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[Opinions] Whaylen
Found this name. I think it's horrible. I suppose, it's supposed to be a variation of Waylon. What do you think about it?

This message was edited 5/21/2022, 11:34 AM

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I don't really like Waylon in the first place, but this is just atrocious.
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Waylon is bad enough.
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I like Waylon ok (although I prefer Wayland more) but Whaylen is pretty unfortunate. This spelling makes the whale and wailin' similarities really jump out at me.
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I’m fine with Waylon, but why would someone feel the need to spell it Whaylen? It makes me think about whales.
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I am someone who prnounces Wh- differently from W- so to me this is not just a spelling variation of Waylon but would change the pronunciation. But it's likely the parents are people who have lost the distinction between wh- and w- in their speech and so think they've just come up with a "unique" way to spell Waylon.Because of the possible pronunciation confusion, I would advise against Whaylen if asked.
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How would you pronounce it?
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Originally the "wh" represented a "hw" sound. You pronounce the breathy "h" sound in front of the "w" sound. That meant that pairs of words like white/Wight, whales/Wales, which/witch, whine/wine, etc. were NOT pronounced the same, but the first in each pair has the "h" sound in the beginning.As language changes a lot of people seem to be losing the distinction and are pronouncing the "wh" words with just the "w" sound. But there are still people like myself who make a distinct difference in the pronunciation and notice it when other people don't.
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Thank you! I heard wh pronounced as hw in some period dramas, and wondered why that was the case. This is interesting as always :)
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Waylon is fine but Whaylen is just too much. One of those cr8tive spellings.
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