This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

Re: what is the difference with these
This is a matter of personal preference only; in my experience there is no difference in pronunciation whatsoever among Joanne, JoAnn, Jo-Anne, Jo Ann, etc. They are simply different "spellings" of the same name, just as Katherine, Catherine, Katharine and Kathryn are various spellings of the same name. The US Social Security names database (https://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/) eliminates hyphens and other punctuation marks, as well as capital letters other than the initial. So if you search the database you will not find JoAnne or Jo-Anne, only Joanne. What's more, a name like Jo Ann will be recorded simply as "Jo." I found through my own research that the name Ann Marie appears less popular in the Social Security data than it is in reality, because there it is reduced to "Ann" even though most women with this name use the full name, Ann Marie.
vote up1vote down

No replies