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[Facts] Help with Spanish names & others
I'm trying to group all the names in the Social Security's long lists by spelling. There are a lot of names in use in Spanish-speaking groups that I need some help with. For example, is Escarlet pronounced the same as Scarlet? If so, should I group those together? And if so, what about Estephanie/Estefani/Esthefany and Stephanie?
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A Spanish-speaker would pronounce Scarlet and Stephanie as "Escarlet" and "Estephanie," so they would be considered spelling variants of the same name. But since an English-speaker would perceive them as different names, I don't think you should combine them. To me, Scarlet and Escarlet are as different as Stella and Estella. But if you were making a list of names used only by Spanish-speakers, then I would combine them.
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Thanks!would you do the same with Jocelyn/Joceline/JoselinYosselin/Yocelyn/YoselinDioselyn/Dioselin(the J's, Y's, and D's all have a ton of spellings each)
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Yes. I suppose that it depends on the parents' accent, how long they've been here, how well they know English. I work with native Spanish speakers, and am having trouble thinking of a time when they couldn't say the J at the begining of a name. But,I do have a Nancy spelled Nansi and a future Allison spelled Allyson in my list of students because of the accent.
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