Maybe it's just me, but it seems to be spelled the way people are pronouncing it. I see Kat and I think: pronounce that like a kit-"kat" bar. Or Kat as in short for Kathryn. No offense intended to you or your friend, obviously!
ohhhh gotcha. no offense taken, i just didn't know what the emojis meant or implied lol. funny because she's had basically that EXACT conversation with her parents. "people pronounce as it looks. you named me a fucking cat because you 'liked the different spelling' or didn't know how to actually spell my name or spell 'cat' and now no one will ever pronounce my name right, thanks you two."
My sister insisted on giving my nephews name a different spelling and imo it's not phonetically intuitive. As someone whose name gets mispronounced a lot, idk why ppl would do that intentionally! Obv not including names from different languages and cultures ppl are too lazy to learn
My wife was kinda annoyed when we got married and she changed her name, she switched from a name that's never mispronounced but often misspelled (Elliott) to a name that's never misspelled but often mispronounced (Searcy). It's pronounced like GOT apparently
As a former preschool teacher I feel I can judge names freely. On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the most annoying I'd rate it like a 3. Different but still phonetical enough to pronounce and quickly learn to spell. Unless the class also has an Erin and an Aaron, in which case they are all rated 10
My wife’s name is Siobhain, which is a different spelling for an already unusual name, so when we had kids she made sure that they would have simple names that are impossible for people to mess up