[Ads-l] An unusual contrast: Haley vs Hayley

[Cleve Evans]

Actually, the spelling "Haley" has been considerably more common for girls born in the United States than has "Hayley" ever since 1977. 

Cleve Evans

-----Original Message-----


I met a young woman yesterday whose name is Haley. As I often do, I asked if she would tell me about that rather unusual spelling, explaining that as a linguist I'm interested in names. She said that her father wanted to name her with the more common "Hayley", but her mother wanted people to pronounce it /'hel=C9=AA/ instead of /'he=CD=A1=C9=AAl=C9=AA/.

Mark Mandel

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