I’ve been personalizing between one and two hundred books a day for most of this month, a process that means I have to spell people’s names correctly, a lot. Names, unlike most words, can be spelled pretty much the way the owner (or their parents) wants. As a result, first names are a hotbed of creativity. And I assure you all, you Jazmyns and Shons and Madelens, that I applaud your innovation and uniqueness. The minor chaos these mutations cause for me during signings is a small price to pay for a world full of unexpected variation
In fact, my new game is to figure out which common first name has the most spellings. And at the moment, I think it’s Caitlin, with forty-eight sixty-four. Here’s my logic:
There are six eight first halves of the name:
Cait
Cayt
Caet
Cate
Kait
Kayt
Kaet
Kate
And eight endings:
-lin
-linn
-linne
-len
-lenn
-lyn
-lynn
-lynne
And thus, six eight times eight is 48 64 ways to spell the same basic name, all pronounced exactly the same way. (In normal speech, anyway.)
Does this seem right to you guys? Or am I missing any?
But anyway, shine on you crazy Kate-lynns. And fill out that post-it clearly.
Here’s the rest of my tour this month:
MONDAY, OCTOBER 25
7:00PM
Joseph Beth Booksellers
2692 Madison Road
Cincinnati, OH 45208
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26
4:30PM
Blue Marble Bookstore
1356 South Fort Thomas Avenue
Ft. Thomas, KY 41075
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27
7:00PM
Anderson’s Bookshop
123 West Jefferson
Naperville, IL 60540
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28
7:00PM
Borders
43075 Crescent Blvd.
Novi, MI 48375
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29
7:00PM
Ann Arbor District Library
343 South Fifth Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30
12:00PM
Provo County Library
550 North University Avenue
Provo, UT 84601
My keynote speech requires tickets, and I hear they’re sold out! But google “Provo Book Festival” for details.
October 23rd, 2010 20:19
That is so true! I had a friend named Kaitlin, and I always spelled her name wrong! Good luck with name anatomy!
October 23rd, 2010 20:21
You forgot Cate and Kate!
October 23rd, 2010 20:49
Do people really spell their names “Catelyn” or “Katelyn”?
October 23rd, 2010 20:59
I have a friend named Katelyn. I’m not sure about Catelyn though.
And my name is Mary Gen(short for Genevieve) so that’s pretty wierd. I was almost Genny.
I love how in the first book you signed you spelled my name wrong and had to correct it. It makes my copy of Leviathan so much cooler. And don’t worry most people do spell my name wrong, I don’t really care. Most of my teachers are under the assumption that my name is Mary.
October 23rd, 2010 21:08
Cool I wish I was there with you!
October 23rd, 2010 22:01
I have a friend name Kaitlyn
October 23rd, 2010 22:03
Googling Provost won’t pull up the book fest, you have to google “Provo Book Festival”
Can’t wait to see you there!
October 23rd, 2010 22:04
I teach 5th grade, and in my class this year, I have Katelyn, Katlynn, and Kaitlin. Luckily all of their last names start with different letters. It’s the only way I have to differentiate when calling on them!
October 23rd, 2010 22:04
my brother and I are going on the 27th! He’s skipping class to go see you.
October 23rd, 2010 22:07
I will be seeing you on the 30th in Provo! And I will have you sign my books to my nickname, Suey… which I know is a bit unique, weird even, but easy to write and spell I hope!
Either way, I’m very much looking forward to meeting you!
October 23rd, 2010 22:12
> But goggle “Provost Book Festival†for details.
ZOMG, the steampunk version of google!
October 23rd, 2010 22:33
What about Katelynn? People always spell Jessi wrong: Jesse, Jessie, Jessy, Jessee….. Even my friends I’ve known for 4 years. But, yay! I wasn’t paying attention! You are coming sort of near my town, I mean, It’s out of state but… maybe I can make it…. Names are very confusing, my friends spell their names weird and people pronounce them wrong and such. Have fun spelling people’s names!
October 23rd, 2010 22:39
It is interesting how diverse language is! There are so many different ways to spell and say things. I also have many Kaitlyn friends (and yes, Catelyn, too
)
October 23rd, 2010 22:48
My sister’s name is Caitlyn. The internet says the original spelling was Cateline.
October 24th, 2010 00:10
i’ve got another one: my friend’s name is katlyn. said the same way. i dont think that one was included in that list anywhere…
October 24th, 2010 00:32
Catie you live in Provo?????????????????? BTW I have a cousin named Katelynn… so you missed a spelling.
October 24th, 2010 00:41
A girl named Katlyn is in my Algebra class. It’s the same as Caitlyn, but people always pronounce it as cat-lyn, like the animal.
October 24th, 2010 00:44
Speaking of names, I bought Touching Darkness at Books a Million a few months back, and the sticker on it said it was an autographed copy. I looked inside, and sure enough, it was signed! Of course I bought it, but then I wondered, did he really sign this book? Or did he sign one of the books and the company printed the book over and over again with your name ”signed” inside? Because if you really did sign my actual book, I might just faint.
October 24th, 2010 00:53
I love innovative Caitlynns!
October 24th, 2010 01:23
Well, (checks site stats) 17 of the top 25 search terms leading to my page are misspellings of my name – some of them so outrageously varied that I swear the people at Google must be freaking WIZARDS to have landed the hit correctly.
“Caitlin” might have “Cherie” beat, but I would argue it’s probably not by a lot.
October 24th, 2010 01:31
Beth-la: Yes, I signed it. I sign stock all the time in large quantities. For example, lots of stores in Atlanta now have signed books by me. (The B&Ns in Alpharetta and Perimeter, the Borders in Buckhead, and Little Shop of Stories.)
Seriously, the name “Katlyn” is pronounced with a long ‘a’?
Most people would say it with a short ‘a’, I’d think.
Hmm.
October 24th, 2010 01:43
Mackenzie also has a lot of spellings. I think one website said there were 45, but there might be more.
October 24th, 2010 01:45
dear scott,
i think your books are amazing. i myself have gone through soooo many names. im an elizabeth, so there are a lot of nicknames. i used to go my lizzy but then i decided to make it unique (basically tere were 7 other elizabeths in my grade) so i started spelling it lizzye two years ago, and its been the same ever since.
-Lizzye
p.s. pleaseee come to california.
October 24th, 2010 02:58
Oh my God. You actually signed my book. Thanks so much!
October 24th, 2010 03:18
I thought it was smart at the bookstore the other night (the one in Raleigh) that they employees went around and wrote down the personalization beforehand, maybe you should request other books stores to do that as well to cut down on the confusion?
October 24th, 2010 04:49
There are a lot of prununciations for that one name, I mean seriously I wonder if that’s the name that can be pronounced/spelled in so many ways it’s in the world record book….
October 24th, 2010 04:54
I’ve gotten Sammi, Sammie, Sami, Sammy, and Sammye. (NO ONE EVER PICKS THE FIRST ONE. THAT IS THE RIGHT ONE.)
It is annoying–as someone with a name that no one spells right, I appreciate that you take the time to ask how to do it right.
October 24th, 2010 07:41
I have a friend named Bayley and i always get it wrong. For my name people always spell it Kelsie but never Kelsey unless they ask.
October 24th, 2010 08:07
lol we just covered this in my math class. orginized list rule!
October 24th, 2010 08:32
I met a “Qarin” once.
October 24th, 2010 11:48
My friend Caitlin gets annoyed sometimes when people think her name is spelt differently despite it being the traditional spelling – apparently she’s seen “Cait-LAN” before, so perhaps that’s another possible variation?
Luckily for me, “Emma” is fairly straightforward with no/few mutations
October 24th, 2010 19:11
Urg I posted a comment to the last thing instead of this one I just wanted to say thank u for signing my vocal book( and everything else!)
October 24th, 2010 19:18
haha, it’s pretty hard to spell my name worng-only two different ways, “Hannah” and “Hanna”.
…
At least, I *think* there are only two ways.
October 24th, 2010 22:45
So randomly epic Scottsters, I’m a Madeleine, but every year for my past life (starting at like 7) I’ve changed the spelling if my nickname Madi/Maddie/Maddy ect. Currently it’s Madi, but next year I’m thinking about Madee or something!!!
October 24th, 2010 23:06
As far as my name goes (Allison), it’s a pretty standard spelling (unlike Alysyn or something like that, and no, I don’t know anyone with that name). My children (that I won’t have for 15+ years) will have easy-to-pronounce and easy-to-spell first names. I get that parents want their children to be unique . . but ridiculous spellings of the first name is no way to do it! Let them be unique on their own! >.<
October 24th, 2010 23:35
Amazingly, no one has ever said my friend Katlyn’s name wrong. It has always been pronounced Katelyn. As for myself, I always get people spelling my name “Bailey.” It IS the most common spelling, but my parents wanted to be different…I’ve gotten used to telling EVERYONE how to spell my name right away because they always get it wrong! At least it isn’t as bad as another girl that went to my school. Her’s was spelled something like “Bayllie.” Talk about a tough name!
October 25th, 2010 01:03
My full name is Michaela, and I always see it spelled strangely. Just the other day someone spelled it McKayla, which is pretty far away from how I spell it! At least the spelling of my name allows for lots of nicknames, like Mike and Michael-a, etc.
October 25th, 2010 01:35
oh and sorry it was my vocab book
ping to hannah
i have that name it can also be spelled Channa ( i don’t like my name, to common
ping to allison
my sister spells it allysond Allyson
October 25th, 2010 03:24
OOOOH OOOOH! i just saw one spelled:
kaitlian
October 25th, 2010 03:33
Wow. That is just wow.
So, no more tours to London?
October 25th, 2010 04:21
wow yea thats crazy. i have the MOST common last name ever. smith. u cant spell it wrong!
October 25th, 2010 05:13
That’s a LOT of ways to spell “Kay-tuh-lyn”. I there’s only about four or five other ways to spell my name, but people always pick those spellings before the simple five-letter way. Hailey, Hayley, Halley, Haleigh…
October 25th, 2010 05:16
Well, that is a problem because you speak English, in Spanish you don’t have that problem
October 25th, 2010 05:27
My own step-grandpa spells my name Alyse…possibly the farthest away from the spelling of my name..
October 25th, 2010 05:53
umm, Bailey-Wa i have the 4 sure most common last name Wilson… its horrible
October 25th, 2010 06:01
Haha, my name’s Katelyn (well as you can see). No one ever spells it right. I’m 14 and I can use my fingers to count how many times people spelled it right the first time.
October 25th, 2010 08:50
Well you got most of them right! However, as a Caitlynn, I spell my nickname as “Caite” with the “e” at the end, thinking it provided the same as a regular “Kate.” :}
October 25th, 2010 08:54
Oops! I realized you were talking about name halves- not nicknames.
October 25th, 2010 19:37
I just wanted to thank you. We had a school thing Friday night, and so, sadly, couldn’t come to your signing. But thank you so much for signing books to my daughter, she’s really looking forward to reading them! And I can’t wait to start Behemoth!
October 26th, 2010 00:44
OH my goodness. This is sooo absolutely true. Being a Caitlin no one seems to know how to spell my name. Everyone uses the German spelling (Caitlyn) even though I am clearly Irish.
But, the funny thing is that I’m friends with another Caitlin, and, as you can see, she spells it the same way. And of course my teachers always get her name right.
I guess it’s just my luck, right?
October 26th, 2010 00:46
And thanks, Scott. I will shine!
October 26th, 2010 03:04
My name is the generic boring Ashley =[ though my sister is named Kaitlyn =p
October 26th, 2010 09:32
My name can be spelt many different ways too.
It sounds like Carrie but is spelt Kari.
It can start with a C or a K.
The second letter can be an A or an E.
It can have one R or two.
It can have a Y, IE, I, E, EE, EY ending.
All in different combinations.
October 26th, 2010 10:41
I haven’t seen so many variations on Kaitlyn, but I know sooooo many variations of Catherine.
My sister’s middle name is Katherine. I have a friend whose middle name is Katharine. I know a Kathryn, Katharyn, Katherine, and I know I’m missing a few more. And then, whatever starts with a K can also start with a C…Luckily, all the ones I know go by different nicknames (except for Kathryn, but since she’s the only one, it’s easiest to remember how to spell her name).
I got a nice, relatively easy name. Alexis. The worst people have messed up is along the lines of “Aleksis,” which was my younger neighbor a few years ago when she was first starting to learn to read and write. But people always think I say “Alex.” I’ve known too many Alexes to go by Alex, so I generally go by Lexi. Some people spell it Lexie, others Lexy, but I like Lexi the best, because all you do is drop the first and last letter, and add/change nothing.
PS. I’d like to thank you, Scott, for your books. I looooove them. They’re some of the ones that got me through high school! And now I’m a busy college student who spends too much time on facebook instead of doing homework so she can actually read, so I wasn’t able to start Behemoth until the other day! But rereading the last half of Leviathan and starting Behemoth got me through some looooong hours in an airport on Sunday. Thank you for keeping me entertained while I waited for seemingly endless hours after a cancelled flight shifted me to one five hours later.
October 26th, 2010 16:41
Hi, I just stumbled upon your blog today and couldn’t wait to find an excuse to post a comment. My name is Marya and so far not one local has pronounced it correctly. I hail from Pakistan and my dad tells me he spelled it like that to make it look snazzy. Yup. Anyway, its supposed to be sounded out like Maa-ri-ya. Not Mariah, not Maria. Although almost everyone calls me the just that. I don’t mind but I miss my name sometimes.
I eagerly looked at your bio to see what you write about. Sorry not much a Sci Fi fan, although I did obssess about the original Star Trek series. Does it count? Anyway, good to have found your blog. Cheers
October 27th, 2010 00:52
How do you overcome the cramps from all the book signings? I’m amazed how many ways there are to spell Jennifer. Just don’t call me Jenny.
October 27th, 2010 02:59
So I was at Joseph Beth in Cincinnati last night, and for the life of me can NOT remember where you said you got your awesome reversible jacket.
Thanks for being so awesome.
Also, I hope Justine is feeling better.
October 27th, 2010 05:01
Why do so many names have to be soooo messed up?????????????? I mean, it’s really cool and all, but for my name it’s soo easy to spell and stuff because it’s the name of a teen popstar who is soo not cool I mean, like bluck!!!! But uhhhhhhhh it’s soooooo annoying anyway…
October 27th, 2010 06:36
I think my favourite name ever has to be this poor child named Tuezday- no joke, with a Z, who was actually born on a Thursday.
October 27th, 2010 11:20
Provo, Utah! I lived there for 4 years. I’ll definitely spread the word.
October 27th, 2010 23:52
HEY! this is really random and not topic related but who cares (i don’t!)
if you want to see FREAKIN AWESOME PICTURES OF deryn and other people go to my blog extraordinarylife-mc.blogspot.com
October 28th, 2010 03:09
I’ve known a ton of Caitlins, one was even Caitline (which you missed!). My name (Genevieve) is commonly misspelled or mispronounced. I had a teacher in 10th grade that insisted on calling me Geneva all year and got mad when I wouldn’t answer to it! I pointed out to her that I had a friend named Geneva and it wasn’t my name. She said “But it’s close enough!”.
I had a friend named Emmalynne and it was pronounced the same as “Emeline”. She’d also go by a nickname of Emmaly (aka Emily) or Emma half of the time. She’d flip out if people didn’t guess the correct spelling right away.
October 28th, 2010 04:24
Hmm. I just noticed that you can also spell this name “Katlyn” without an “e” after the “t”. Not sure if you have that one up there.
October 28th, 2010 06:53
Several times on the way to work this week, I have spent the drive trying to think of a name with more possible spelling options than that. So far, no luck. But it has become a maddening personal challenge now.
October 29th, 2010 21:19
Scott,
Saw you last night in Novi. Today I noticed we have a student with a spelling you don’t have: Kaytelynne.
Cheers.
October 29th, 2010 21:42
I can’t even count the number of times that my name is misspelled. “Caitlin” or “Kaitlyn” seem to be the common spellings, at least around where I am, so people always go for those two when trying to spell my name. Spellcheck even thinks my name is misspelled.
A while back I actually found a site that has 155 different spellings of “Caitlyn.” http://www.namenerds.com/irish/Katelyn.html
November 1st, 2010 20:56
U forgot to put -liyn as an ending!!!!! and plus i have a friend named Caitlin..
November 5th, 2010 19:27
I have a student named Kathlynn. Prounounced – you guessed it – Kate-lyn. She gets upset when people (say, teachers taking attendance for the first time) pronounce it Kath-lyn. At some point in pronunciation history has the -th ever made a hard t sound? I am waiting for a Q to appear: “Oh no, Ms. Landon – the Q is silent…”
November 13th, 2010 08:00
WOW! No wounder no one can ever spell my name right
November 28th, 2010 08:09
Haha I have been reading this blog for years as you are my favorite author and how funny that of all the names to use as an example that you would choose mine!! I hardly ever come across other Caitlin’s of any spelling but whenever someone tries to spell mine it is almost always “Katelyn”….curious! Excellent blog Mr. Westerfeld, hope to meet you someday at a book signing, and wishing for that Uglies movie!
November 30th, 2010 10:45
I bookmark your blog. Great Posts.
December 4th, 2010 07:35
Please don’t blame us for the curse our parents have put on us! You know what my mother’s defense is? “Oh, but it’s phonetic!” Sadly, that doesn’t help anyone. Ever. I’ve been called “Kathryn” and “Kathleen” before – I kid you not.
January 24th, 2011 23:55
I think you missed “Kat” and “Cat” in your first halves list…
Also. Rebecca (Rebbecca, Rebeka, Rebekah, Rebecka, Rebbekah, Rebbeka…etc) is a name with a ton of variation. Not near as much as you Caitlins and Katlynnes, but still. For my last birthday, I counted seven different ways of spelling my name on my b-day cards…. just from my relatives.
January 25th, 2011 23:29
hate to add to this… but I have a neighbor – whose daughter’s name is pronounced the same as all of these… but is actually spelled Kateland. I try my very best not to pronounce that darn “d”…
my own worst name snafu?
Tawnjia – no joke… because that’s apparently a reasonable guess?
February 4th, 2011 04:59
My name is Megan and, more often than not, people spell it in different variations. Meghan, Magan, Meagan, Maegan, etc. My older sister’s name is Anneliese (pronounced ann-a-LEES), which also has many variations. Analise, Annalees, Analiese, etc.
My younger sister’s name is Shaina, which ALSO has many variations. Shana, Shannah, Shayna, etc.
It can be tough.
June 8th, 2011 05:22
Keightlyn. That’s all I have to say.
August 27th, 2011 23:34
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