The UK’s Daily Mail reports “More parents using txt language to make their child’s name gr8.”
Abbreviated versions of traditional Christian names are appearing on birth certificates along with “original” ways of spelling which even include punctuation marks.
Anne has been changed to An, Connor to Conna and Laura to Lora.
There were reportedly six boys who were named Cam’ron instead of Cameron, and according to the online parenting club Bounty, one girl born last month was born Flicity.
Child development experts aren’t happy about it. University of California psychology professor Albert Mehrabian says that deviating from conventional spelling when naming your kid carries some risk: “Unconventional spelling connoted less masculinity for men and less femininity for women [and] more anxiety and neuroticism were attributed to those with less common names.”
The article attributes the wacky SMS spelling as an extension of the trend started by celebrities toward “original” baby names. Bounty spokesman Pauline Kent explains:
“Some of these new and different names are a way for parents to give their children a unique identity.
“It is similar to the thinking that goes in to naming a new brand of product for example – something to make them stand out from the crowd.”
Maybe so. But a can of peas with a stupid brand name won’t be seeking psychotherapy 30 years from now.
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