And then there is my name, spelled correctly if you were in Ireland where my mother was born. I have had some really rude people ask me if my parents couldn't spell, etc. Just because you (the general you, not you specifically) are ignorant of a correct international name spelling does not make it wrong!
Both of our daughters have traditional Irish names to honor both our Irish heritage and my late MIL who was from Ireland. We have had people assume that their names were misspelled and "corrected' them. We just politely inform them of the correct pronunciation or spelling when we feel it's needed. Otherwise we just roll with it. Our girls are fine with it. One goes by a nickname (the first part of her name), the other understands that her name is hard for some to pronounce and goes with the Americanized pronunciation. She's fine with it. Our oldest is Caolyn, pronounced Kay-O-Lynn (
not Carolyn), but will run with Cay-lynn. Our younger daughter is Cairrean, pronounced KI-ren (
not Karen, or Kari Ann), but goes by Cai.
Having lived and taught in predominantly African American communities I have seen my fair share of interesting names. I have had children in my class who's parents purposely chose creative spellings to make them different. I also had one child who's name was misspelled on his birth certificate and therefore on his school records as well. We didn't know until half way into the school year that we had been mispronouncing the child's name until the parents rudely informed us. Silly teachers for not realizing this
. What was worse is that the parents have know this since they received their child's birth certificate and did nothing to correct it. Sadly the child has the same name as his father. You'd think one of them would take the initiative to correct it...
Personally I would not name my child after characters in the bible as we're not religious. Nor would I name my child after a car or destination (Paris, London, Mercedes, Diesel, Orlando, Morocco, etc.). London is cute but too trendy.
The worst may have been Sh**eye (pronounced
Sh**-aye).