“Would’ve Never Guessed It's Jessica”: Woman Slams Parents for Spelling Her Name "Gesaka"

Humans have a glaring tendency to try and overcomplicate things just so that they could seem special or different, and it permeates every vertical of our existence. Remember the Juicero? A juice "press" machine that used specific little packets shipped to customers' houses? Folks would put these packets inside of the machine and out their juice would come.

Only thing is, folks didn't need to actually use the expensive, Wi-Fi connected machine to extricate the juice from these packets — it seemed that the only thing the Juicero press did was squeeze the packets, which could be accomplished with age-old bio technology called hands. CNET has called Juicero the "greatest example of Silicon Valley stupidity."

And the same could be said of folks who come up with new and inventive ways to spell names that have been around forever: Breighan, or Cydnee, or Jaxson, or Alexzandre.

While it's always good fun to roast the parents who think that their special little shining ball of light is way too precious to have their name spelled the same way as so many other people, one needs to remember that these names are attached to actual living, breathing, human beings.

Human beings who will then have to grow up and live with these names. And it looks like the children of these forward-thinking parents are finally growing up and speaking for themselves about the ways their folks decided to spell their names. And this TikToker, named Gesaka (@gesakamenjivar), is one of them.

She lamented her name fate in a viral TikTok that's garnered over 8.8 million views on the popular social media platform. In the clip, she calls out her mother for not just going with a traditional way of spelling the name "Jessica," because she has to deal with throngs of people mispronouncing her name all the time.

"Why didn't my mom spell my name the natural way Jessica is spelled? Why did she have to go and do this s--- to me? I'm tired of being called Guhsahka," she says in her 11-second video, while adding "k1ll m3" in a caption for the clip.

Several folks who responded to her video seemed to sympathize with Gesaka's plight ... but that didn't mean there weren't folks who didn't take her video as an opportunity to tell some jokes at her name's expense.

"Gesaka sounds like a Greek side dish," one person penned, while another remarked, "Omg I love your sister Moussaka."

Someone else said that if they just read her name to themselves without hearing someone else mention it, then they would've had a difficult time guessing it was an alternative spelling of the name Jessica: "Ngl I would have never guessed your name was Jessica."

Another user said that they, too, had a mother who was a bit overzealous when it came to remixed spellings of widely used names: "Girl SAME except Xhesika."

Several other TikTokers who suffered the same fate as the TikToker also wrote they were in the same boat, like this user named Czarina, who's mother must've been a really huge Russian history buff.

"Me wondering why my mom didn’t just name me Serena," she wrote.

There's actually a subreddit titled r/namenerds, and there was a post that touched on this very phenomenon. A now-deleted user on the app didn't hold back when it came to their opinion on folks who decided to go against the beaten path, so to speak, when it comes to spelling a kid's name.

The user added that it gets "super frustrating" when they have to constantly correct folks who are asking how to spell their name, but also said it's not like they "hate" how their name is spelled — it's more of an inconvenience than anything.

What the user doesn't like, however, is that, in their opinion, these alternative spellings seem to ultimately be a way for parents to try and make their children stand out as "special" or "unique." The user seems to think that there are more meritorious ways to go about attempting to be special that don't have to do with an unconventional arrangement of letters.

"My parents did this for me, and I don’t hate it or anything, just the concept of trying so hard to be unique somewhat bothers me. Not everything has to be unique. Basic and standard names are fine. You don’t need to switch up the spelling to make it feel more 'special or unique,'" the user wrote.

The user even went on to give some examples that grind their gears: "Like what’s the point of spelling Amy as Aimee? What’s the point of spelling Hailey as Hailee, Haleigh, Haley, Haylee, Hayleigh, Hayley or Haylie? What’s the point of spelling Emily as Emely, Emilee, Emilie or Emmalee."

What do you think? Should folks just learn how to pronounce the names as there's some gravitas and consideration/respect that should be given to everyone's names?