Gift link to WaPo article, “The Mysterious Tyranny of Trendy Baby Names”:
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We have a very common last name. So, we gave our daughters names that were a bit unusual, not weird by any means. We also gave them family last names as their middle names. D1 hated her middle name, and really didn’t understand what having a really common name could mean.
D3’s name is one that I love, but isn’t in the top 100 girl’s names for the year that she was born, or most any year, but again, not that unusual.
When our older DD’s went to religious education when D3 was a baby, D1 came home saying that one of her classmates had the same name as D3. The middle names of course were different. Fast forward several months and D1 came home astounded. Her classmate not only shared D3’s name but she also had the same birthday – just 9 years earlier. Finally, the light bulb came on and she understood why we gave them the names that we did.
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My D is an Asian adoptee. We decided on the name we’d give her months before we even knew who our daughter would be. I didn’t want to give my future child a name that was too decidedly waspy, nor a name that would “other” her either, (figuring she would already stand out). I wanted something not super-trendy or overused, but a name that was a little more popular in the US than I’d normally pick (again, for a child who might want a name she’d feel good about among her peers). In the end, we picked a name that was a bit distinctive, cute for a child but had classic roots for an adult and was fairly international (though mostly used in Westernized countries). What we didn’t know, and were stunned to find out months later, was that our now-identified child-to-be’s name (given to her by her children’s home) had only a one-letter (vowel) spelling difference from the name we chose (though very different pronunciation). We kept it as a middle name 
. Don’t even try to guess …I was told that her birth country name was a very traditional but unusual one, even in that place.
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My mother in law is Korean and when she came to the US she chose an “American” name to go by instead of her Korean name. The name she chose in the 1970’s is the same as my mom’s name she goes by. I didn’t meet the MIL until the 2000’s. Her sister moved to the US in the 1980’s and her “American” name is my first name though she doesn’t use it. I guess by the time she arrived using her actual name was more acceptable. I call MIL by her Korean name both because it’s her true name and because it’s weird to call my second mother by my mom’s name. It’s a wild coincidence of names!
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I had a first and middle name combo that I loved for my older son. But then his initials would’ve spelled ASS. That just seemed unfair to do to a child, so we didn’t go with that. I told this story to all my (younger) cousins so I laughed a little (to myself, never out loud) with one cousin who later had three kids - WHO, PRO, and EGO.
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My first boss’s initials were PMS. And he signed everything that way.
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I agree it’s important to get names right. Not everyone cares how others pronounce their name (I am one who does not care), but many do.
That said, your link actually reinforces how difficult the problem can be to fix! It recommends writing out a name phonetically, and gives as an example “Row-zee Fell-T.” If I saw that written, I would probably say “ROW[pronounced like cow]-zee FELL-tee.” When the person’s name is actually Rosie Felt (Rosie pronounced the typical way of ROE-zee, and Felt pronounced like the wool fabric.)
ETA: but the audio file fix, I agree, is an excellent idea
In English, spelling is inconsistent with sounds, so phonetic spelling can be ambiguous.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) spelling would be unambiguous, but not that many people know IPA. The same goes for non-English-derived names or words with standardized spelling in the Latin alphabet, but many people do not know those standardized spellings’ sound mappings.
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My initials are BS and I use it all the time when initials are required. Here sign this: BS!!
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One of my good friends in elementary school had the initials ASS. We all thought that was so funny. She was a good sport about the teasing. I made sure to check out initials before naming my kids, ha.
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As a child I was BM; once married, I became BS. When from bad to better, but not much!
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I went from initials VF to VC. Our S is a JC, which is rarely called but some other kids with those initials and name are referred to as JC. D is a AC and H is a GC. Fortunately I don’t believe any of us had anyone make fun of us due to names or initials.
I have an impossibly long, meaningless, Germanic sounding last name, likely butchered on Ellis Island in 1901. Neither my dad nor myself nor my brothers were given middle names. When I adopted my daughter from China, I knew I couldn’t find a name that “matched.” I wanted to use my late maternal grandfather’s first initial in the Ashkenazi tradition. (His name was also butchered by Immigration in 1939–his name in English was Jacob, and he was dubbed James.) I also wanted to use her orphanage first and middle names together as a middle name. Her first name has eight letters, middle name three, last name 13, but I did not burden her with multiple middle names. Although when she was much younger, she once asked if it would be ok to take her husband’s name if it was shorter, in the end she kept her last name as a professional after marriage.
I found that in melting pot/golden mosaic NYC, kids were very accepting of their friends’ names–very little teasing. I really like that.
There’s a running joke in my family–anyone with the last name can make others with it crack up–“F as in Frank…” Whenever I’m with someone in a business or professional setting or on the phone, right away I suggest that they use my first name.
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SAME!
And when I was BM, I worked as a nurses aid and we had to chart BM’s so it definitely had a connotation for me…
@bjscheel I don’t know if you had this game, but in elementary school, there was a rainy day game of chase we played for years. One child would write another child’s initials on the board, and that child had to race to the board and erase their initials. You put the eraser on your head, and raced to your seat. Another classmate with BM initials and I were always picked; it was a way for the one writing to write a “bad word” and not get in trouble!
I currently use all 3 initials when I have to initial something, so BMS, as did my husband, not that as adults I minds just BS!
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My initials as a kid were LAW. Everyone assumed I’d be a lawyer.
S1’s initials spell the alternative (wrong) version of his first name. Oh well!
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I have never identified so closely with a presidential candidate!!! 
I’m just dying over the pronunciation and mispronunciation discussions going on about Kamala’s name, including one commentator who - wait for it - opined that she is pronouncing her own name wrong.
Unusually-named-women-of-America, unite!!! (Men welcome too of course)
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What are people saying her name should be pronounced like?
There seems to be a fairly obvious pronunciation based on spelling.
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The article I saw quoted an Indian woman who said that the real pronunciation is more like kam-la, or kahm-la, with an almost silent second syllable, rather than KOM-ma-la which is how Harris herself pronounces it.