I generally prefer the ph!
[name_f]Sophia[/name_f] vs. [name_f]Sofia[/name_f] - I like both, and don’t really have a preference.
[name_f]Seraphina[/name_f]
[name_f]Ophelia[/name_f]
[name_f]Stephanie[/name_f]
[name_f]Daphne[/name_f]
[name_f]Sophie[/name_f]
[name_f]Josephine[/name_f]
[name_m]Joseph[/name_m]
[name_m]Stephen[/name_m] vs. [name_m]Stefan[/name_m] - I pronounce these entirely different, so no preference.
[name_m]Christopher[/name_m]
I like the spelling I have been used to. Mostly that’s the ‘ph’ but lately find ‘f’ spelling attractive in some names
[name_f]Sofia[/name_f] over [name_f]Sophia[/name_f] (my mom is [name_f]Zofia[/name_f] but the ‘ph’ is equally lovely
[name_f]Josephine[/name_f] over [name_f]Josefine[/name_f],
Serefina over Serephina –I don’t like the word ‘[name_m]Seraph[/name_m]’ in the name.
[name_m]Joseph[/name_m] over [name_m]Josef[/name_m]- both beautiful and seem different names to me.
[name_f]Stephanie[/name_f] over [name_f]Stefanie[/name_f] –I just caught the Caribbean Sta’phanie with accent on the ‘ph’ syllable recently.
[name_f]Ophelia[/name_f] over [name_f]Ofelia[/name_f]. Definitely, [name_m]Shakespeare[/name_m] would choose wisely.
[name_f]Daphne[/name_f] over [name_f]Dafne[/name_f]- just what I know
[name_m]Stefan[/name_m] over [name_m]Stephen[/name_m] -2 different names – an/ en endings –‘ph’ in both instances.
[name_m]Christopher[/name_m] over Christofer –‘f’ in [name_m]Christoff[/name_m]
[name_f]Raphaelle[/name_f]/a over [name_m]Rafaele[/name_m]/la- yet love [name_f]Rafa[/name_f]
But [name_f]Phillipa[/name_f] sound all new as [name_f]Filipa[/name_f]- I love the F here.
I wield the “Stephen” formal and I have been vouching for the real ambiguity of it for 5 years now because I experience the “STeF-en” pronunciation often and I have found those named with it. I’ve even heard an ambiguity with the “Stephan” spelling even though “STeF-en” is the canon for that but I’ve seen the “F” spellings to be preferred and a lot of people prefer it spelled “Steven” to the “Ph” models due to the real ambiguity.