Possibly risking offending some, but genuine question.

When I taught, I used to be irritated by a girl whose mother couldn't spell Deborah. (To be fair, the mother probably couldn't read either). The child was called Debra.

Sorry, Deeana! Not sure whether that was my assumption or spellcheck!

BBbevan

Deeanna - my cousin, around 1960, had two boys, Terry and Tony. Teachers (some teachers!) in those days had great trouble restraining themselves from saying and writing Terence and Anthony! On the other hand, more recently, a boy known as Eddie often had his name on exercise books and reports written by his teacher as Edward. He's actually Edmund.
One school had a TA named Sea4th. In the '60s a small Giovanni was told his name was too difficult and he'd be John in school. So many children's names are still mangled. BashaRAT is pronounced BashAHrut, Ajmir is AshMIR not ADGEmir. Even Reception Class pupils are likely to tell an adult how to say their names correctly, all the adult has to do is listen.
One headteacher couldn't seem to grasp that Nanci was spelling her own name correctly. Nanci was a teacher from Wales!!

We had a family in school with a girl called SX and a boy KC . We also had a Brooke Hunt. Which you had to be careful to say !!

My name is boring, many people my age with it and it is spelt the traditional way. I had someone ask me the other day how I spelt my name, she was about my age and had the same name with the same traditional spelling.

when my son and his then partner were discussing baby names for their daughter he liked traditional names ,his partner wanted something "different" result is my grandaughter has a name that can be found in both scandinavia and Australian natives ..now she almost 8 she HATES her name ,says she's the only person in the world with it and she's going to change it as soon as she's old enough.Strangely when I was talking about her to my daughter and her friend she was surprised and delighted to hear her name as she has a friend with the same name .Her friend has always said shes the "only K... in the world" and my grandaughter says the same thing so it was good to be able to tell her theres at least one other.She still wants to change it though ...lol

As an Amie, I'm a little confused. The Aimee variation of the spelling is very common (far more then mine), and really easy to pronounce. Although Amy is the most frequent, this is hardly rare. I think you used a bad example.

Then there's the opposite scenario where a childs' given name is shortened to make a name that is not their given name.

for example my aunt had to speak to teachers several times about insisting on calling my cousin Kim..''Kimberley''

My sister's name is Jackie, but yet another teacher at school would call her Jacqueline...

...and my sisters' son was christened Ben, simply because she didn't want anyone to be able to shorten it... she never expected teachers to lengthen it and insist on calling him Benjamin!!

Nelliemoser, I know of a young man with the resplendent name of Blenheim, as in the battle and Palace. Better still, he has a baby son called Blenheim Junior! They live in a normal semi-detached house, not the stately pile you might be imagining.

On the general topic of odd names, a teacher friend had a Le-ah in her class. The friend assumed it was a different spelling for Leah, but no. It is in fact pronounced LeDASHa.

Growing up I never heard or saw mum's name anywhere until about 5 yrs ago. It's only four letters but it now seems to be spelt in at least four other ways to how mum spelt it.

Don't start me on names. Probably any of you teachers or social workers will have encountered some "interesting" examples.
This stupidity of deliberate spelling names in a really fancy way when the flipping name sounds exactly the same.
This is not just the variations on "Katharines" etc.

I did encounter the name Crimea. I never got to find out the gender of said child.
It gave me an idea naming other children after battles. We have a whole range of possibilites.

Here goes use your imaginations, there are may options. I feel a bout of pure silliness coming on. Get going folks
Sebastapol, Borodino, Agincourt, Bosworth, Hastings, Rourkes drift, Jerico, Culloden, Marston Moor.
Time I went to bed.

Deedaa, your post about obtuse teachers took me back to my first day at Grammar school. Our form teacher was filling in forms with all our details, I was asked for my father`s name, in my case, stepfather, and I told her it was Wilson Charles. She very patiently explained that I should have given his Christian name first, before his surname, it took me ages to finally get through to her that his Christian name WAS Wilson!
My little great grandson`s name is Jaylan, a completely new name to me.

When Callie arrived in my class I pronounced it as it looked until I was told it was Kay Lee.
An awkward one to fit onto the child's individual tray was JayeSavannah (capital S in the middle always there!)

I am with you Phoenix. Apart from the French version of Amy (which I do think is pretty) I have also seen it spelled Aimie, Aimiee, Amie, Aimy, Aymee ... probably just for the sake of being different I think, although sometimes I do wonder of the parents can actually spell! And this is just one example among many of a 'simple' accepted spelling that is played with. My turn to duck ...

A friend of mine since Grammar school days is called Kay. At the start of each school the new teacher would ask us all our names. She would say "Kay" and the teacher would say "Yes dear, but what's your name?" "Kay" Teacher (a little less patiently) "Not the initial dear, what is your name?" "Kay" Teacher (tersely) "Yes dear, but what's your actual name? Katherine? Karen? Katy?" "KAY" With a particularly obtuse teacher this could be spun out for ages

Sorry, I was replying to Elred's post.

It is Ana but this little girl's name was spelt Cicillee.

I thought Cicely was a well-established name...

When I was teaching I had one class with a Kyle,Kylie,Keira and a Caila. Another year I had a Marrianne, Marrionne,Maryam and a Mariella. All of them absolutely delightful children but remembering their names did stretch the little grey cells somewhat!

DGD is called Isobel. There is an Isabel and Isabelle in her class. All are traditional spellings of a traditional name, although hers is the Scottish spelling and the last is French.

What about Catherine?. Even before all today's creative spellings you could spell it Catherine, Katherine and Katharine.

Aimee is the French spelling of Amy and should be pronounced Aimay

I support different names and I don't mind a slight twist to an old name but when they are completely different to the point of ridiculous then I think it's not cute, the poor child having to spell name every single time and then perhaps have to explain origins or get laughed at is just unnecessary. I used to make children's personalised pillowcases so had a variety of names but 15 years ago they weren't as varied as now. The one I do remember was a variation of Jamie (boy) that was Jammie, poor sod must now be 20 and with a host of nicknames. When I was double checking the spelling for the gift the mother had not realised it sounded like Jammy (dodger) but just thought it was funny. Oh well

My sisters daughter is called Aimee , she chose it because it means 'Dearly Loved' or 'Beloved'.

I dislike odd spellings of normal names like Jaxson for Jackson or Xyennah for Sienna .

One of our basset hounds was called Aimee - man's best (female) friend.