What is the purpose of placing an apostophe mark in a child's name?

I have a friend who works in the nursery at a rather large hospital for women and children and she always tells me about the unusual names people have been giving to their children. I was wondering if anyone knew why a parent might choose to place an apostrophe in a name? Is it something cultural or is it just someone trying to be unique? Some of the most recent names given to babies are as follows:


Ja'Nila


D'Ziyree


Mar'Quaylin


My'layzia


Jer'Manie


Pa'Jama (yes someone did name their child after their pajamas)

What is the purpose of placing an apostophe mark in a child's name?
I have no idea, but I know from experience (apostrophe in last name) that these poor children will always be lost in the computer. It makes it difficult to put their name on forms, computers, etc correctly. I am constantly lost in cyberspace because some systems but an apostrophe, some just leave it out, and still others add a space.
Reply:I think it is the parent's attempts at being different. I know that my soon to be little girl will be McKenzie Jolee. I LOVE the name Mackenzie, but it is overly popular now and I don't want her to be "Mac"....I like the different spelling.





But, yes, some names and spellings are a bit extreme.
Reply:Yeah, I don't get it either~ but it's really the parents' choice...
Reply:Parents do it thinking it makes the name look foreign and classy. When in reality it just looks silly and confusing.





This is why an apostrophe was used in a name historically:





Irish surnames often contain an apostrophe after an O, for example O鈥橰eilly. This arose from a rendering of the Irish 脫.





Some Scottish and Irish surnames use an apostrophe after an M, for example M鈥橤regor. The apostrophe here may be seen as marking a contraction where the prefix Mc or Mac would normally appear. (Note, however, that in earlier and meticulous current usage, it is 鈥?鈥?a kind of reversed apostrophe that is sometimes called a turned comma, which eventually came to be written as the letter c, whose shape is similar.)





French and Italian surnames sometimes contain apostrophes, e.g. D鈥橝ngelo. Other times, foreign names that would have used an accented character have an apostrophe substituted, e.g. DuPre鈥?for du Pr茅.
Reply:Cultural differentiation. The names don't have any real historical or linguistic meaning- other than to ensure unemployment in the next generation.
Reply:I don't know. Personally I think it's ridiculous.





I feel sorry for the kids given those names. They're awful!
Reply:I think some parents think it's cool and unique. But it's not cool at all.
Reply:An apostrophe usually denotes a missing letter... I think that in the case of unusualy names, it's just a little bit excessive, most of the names are made-up.
Reply:Those are retarded names. They look weird, misspell, and hard to pronounce. They are awful and terrible.
Reply:The pupose is to make sure it is pronounced correctly


Example=


D'Andre


His name should be pronounced "D" then Andre


However Dandre looks like an awful name and some people would pronounce it "Dan-dre"





~Sarah
Reply:usually it's when you combine two names, like Jamie and Lynn = ja'lynn





I think parents do it because they don't want their kids to become president.