I like Holli's name because it's hers, but I really don't understand what would drive someone to take the perfectly nice name Holly Michelle and decide to spell it Holli Michele. It sounds exactly the same, and thus serves no purpose beyond making the kid spell her name 18 billion times. Let alone mangling Jeanne into Jheahine.

But the seven or so spellings of Caitlin currently among the top 100 names suggest it's a need many, many parents have, so go figure.

Holli, your name - with different spellings - was actually so popular in London when my daughter was an infant, that there were three or four babies with that name at Jo's babycare clinic. The other name that was getting a lot of play in London at that time was Carly.

Really? I've only ever met one Holly IRL, and she was in kindergarten when I was in fourth grade. I've met a couple online, but other than that, nothing.

I do prefer my naem to something so common you have to check who's being talked about when it's used. I mean, I have three friends named Lauren, plus a cousin and another several classmates and acquaintances.

Let alone mangling Jeanne into Jheahine.

Nope. It's spelled J-h-e-a-h-i-n-n-è. And when I asked them why they'd named me with such a stupid spelling of Jean? I got the blank stare and the "Jheahinnè is NOT Jean" comment, and that was all.

They appeared to have saddled me with that because they liked it. Fine. Whoopie. I didn't. Darius I could understand - it was my grandmum's name. But the other, there was no excuse.

Holli, yup - very popular at the end of the seventies, at least in the UK. OTOH, Lauren seems to have been far more to the American taste than to the British taste. It varies.

One year I talked on, say, a weekly basis, with three women named Brenda. I resisted, but it got so I called them "Black Brenda, Gay Brenda, and Redhaired Brenda" Of course, if Brendas one or two got a dye job, or Brenda 3 had a big surprise for her hubby, my taxonomy was for shit. Of course, it was only for this: Roommate: Who was that on the phone? Me: Brenda. RM: Which one.. ETC.

erika, I have that problem with a LOT of names, including a few you wouldn't expect: Nora, Stephanie, Julie, Jen, Ali and/or Ally, Zach, Jacob. Shachar, Shira, Dmitri and Harleigh are safe, though.

I know three Stephanies myself. But one is a pencil-pushing hump(thank you Andy Sipowicz) I have little occasion to talk about. One is a Buffista. And one is my oldest pre-Buffista adult friend.

I knoe three Stephanies too! Two I've known since elementary school, and two are in my BBG chapter. Not the same two, though.

My problem with Anfernee is that it looks like his parents just had no idea how to spell Anthony. Of course, if they weren't trying for Anthony or a variant thereof when they named him, I'm way off base, but that's my gut reaction, and my reason for preferring standard spellings for names. (A preference that is so strong that if I ever gave a son my father's middle name, Edmon, I'd spell it Edmund, because just because my grandmother couldn't spell doesn't mean I can't.)

I swear, if you yell "William!" at the playground, half the little boys come running. Same for "Brittany".

Oh, I grew up with tons of Stephanies. Not a few other Susans, too, a fact which DH used to talk me out of naming the Player Elizabeth--he said if I remembered even now being embarrassed in 6th grade when I turned my head when someone yelled, "Susan!" and then had them say, "Not you, stupid, I meant Susan Davis," I had no right to set my child up to repeat the experience by giving them a name in or near the top ten most popular.

It could still change, but for now we're waffling between Eleanor and Annabel, neither of which is even in the top 100.