I heard some co-workers talk about naming their kid Mason, but the wanted to change the spelling--add an I--to quote "make him stand out". I pointed out that it would make it 'maison', the French word for house. That had very little impact since they weren't really talking to me anyway, but I didn't know whether or not to strangle them or turn them into the Common Sense Police or what.So essentially they're setting up a child and everyone who runs into him for some awkward explaining and, should they run into me, lowered expectations. When I see spellings that are twisted unreasonably far from the expected spelling or worse, spellings that pervert the actual pronunciation, I assume the person is as dumb as the person that named them. I know it's unfair, and I'm easily proven wrong, but considering how easy it is to spell Mason the right way with 5 letters, I have to assume that Maison--6 letters-- got his name because his mom was too dumb to know any better.
So essentially they're setting up a child and everyone who runs into him for some awkward explaining and, should they run into me, lowered expectations. When I see spellings that are twisted unreasonably far from the expected spelling or worse, spellings that pervert the actual pronunciation, I assume the person is as dumb as the person that named them. I know it's unfair, and I'm easily proven wrong, but considering how easy it is to spell Mason the right way with 5 letters, I have to assume that Maison--6 letters-- got his name because his mom was too dumb to know any better.