77 thoughts on “A Note on Names”

1. That is so true! I had a friend named Kaitlin, and I always spelled her name wrong! Good luck with name anatomy!

2. You forgot Cate and Kate!

3. Do people really spell their names “Catelyn” or “Katelyn”?

4. 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.

5. Cool I wish I was there with you!

6. I have a friend name Kaitlyn

7. Googling Provost won’t pull up the book fest, you have to google “Provo Book Festival”
   Can’t wait to see you there!

8. 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!

9. my brother and I are going on the 27th! He’s skipping class to go see you.

10. 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!

11. > But goggle “Provost Book Festival” for details.

    ZOMG, the steampunk version of google! 🙂

12. 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!

13. 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 🙂 )

14. My sister’s name is Caitlyn. The internet says the original spelling was Cateline.

15. 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…

16. Catie you live in Provo?????????????????? BTW I have a cousin named Katelynn… so you missed a spelling.

17. 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.

18. 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. 🙂

19. I love innovative Caitlynns!

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. Mackenzie also has a lot of spellings. I think one website said there were 45, but there might be more.

23. 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.

24. Oh my God. You actually signed my book. Thanks so much!

25. 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?

26. 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….

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. lol we just covered this in my math class. orginized list rule! 🙂

30. I met a “Qarin” once.

31. 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 🙂

32. 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!)

33. 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.

34. 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!!!

35. 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! >.<

36. 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!

37. 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. 🙂

38. 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

39. OOOOH OOOOH! i just saw one spelled:

    kaitlian

40. Wow. That is just wow.

    So, no more tours to London? 🙂

41. wow yea thats crazy. i have the MOST common last name ever. smith. u cant spell it wrong!

42. 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…

43. Well, that is a problem because you speak English, in Spanish you don’t have that problem 😀 😀 😀

44. My own step-grandpa spells my name Alyse…possibly the farthest away from the spelling of my name..

45. umm, Bailey-Wa i have the 4 sure most common last name Wilson… its horrible

46. 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.

47. 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.” :}

48. Oops! I realized you were talking about name halves- not nicknames.

49. 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!

50. 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? 🙂

51. And thanks, Scott. I will shine!

52. My name is the generic boring Ashley =[ though my sister is named Kaitlyn =p

53. 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.

54. 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. 🙂

55. 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

56. 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. 🙂

57. 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. 🙂

58. 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…

59. 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.

60. Provo, Utah! I lived there for 4 years. I’ll definitely spread the word.

61. 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

62. 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.

63. 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.

64. 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.

65. Scott,

    Saw you last night in Novi. Today I noticed we have a student with a spelling you don’t have: Kaytelynne.

    Cheers.

66. 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

67. U forgot to put -liyn as an ending!!!!! and plus i have a friend named Caitlin..

68. 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…”

69. WOW! No wounder no one can ever spell my name right

70. 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! 🙂

71. I bookmark your blog. Great Posts.

72. 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.

73. 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.

74. 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?

75. 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.

76. Keightlyn. That’s all I have to say.

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