New Mom Admits That She's Angry At Family Members Who Continue To 'Misspell' Her Baby's Name — 'The Name Itself Isn't Particularly Unusual'
Some people agree that it is rude to spell someone's name incorrectly, however others pointed out that it was likely an honest mistake.
Mumsnet / Nina Buday via Shutterstock A mother took to the internet to vent her frustrations over several of her family members and friends misspelling her newborn’s name on cards and in text messages.
Some people agree that it is disrespectful of the woman’s family and friends not to take the time to spell the baby’s name correctly. However, others believe that it is just a simple mistake and that they do not have ill intentions.
The mother admits that she’s ‘pissed off’ that family members and friends continue to misspell her newborn’s ‘popular’ name.
Sharing her story to the UK-based parenting forum Mumsnet, the new mother revealed that her baby’s name can be spelled in several different ways. While she does not disclose what the infant’s actual name is, she claims that the spelling of their name is the "original" way it was spelled and that it is the "second-most popular spelling use" in the U.K.
“Think Isabelle versus Isabel for example,” the mother uses as a reference. “It’s not a made-up or unknown spelling and is completely phonetic.” She adds that the baby’s name itself is not “particularly unusual.”
Photo: Shutterstock / wavebreakmedia
After making a birth announcement to her friends and family, the woman’s loved ones began sending cards and gifts for the new baby. However, she could not look past the fact that many of them had misspelled the baby’s name in the cards.
“Over half of our new baby cards are spelled wrong,” she wrote. The mother had also text messaged photos of her child to some people along with the baby's name spelled correctly, and some of them responded congratulating her, telling her that her baby is beautiful while misspelling their name.
The woman claims that she anticipated people to spell her child’s name incorrectly, although she expected those who she had sent messages to that included the name, to be able to spell it the right way. “I sort of expected people might be able to read what I’d written and spell it right the moment they were told the name,” she wrote.
While acknowledging that it could possibly be the result of her postpartum hormones, the mother asks other forum users if she is acting unreasonably by being upset with those friends and family members who misspelled her baby’s name in the cards addressed to them.
Some people agreed with the woman, believing that it was rude that her family and friends did not bother checking if the baby’s name was spelled correctly before sending a card.
“It’s not unreasonable to expect people to read the name you've spelled and spell it properly,” one user commented. “It’s rude, but people are stupid and lazy,” another user wrote.
Other users believed that the people who misspelled the name simply made an honest mistake and that there was no reason for the woman to be upset.
They pointed out that those who spelled her baby’s name incorrectly most likely did not do it on purpose or with ill intent. They also encouraged the woman to get used to it happening since there were various ways the name could be spelled, according to her.
“I think you are just going to have to get used to it, it's an easy mistake,” one user wrote. “Maybe think yourself lucky that people are taking the time and trouble to send you a card, a spelling error with a name really isn't THAT important,” another user noted.
Some commenters revealed that they too had names that had a variation of spelling and that their names were often misspelled by people by mistake. “I am 40 and still get this with my name. People just don't care about other people's names, to be honest. Don't let it get to you too much!” one user shared.
It is common for names to have multiple ways of spelling. Even if the woman was offended by people misspelling her baby’s name on cards and in text messages, there is a high probability that it was just an oversight and they were not going out of their way to purposely spell the name incorrectly.
Research shows unique baby names can affect your child's future.
A 1948 study in the Journal of Social Psychology studied the names of over 3,300 recent graduates, finding that unique names often "had a negative psychological effect on its bearer."
"The men with unusual names, the study found, were more likely to have flunked out or to have exhibited symptoms of psychological neurosis than those with more common names," Maria Konnikova wrote in a 2013 New Yorker article "Why Your Name Matters."
That said, it's every parent's right to name their child however they want, whether that be a name with cultural significance or a unique name designed to have your kid stand out.
"It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy that begins with an unusual name and ultimately leads to unconventional or creative thinking," professor and author of "Drunk Tank Pink: And Other Unexpected Forces That Shape How We Think, Feel, and Behave" Adam Alter has said. "When you think of yourself as different, you might in turn think and behave differently."
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.