Do you find this spelling cre8tiv?

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-11-2004
Do you find this spelling cre8tiv?
6
Mon, 11-15-2004 - 9:34am
All this talk about creative spellings has got me thinking. Now, my 3 y/o dd's name is Alysa (a-LIHS-ah). It is not a made up name or anything, it is actually of Greek origin meaning Princess. Anyway, we did not chose this spelling over Alyssa so my dd would be unique in school. That was the furthest thing from my mind when we chose her name. And I am more than prepared for her to be Alysa D. if necessary once she starts school. We just fell in love with the look of the name and just much preferred it over the spelling Alyssa. It was a personal choice. I don't consider the name to be a creative spelling, what do you guys think?

Janet~

Jaclyn Kay 1/97

Alysa Marie 4/3

Baby Boy EDD 2/24 Kyle Patrick

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-04-2003
Mon, 11-15-2004 - 11:14am
To me there are no such things as creative spellings.. The only thing at the heart of the issue for me is the fact that some of these so called creative spellings are just going to cause the child to have to spell their names a lot. Using your example of Alysa (which I think is beautiful, still being pronounced the same as Alyssa).. How many times is your Alysa going to have to say "Alyssa with one 'S'" or "A-L-Y-S-A" for the folks who in almost every other case have to spell the name A-L-Y-S-S-A?

To me, a name can't be spelled creatively.. creative use of a name is choosing a name that while spelled properly, isn't used much. For example, naming my daughter Jessamine, to me is more creative than naming her Emily, but spelling it Emilee.

Spelling a name differently is neat, as long as the pronunciation of that spelling is intuitive.. I don't have to study it for 10 minutes (or worse, ask) if it's pronounced Emily or Emmie-lee. KWIM? If it's not intuitive.. it's not a creative name, it's an ugly name. (Your Alysa, will have to spell her name for folks, but at least it's pronounced the same.. which'll make it easier for her, verbally). It's different spelling to me, not creative spelling. I sometimes use the phrase "kre8iv spelling" but what I just described above is what I mean by it. I think I'll use the phrase "differently spelled" from now on and point out that it should at least keep the rules of phonics in it's pronunciation! :)

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-24-2004
Mon, 11-15-2004 - 2:08pm
My first impression was that is was a creative spelling of the name Alissa (especially since you chose Jaclyn, a name with lots of spelling options). But not an out there - annoyingly creative spelling (such as Nathanyl or Kamryn). But now that you told us it's the traditional spelling of a totally different name, I don't think of it as creatively spelled, just a special name.

It's very pretty.

kittyhox

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-08-2004
Mon, 11-15-2004 - 3:09pm

I would consider it crea8iv, but not in an annoying way. The same goes for your spelling of Jaclyn. Since Alysa is an

Amy, mom to Nate (9), Calvin (7), and Tobias (4). You can find me at my blogs:

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2003
Mon, 11-15-2004 - 3:47pm
No, I don't consider it a cre8tive spelling.

I DO consider some of the spellings I've seen, i.e. Jaxon, Kyrston, Arayn (pronounce air-in), Saarah (Sara) cre8tive.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-04-2004
Tue, 11-16-2004 - 12:52pm

Hmm, this is interesting, lol! :-) okay, I see "creative" in maybe about 3 different ways:


1. "cre8tiv" is "creative" but in a trendy, or even bizarre way. "Cre8tiv" to me also implies a certain...well, obviousness about trying to be "different". So something like "Khryustyna" would be "cre8tiv".


2. "creative" can also mean just that-- creative. So, the name would be spelled differently, but in a more sophisticated, classy way than a "cre8tiv" name.


3. "alternate spelling"--these, too, can be "creative", which I think is what you did with Alysa. See, I don't recall ever seeing it spelled that way, but you just took OUT one of the letters, so I wouldn't necessarily say it was "creative". I see it more as an alternate spelling, but it's "creative" b/c it's not common.


Does that make sense? Hope so! :-)


Btw, I really like it spelled like that: Alysa! :-)

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-06-2004
Wed, 11-17-2004 - 10:03am
First of all I would like to say that I think your daughter's name is beautiful. I love Jaclyn as well and Kyle too!
I would have probably pronounced it wrong at first though and said A-LISA since there was only 1 s. I did know someone who was named Alissa and pronounced her name A-LISA instead of A-lihs-ah. All in all, I have a niece who is named Sera (pronounced Sarah) it is somewhat confusing for her and she is never able to find anything personalized unless special ordered but it had a special meaning when she was born.
My name is Dana and 30 years ago, no one heard of it and I went through most of my childhood having to correct teachers all the time who insisted on calling me Dannah so even the simplist names sometimes can be difficult!
Hope this email makes you feel better