So I just went back and read this whole thread and I still know nothing more than I did before I read it. LOL Well, I DO know how to pronounce some of your names and how some of you get crazy spellings different from your own.
My name is misspelled a lot. There are just so many 'right' spellings for it. You've got Sherry, Sherrie, Sherri, Sheri, Cherie, etc. I've also gotten Cherry a time or two. I've actually met very few people in my life who spell theirs the same as mine. The 'norm' it seems has always been Sheri, Cherie or Sherry. The crazy part is, I work with 3 other Sherri's at school and we ALL spell our names the same way. Times like that it would be nice if we all had different spellings. LOL Fortunately we use last names most of the time at school so no confusing anyone.
My kids have unique names, I guess you could say. They are common in Ireland and my son's is even getting more and more common in the US but not in our little town. Caitrin gets 'Caitlin' a lot or Kaytrin but it doesn't bother me much. Most people just ask how to spell it. My son's is the WORST. His name is Declan. We get DeClan a lot (as in DayClawn) when people try to pronounce it. To their credit, there are a LOT of kids around here with De before their names. We also get crazy spellings like Decklan. The worst spelling actually came from my SIL (now ex SIL but that's beside the point) who spelled it Dickland. That offended me a little. I mean, seriously? I sent you a dang invitation with his name on it and you still spell it wrong on the card you give him??