/name] is just said [name]Keera[/name].
I don’t consider names like other words. Each instance of a name is not referring to the same thing, so it doesn’t have to be the same.
Now, variant spellings don’t do much good to make a common name uncommon. I’m fine with people giving them so long as they realize that. Most of the hate I see for unusual spellings comes from self-professed experts, people prone to moralizing about things that aren’t intrinsically matters of morality, and people who just take names too seriously. (Not targeting any of you… individually, anyway.)
This is why I don’t rail against unusual spellings. I don’t think it’s realistic to expect to have a name that can be unambiguously spelled or pronounced. My first name isn’t rare and is spelled the usual way, but is often mistaken for completely unrelated names when said. I always have to spell and pronounce my last name anyway. My brother, whereas, has an uncommon first name with a variant spelling and a rare middle with extreme variant spelling and pronunciation. His name would be unusual with the ordinary spellings - and that’s an advantage. He says nobody even tries to spell his name, and likes its uniqueness.
I don’t find unusual spellings look “illiterate”. In most cases, it’s clear the parents know what the common spelling(s) are and are trying to be different. The only ones that actually are misspellings, as far as I can tell, are [name]Kiera[/name] and [name]Neveah[/name]. The first probably comes from people not knowing that [name]Keira[/name] is just said [name]Keera[/name].
I don’t consider names like other words. Each instance of a name is not referring to the same thing, so it doesn’t have to be the same.
Now, variant spellings don’t do much good to make a common name uncommon. I’m fine with people giving them so long as they realize that. Most of the hate I see for unusual spellings comes from self-professed experts, people prone to moralizing about things that aren’t intrinsically matters of morality, and people who just take names too seriously. (Not targeting any of you… individually, anyway.)[/quote]
I dont believe that a name has to be able to be spelled by every person that crosses it, that is unrealistic. And uniqueness in a name is not bad, i personally do not like misspellings of traditional names, names spelt certain ways for cultural reasons or family reasons is not the type of misspelling i am talking about. I dislike “Mykeall” because it is a highly unethical spelling that is not culturally or family linked to my friend what so ever, and it seems utterly ridiculous to me personally to misspell a name to that degree.
Rare names with odd spellings were not what i was talking about, Mykeall is nothing but a bad mispelling of [name]Michael[/name], not a rare Irish names with deep roots. I have no problem with oddly spelt names as long as they have meaning for the way they are spelt.
Also i never professed myself a name-expert. There are plenty of people on nameberry that have far more name knowledge then i will or will ever claim to have. But i dont believe it takes a name expert to know that Mykeall is not unique because at the end of the day, Mykeall is still [name]Michael[/name], nothing fancy, just plain old [name]Michael[/name]. And [name]Michael[/name] is a name with meaning, i believe Mykeall makes it loose a little bit of its meaning.
Many creative spellings make me wonder about the school system. I’m not a fan of making a name “unique” by changing the spelling, but if one must, she or he should at least follow the rules of English phonics.
I’m all for unique, foreign, unusual names, etc. In fact I grew up with one, but at least my parents translated the Arabic into phonetic English.
[name]Just[/name] a comment on [name]Kiera[/name], since I have one at home. The name ‘[name]Ciara[/name]’ is the proper Irish/Gaelic spelling of ‘[name]Keira[/name]/[name]Kiera[/name]’ i.e. [name]Keira[/name] Knightley. It is pronounced ‘Kee-rah’ the same way. In fact [name]Keira[/name]/[name]Kiera[/name] is the alternative form (and anglo-saxon) spelling of the correct form.
Think [name]Kiernan[/name]
I knew I had read somewhere on this board about twins named orangejello and lemonjello, so I just did a search and sure enough this thread came up.
anyway, my husband brought this up to me and I had to comment and tell everyone what he told me, to verify that its not an urban legend. his co worker was in the airport and asked a woman what her twin girls names were…sure enough she said orangejello and lemonjello…at first he thought those are unique names, then when he was on his flight, he started to wonder how one would spell those names…he wrote them down and was suprised. (sidenote…she didnt pronounce the names as they are written)
anyway just wanted to share that its not an urban legend.
[name]Urban[/name] legends typically are of the ‘my husband’s co-worker met a stranger whose twins were named…’ variety. Nobody has first-hand witness, it cannot be proven, i.e. urban legend.
I know one (very young) mother who named her daughter ‘Female’ - pronounced Femali, because she liked how it looked on the hospital bracelet. But is naming your son ‘Corvid’ like the raven - another child I know - any better? Either way, they’re going to spend the rest of their life explaining themselves. I like unusual names because I want my kids to be proud of their individuality in an increasingly homogenized world - but I feel as though having to explain yourself constantly - to people at the DMV, billing offices, and the takeout counter - is going to produce anything BUT pride and self-confidence.
[name]Do[/name] they teach grammar at school these days?
The impact that yooneek spellings have on me is to stand open mouthed and gasp that people could be so silly as to think they are enhancing a name by misspelling it. It gives impression that the person has no education.
[name]Every[/name] child is unique but giving them a monstrosity of a name does not help them at all. I refer to those parents who take a name like [name]Michael[/name] and ruin it by the way they spell it.