Time for baby naming advice: spelling counts edition.
Yup, after a quiet summer, Abby Answers: Your Most Pressing Baby Naming Dilemmas, Resolved is back! We’re talking about the decisions that vex parents during the naming process. They’re the ones debated on baby naming forums, discussed around the kitchen table, argued over text with our friends.
Today we’re talking about a favorite of mine: now that you’ve found a favorite name, how should you spell it?
Confession: I used to be one of those spell-it-right types. But the more I learned about all things onomastic, the more I realized a hard truth: there’s really no such thing as a correct spelling for the overwhelming majority of names.
If you’re like me, I’m guessing there are a few quirky spellings that speak to you, even if you know they might prove confusing in real life. (What are mine, you ask? I’ve long loved Alicyn, and lately I’m all about Xoë. Yes, with the accent.)
All of that means that I think there are good reasons to choose non-standard, slightly outside the mainstream spellings. And I think it’s pretty tough to argue that there are correct and unchanging spellings that must be used!
