The popular SMS and email phonetic spellings have not only corrupted the English language, but have also sparked a trend of unusually spelt baby names.
Sydney, March 6 : The popular SMS and email phonetic spellings have not only corrupted the English language, but have also sparked a trend of unusually spelt baby names.
Most parents these days are drawing on the cool SMS and email spellings, by eschewing traditional spellings for versions such as Alex-Zander, Cam'ron, Emma-Lee, Ozkah, Thaillah and Ameleiyah.
Social analyst Mark McCrindle looked at Australian births in 2007 and discovered that the name Jayden was registered spelt in 12 ways, Aidan in nine ways, and Amelia and Tahlia in eight ways.
The name Lachlan had five other versions - Lochlyn, Lochlin, Lochlen, Lochlain and Lauchlan.
"The use of a 'y' instead of an 'i' has hit epidemic proportions, as has the use of 'k' over 'c' like in the names Jaykob and Lynkon, double letters like Siimon and Chriss and hyphens like Emma-Lee," News.com.au quoted McCrindle, of private research agency McCrindle Research, as saying.
He added that the increasing trend could be attributed to the phonetic spelling in email and text messaging and to parents wanting their children to be prominent.
"Gen X parents were the first generation to grow up themselves with mum not staying home with the kids or their parents divorcing, and they hated their parents not being around to show them love," he said.
"Knowing they will probably recreate some of those sins, they now are naming their kids uniquely to show how individual and special they are to them.
"There is also a bit of backlash against the conservative names like Jack, Ella and Olivia," he added.
ANI