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Something about this name touches me. Yes, it looks ignorant, but there's a sense of striving behind it, a stubborn humility coupled with ambition that I sort of admire. It reminds me of Charmaine - a pretty trashy name where I'm from, but one often chosen because it sounds so fancy that it's got this magic spell of "I wish success and glamour for this child" pinned on it that arouses my sympathy. All the Charmaines I know are tough-talking and hard as nails, very streetwise, but they were given a chiffon-wrapped name because their parents wanted them to rise up and experience the good things in life. I used to hate that it was a dumbed-down Charmion, but now I appreciate its evolution. Charmion would not be a successful name; Charmaine is. And I see the same thing when I look at names like Shavonne and Keeva and Bevin and stuff like that.

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Shavonne is blunt and brutal and it makes perfect sense - I imagine it on a kid whose family is proud of Irish roots that they are so far removed from that spelling it Siobhán would look like the height of snobbery and almost rudeness. Because they absolutely do not run in circles where Siobhán would be a successful name.