Today just now, I looked up the origin of
Rachael and saw that it was a variant "probably based on the spelling of
Michael." Somehow I missed that before.
For this reason alone I prefer it. It's got an extra letter thrown in just for looks, the pronunciation doesn't even really make sense because if it were like
Michael it'd be Ray-kul not Ray-chul -- and it became frequent and normal enough like that, and is appealing enough still, that people are still asking which one is better! That makes it more interesting.
I actually think
Rachael looks more interesting and cooler, so I like it more. But
Rachel is nice, and I often spell
Rachel automatically and forget that there is a name
Rachael so it's not a strong preference.
- mirfakThis message was edited 4/2/2016, 4:50 PM