We have our first baby on the way. My wife and I love the name ‘Violet’, pronounced ‘Vi-let’ but she would like to spell it as ‘Violette’ instead.
I fear that people would pronounce it ‘Vee-o-let’ instead of ‘Vi-let’ and the child would be subject to a lifetime of correcting people. My wife thinks that because we can speak French we know ‘Vee-o-let’ but most people will still say ‘Vi-let’
Thoughts?
Everyone knows how to spell Violet.
Naming her Violette guarantees her a lifetime of correcting how other people spell her name.
I understand wanting to keep it the same.
What even is the motivation behind wanting the odd spelling? To be different?
I would probably pronounce both names the same way but much prefer the standard spelling. Probably bc of the symmetry, three letters each sounding out a syllable.
Way more likely to be pronounced veye-oh-let or veyelet than vee-oh-let if you’re in the US.
I have an RL name that has a common alternate spelling and yes I need to correct people. It’s not really a big deal to me, having to give my name in a way that involves my spelling it out is not an everyday occurrence. When someone mispells it on something like a takeout order it’s fine, I really don’t care.
Honestly, Violet/Violette is really not that bad as far as spelling things differently. Violette is kind of nice, and I’d be happy it wasn’t Vylit or Vyelytte or something worse. If your main concern is that she will have to correct people, I mean… eh. It’s had little to no effect on my life. If your partner feels strongly about it and you go along with it, you will still be doing a lot better than Talula Does The Hula in Hawaii.
Do you want her to be googleable or not? I’m glad I don’t have an uncommon name with an uncommon spelling so I’m not the only one showing up in a search. But maybe that’s something you want for your kid.
This is the only thing I like about my boring-ass real name. You’re more likely to find hundreds of pages about some old CBS executive than me.
I have a name that is uncommon where I live, so a lot of people don’t know how to pronounce it or spell it. And if they do, they will spell it wrong anyway, because I have an uncommon spelling. It’s also a relatively long name, so spelling it out letter for letter is quite annoying and error prone.
I’m used to it though, so I don’t really care. From my experience I would say you are overthinking things. A “lifetime of correcting people” is not really a big deal and it’s worth it to have a cool name.
