Hi, Jennifer,

My sister-in-law came up with the spelling for my oldest daughter’s name. We had decided on “Avery” but I wanted it to look like a girl’s name. As soon as I saw it, I fell in love with it. Our daughter’s name is: Aeverie. I’ve never seen or heard of anyone with that version and I kind of hope it doesn’t catch on, because we like being a bit unusual. But I thought you would appreciate it as much as I do.

Toni

Avery Singer from "The Real Housewives of New York City"
Avery Singer from “The Real Housewives of New York City”

Dear Toni,

I’m not as appreciative of that spelling as you are. I advise parents to use the most standard spelling of common names. Using a creative spelling of a common name puts a burden on the child to spell it out for people the rest of his/her life.

And that being said, I believe the standard spelling, AVERY, is extremely feminine! A-names are in style now for girls, and it has the Y/IE ending which is more identified with feminine names.

Yes, Avery is historically a male name. But so were Ashley, Whitney, Lindsay and even Lauren! I understand that there is a character named (Jackson) Avery on the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, but that’s the character’s surname. Avery (with its original spelling) is #13 in U.S. girl’s names according to the U.S. Social Security index. If you had used the original spelling, I don’t believe there would  have been any confusion on her gender.

Despite my opinion, though, I wish Aeverie well and I have added the name to our database as an alternate spelling of Avery.

Sincerely,
Jennifer

Jennifer Moss (she/her) is the founder of BabyNames.com, author of The Baby Names Workbook, and Producer of The Baby Names Podcast. Jennifer is widely regarded as the leading expert on popular baby name trends and the naming process, serving as the authoritative source on the subject for national and international media.

Jennifer entered the tech arena in the 80s as a software developer and database architect, and became a pioneer in the Internet industry. In addition to operating BabyNames.com, Jennifer owns a web development agency in central California.