When it comes to baby names, there’s a fine line between unique and incomprehensible.
It’s no mean feat trying to balance what you want to call your child with how it could affect their life; after all, no one wants their little one to be pigeonholed as a result of a name you chose.
But alongside whether the moniker is shared by controversial figures or could lead to playground bullying, it’s worth considering how difficult your choice is to spell or pronounce (and we don’t mean names from other cultures that ignorant people refuse to get right).
Instead, we’re talking about parents who are so desperate to be different they make something up, prioritising originality over practicality for their children — because although X Æ A-Xii Musk may do just fine with his purposely eccentric name, others grow up having to constantly correct those around them, counting down the days until they can change it by deed poll.
On Reddit, the Tragedeigh thread is dedicated to names that are ‘deliberately misspelled or completely made up to appear more unique’ than they actually are. And one recent post in particular is catching attention.
User dudebronahbrah shared a post captioned: ‘Thought you all might enjoy this quick snap of the board outside my kid’s kindergarten class.’
Featured in the picture were the names Marleigh, Ezlyn and Wynzxlle, with the latter proving especially controversial among commenters.
‘What the fried hell is that?’ wrote SonicAgeless, while onahalladay added: ‘The moment you see X and Z in names like that it’s trending towards yikes territory.’
Echoing this sentiment, DigitalDroid2024 called the name ‘ridiculous,’ alongside MissLisaMarie86 who described it as an ‘atrocity’ and Phantomtollboothtix who claimed it ‘sounds like flatulence medication.’
Many questioned the pronunciation of Wynzxylle, offering guesses from ‘Win-six-il’ to ‘Wink-sell’ to ‘Win-sick-ul’. However, when the original poster asked the class’s teacher, they confirmed the X is silent, and it’s said, ‘like Denzel with a W’.
People weren’t happy with Wynzxlle’s parents, including yildizli_gece who said: ‘How is that kid ever gonna have anyone get their poor name right?’
They aren’t the only ones getting creative with their baby names though.
One mum was called out for her list of quirky potential options, which included Ayeai (AI), Seaeoh (CEO), and Urf (earth), as well as Stamp and Biotic.
Names featuring X, Y and Z are also becoming more commonplace, with Ezra and Hendrix making the list of boys names which have increased in popularity most since 2011, and experts predicting the use of Xoe and Helix to skyrocket by 2050.
On the ranking of UK baby names, the likes of Jaxon and Zahra featured in the top 100, suggesting slight differences in spelling could be a growing trend too.
However, according to chartered psychologist Dr Mark Rackley, standing out isn’t what everyone wants.
He previously told ‘Having a unique name draws attention to the parent and the child. The parent will view this as positive attention and will enjoy this, but the same cannot always be said for the child.’
He warns that while some children might ‘embrace the name and own it,’ they could also ‘resent the parents for giving them the name in the first place.’
It’s worth keeping that in mind.
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