So I was born Amy (A-M-Y). Most people don’t even know that since I have chosen to write my name as A-M-I from about the sixth grade on. Ironically, it was a suggestion from my mom. She decided that we all should switch our names to end with an “i” in order to be different. Different, from 12 years before when she chose the name Ami and thought it was original. It never failed that there were always a few Amy’s in every class or group I joined. So I took the plunge. Kimi, Staci, Ami… mine was really the only one that stuck. Now its never been formally changed and I use the legal spelling everywhere it counts but for all intents and purposes my name is Ami. However, here in lies the problem.

It would be my fate that the baby name JJ and I have gotten attached to is K-LEE (pronunciation) for our first child. And there is no shortage of different spellings to chose from – 34 to be exact – the most variations of any name in 2007. So where I thought the difficult step would be selecting the name, it seems chosing the right spelling could present an even bigger challenge.

Caeley, Cailee, Caileigh, Cailey, Caily, Caylee, Caylei, Cayleigh, Cayley, Caylie, Kaelee, Kaeleigh, Kaeley, Kaeli, Kaelie, Kailee, Kaileigh, Kailey, Kaili, Kailie, Kaily, Kalee, Kalei, Kaleigh, Kayelee, Kayle, Kaylea, Kaylee, Kaylei, Kayleigh, Kayley, Kayli, Kaylie, Kayliegh

Do you go for different? or does that mean your child won’t be able to spell it or worse still everyone else will get it wrong all their life? Or do you go for common and there ends up being several other children with the same name. Worse still – if you go too off the wall then it might never get pronounced correctly. What a dilemna! But this too shall pass…