To Each Their Own

When I was pregnant with Olivia and tossing names around, one of my many aunts suggested that I spell O’s name Alyvia. You know, so it could be even more similar to Alyssa’s name.

I nixed that idea immediately with, “Spelling it that way would make it a completely different name.”

I say O’s name at Oh-Livia, not Ah-livia. So taking away the O and replacing it with and A would have changed the way I pronounced the name.

And honestly, I love that my girls have different initials. I can label something with just and A or an O and everyone in the house knows whose it is. Yes, I’m often too lazy to write all six letters of either girls’ name. (But, let me say right here, you will never, ever see me post something on any sort of social media like, “R sweet lil cat, Orville, caught a mole this morning.” Even I am not too lazy to write out OUR or LITTLE. Just saying.)

I get that there are people who like to be creative when it comes to naming their kids. I knew going in that Olivia was a popular name. I was okay with that. I love her name enough to be willing to overlook the popularity thing. And you know? She’s only ever had one class in which there was another Olivia. That was when she was four and in her very first gymnastics class. So…she’s not so much Olivia L. anyway, though again, I’d decided that if she were, it wasn’t the end of the world.

To be honest, I didn’t understand how changing the spelling of her name would change the popularity the name anyway. I mean, you’re going to pronounce Olivia and Alyvia, or, heaven forbid, Alyvyah (ugh) why bother with the different spelling? They’re still going to have to use a last initial or a nickname to differentiate themselves during verbal interactions at school.

Which brings me to…Knoa. The girls and I were at DQ a few weeks ago. A dude came in to order a cake. He had to say the spelling of his daughter’s name at least five times to two different workers at DQ because it was Raegan. He even laughed and said, “I tried to tell her mom not to spell it that way but she insisted.” Obviously, this guy was used to spelling his daughter’s name a lot.

There was another customer in line who spoke up after the guy was done ordering his cake. She was holding a baby who was probably about a year old. She said, “His name is Noah. It’s spelled with a K.”

I didn’t catch the guy’s expression but it must have been one of confusion because the woman went on, “Knoa. We knew Noah was a popular name, so we wanted to make his more unique.”

Excuse me, how does making your child spell his name for the rest of his life make Knoa sound different from all the other potential Noah’s at school, the park, on the t-ball teams?

I’m sorry, but honestly, I think Knoa is a stupid way to spell Noah. Noah is a lovely name. Knoa…is not.

Sadly, Knoa is not the most unique spelling of a name I’ve ever come across.

I received a thank you note from the mother of one of my daughter’s friends a few years ago. It was sighed, “Eighmey.”

It took me a few minutes to realize this was pronounced, “Amy.”

Why? Why do people do these things to their kids? What is wrong with Noah and Amy? Or even Olivia? All this creativity makes me wish I’d spelled Alyssa’s name Elissa, just to get rid of the Y in the middle of her name. I love her name and Alyssa is a traditional spelling for her name but I kind of hate that she’s tossed in there with all the Aydyns and Alysybyths.

However, all this ranting is fruitless. People don’t ask me my opinion when they are naming their kids. They don’t ask for my thoughts on how to spell their child’s name.

So, I have to accept that this is a To Each Their Own kind of world. Even when it comes to spelling. Which makes me sad.