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I prefer Everly better.

Everlee is too many e's, I prefer Everly.

I don't like Everly because it just looks like a surname, and like the word every, and like a word ever + suffix -ly which would mean "in an anytime way" ... the whole thing just annoys me. Everleigh is also surnamey / nonsensey, only it's more preppy / princessy. NMS
However when you spell it Everlee, I tend to agree with you - it looks like a fanciful/modern word-name Ever + name-suffix -lee.
-lee is old-fashioned, (formerly?) "youthful" sounding ending along the same lines as -lyn and -leen. Like Marilee, Jerilyn, Carleen, Daneen, Carolee, Cherilyn.
-lyn has been overused and lost its charm but -lee still retains some. It's taken on a little bit of rednecky vibe, that isn't ugly to me (I can see why some people don't like it, but I don't mind it. I like Rylee and Kaylee far more than Riley / Ryleigh or Kayley / Kayleigh).
Tacking -lee onto a postmodern inane sound-appeal word-name like Ever (which I don't happen to like or think is namey - but at least it's not surnamey), to get fashionable-sounding Everlee, is confusing enough that I don't immediately reject it. I might even think it was kinda nice, if I encountered it as the name of someone likeable. I mean, it's obviously Everly - but less lame-surname and more in a deliberately-invented, "p*ss-off-if-you-don't-like-it" style. Like Everly, it borrows a lot of cred from sounding like Evelyn and Avery - but unlike those, it seems unashamed of being modern and inventive.
Also I feel like I focus more on the verl in Everlee, compared to Every, oops I mean Everly.

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This message was edited 11/4/2023, 9:22 PM

Fine with the name, but hate the spelling. It's Uber trendy and has too many 'E's. Everly looks best.

Don't like it at all

I don't think it's bad. Everlee has a kind of friendly rustic charm to it. Everly feels more cosmopolitan or suburban, while Everleigh is very florid and fanciful. Everlee feels like a warm wooden farmhouse name, hand crafted.

I like the original spelling, and none of its variants. Everly reminds me of a quiet little clearing where the grass is green and the breeze is cool and there's no one around to spoil its beauty... the variants have always come across as performatively obnoxious, the incarnations of one's narcissistic need to stand out. There's nothing wrong with that by itself, but I've never liked how the variants look when read or written, either. Maybe I've just fallen down the rabbit-hole of believing trendy spellings are unpleasant. It's definitely not the worst name a person can have, and I wouldn't judge, but I *much* prefer the original spelling.