'I regret my daughter's name and I blame the nurse for the error’

“It's bothered me ever since,” the mum says.

Laura Jackel

3 min read

June 27, 2024 - 8:26PM

Baby

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Choosing a name for your beloved baby is a pretty important task. Once you have chosen a moniker, met your newborn and confirmed your decision, it is time to make it official.

And this is where it can go hilariously wrong for many new mums and dads - especially in the US where parents are encouraged to complete the registration paperwork in the hospital.

One woman writing on a popular forum to air her woes still has some regrets over her daughter’s middle name, 12 years on.

"My daughter’s middle name is Ellanore," she writes in a popular forum.

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Image: iStock

"I was exhausted"

“I did not intentionally spell it wrong. After her birth I was exhausted and my then partner filled out the paperwork with the help of a nurse while I was feeding the baby. I remember my partner saying ‘Eleanor, how do you spell that again?’ And the nurse replied with ‘I’ve got it’.”

Well, it turns out that nurse did not have it and she spelt the name quite differently. The original poster says that coupled with the fact her daughter has an unusual first name ‘Kyrie’ which she says is spelled correctly, the middle name spelling has annoyed her for over a decade.

“It has bothered me ever since, “ she wrote.

“But her other parent [ex partner] has said from the beginning that they like it that way.”

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"I figured we could just wait and see"

The mum says she didn’t change the spelling initially because her partner was a fan, but when the daughter was five-years-old, the partner “ran off”. By then the mum thought maybe her daughter could make the decision herself

“I figured we could always just wait and see if she likes it. While I accept that it’s a ‘tragediegh’ , she doesn’t mind the spelling. It does still bother me though.”

This post appeared in the ‘tragedeigh’ thread which is a space for dilemma’s about made up names just like this one.

The comments offered some funny stories to make the mum feel better.

“My husband's middle name is Daniel, but is spelled ‘Denial’,” wrote one user.

“His dad filled out the paperwork because his mum was incapacitated. However, his dad has admitted he was pretty much black out drunk, which caused the spelling error.”

Oh dear.

"It happens more than people realise"

There were also a few celebrity stories mentioned that hopefully made her feel in good company.

“Keira Knightley’s parents spelled ‘Kiera’ wrong on her birth certificate,” one user shared.

“Her fame and success popularised that spelling of the name.

“Apparently she’s dyslexic and she jokes that her parents set her up for failure right out the gate by spelling her name wrong.”

And something similar happened to Oprah Winfrey who was actually legally called Orpah but no one could get it right as this woman explains: “Oprah said in an interview that on her birth certificate it says ‘Orpah’ which was what was intended, but then people got it wrong everywhere else so they ended up changing her name to Oprah.”

“I think this sort of thing happens more often than people realise.”

While in Australia, new parents have up to 60 days to register a baby’s name according to the MyGov website, it happens more often in the US because parents feel pressured to complete the name registration paperwork in hospital.

"Problematic US system"

“This is why nurses should not be filling out paperwork on behalf of patients,” one woman wrote of the problematic US system.

“In Canada the nurses only get you a temporary government health insurance slip for the baby; you have to file for a birth certificate within 30 days. It’s all online and so simple. No sleep-deprived name decisions or spelling problems, or nurses demanding you decide on a name before you can be released etc.

“Problem solved!”