How Do You Spell Berkeley?

Oh, Berkley. Berkely. Berklui. 
Why are you so difficult to spell?
What is it about our city's name
That makes spell check go to hell? 

Berkeley resident Nick Turner pointed out in a recent blog post that it isn't just tourists and outsiders who have trouble spelling Berkeley. Turner claims there are 331 pages and documents on the City of Berkeley's website where the city is spelled "Berkley" and another 61 instances of "Berkely," according to the site's internal search engine (powered by Google). "It's cold comfort, I suppose, that it never appears as 'Berkly,'" wrote Turner.

A quick search shows that there are a range of documents on the city's website where Berkeley is misspelled. Perhaps, for example, you'd like to apply to be on the Mental Health Commission? Just fill out the Application for Appointment to Berkley/Albany Mental Health Commission. Maybe you want some information about the classes available at the Berkely High Warm Pool? If you need the number for the City of Berkley Refuse Collection or Berkley City College, check out this Statistical and Economic Profile on the city's website.

The instances of misspellings extend throughout the online sphere. Despite spelling Berkeley correctly on their Cal gear, Ebay sellers seem unable to add the extra 'e' in the listings — selling, instead, a UC Berkley coffee mug, UC Berkley kids hoodies, UC Berkley tees and a UC Berkley bumper sticker. How about a UC Berkely blanket or UC Berkely flip flops?

On Twitter, the assault on Berkeley's name is perpetuated in real time. Berkley and Berkely are everywhere. Even @Cal_Politics tweets about "UC Berkley" Law Professor Goodwin Lui's nomination to the California Supreme Court.

But dropping an 'e' here or there is nowhere near as bad as the misspellings committed by certain patrons of the US Postal Service, who have been known to address mail to "Berklui," of all places.

And what about this double faux pas? Not only in Berkeley spelled "Berkley," but it's "Berkley University" too. 

Although Berkley, Berkely and even Berkelee are all in existence as the actual names of places, people, businesses and music colleges around the country, the City of Berkeley was named after famed philosopher George Berkeley. Although born in Ireland, Berkeley, carried a surname originating from the town of Berkeley in Gloucestershire, England. The Norman term means "beech tree" and descends from Thomas de Berkeley, Lord of Berkeley Castle. Berkeley Castle played host to the Barons who signed the Magna Carter in 1215, became the site of Edward II's murder in 1327, saw the first translation of the Bible into Norman in 1387, and was returned to the Berkeley family in 1553 after 80 years in royal hands. The castle remains home to descendants of the Berkeley family to this day.

According to The Centennial Record of the University of California, Berkeley was names in 1866, when a group of College of California men stood at Founder's Rock watching two ships standing out to sea through the Golden Gate. One of them, Frederick Billings, was reminded of the lines of Bishop George Berkeley, "Westward the course of empire takes it way," and suggested that the town and college site be named for the eighteenth-century English philosopher and poet.

So how do you spell Berkeley? Turner offered this advice: "Keep adding E's, and when you think you have enough, add another one."