Latin Americans use many names similar to names in English, but they spell them differently. I’ve had Stephany, Estefany, and Estefeni in my Sunday School classes in recent years.
We use “Steven” and “Stephen” for boys without comment, so there’s nothing sacrosanct about the “ph,” and why must there be an “a” in the feminine version when the masculine uses “e”?
I was not citing a name from a list, I was making one up as I could not directly remember any examples. As I create several hundred student accounts every semester, this is not some imaginary bugaboo.
I can assure you the mauling is there, and it is not a cultural thing. While you can tell from last names that some of that is the case (ie, hispanic last names), it is more a general balkanization of spellings of common names.
Yes, I suppose you can rationalize this with whatever you like, but inflicting a name on your child which EVERYONE will misspell is to do them a disservice.