How do you spell Silka?

"This set belongs to the first baby
that is named after me.
With love,
Ma"

בלי עין הרע, there are already a number of Ma’s descendant’s named after her.  Her children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great great grandchildren called her Ma. Relatives and friends called her Tante Cilla, Aunty Cilla, or just Cilla. We don’t know of any one who called her by her proper Yiddish name Silka.

After Ma passed away there was much discussion as to the proper spelling of the name Silka. The name Silka is actually Yiddish, not לשון הקודש. (It may be a variant of Shulamis). 

On Ma's grandmother's מצבה
the name is spelled סולקה

Ma was named after her maternal grandmother Silka Deutsch nee Schick. Silka Deutsch passed away in 1903 and is buried in Vienna. If we take a look at Ma's grandmother's מצבה we will notice that Silka is spelled סולקה, with a סמ"ך and a ווא"ו at the beginning and a ה"א at the end.

Ma at the קברים of her parents
Notice שם אמה צילקא
Written on the bottom of Ma's mother's מצבה

Now, if we look at Ma’s mother’s מצבה in the Vienner section of the בית החיים in Woodbridge N.J., we will notice that her grandmother’s name is spelled צילקא, with a צדי"ק and a יו"ד at the beginning and an אל"ף at the end.

The בית שמואל in Shulchan Aruch Even HaEzer when discussing the name Silka writes that the proper spelling is, סילקא או סולקא או זולקא. The name should definitely end with an אל"ף. He then adds that the various spellings are depended on the different pronunciations of the name. Based on this it seems that the spelling on the מצבות mentioned above are incorrect.

On Ma's מצבה
her name is spelled סילקא

On Ma’s מצבה her name is spelled סילקא, with a סמ"ך and a יו"ד at the beginning and an אל"ף at the end. The assumption was that since her name was pronounced Silka and not Sulka, therefore according to the בית שמואל mentioned above, it should be spelled סילקא.

On Ma's כתובה
her name is spelled סולקא

When we later found Ma’s כתובה, which was probably prepared by הר' ישעי' פירשט זצ"ל the Rav of the Schiffschull in Vienna, we found that her name was spelled סולקא, with a סמ"ך and a ווא"ו at the beginning and an אל"ף at the end.

Ma's signature סולקא

The reason for this may be that in Vienna the name was pronounced with a slightly different accent, Rabbi Furst may also have been aware that the name was actually סולקא with a ווא"ו. 

Ma’s grandfather after whose wife Ma was named was also at the חתונה, he may have notified Rabbi Furst that the name was סולקה, which is how he had it inscribed on his wife’s מצבה. (Although the ה"א at the end is definitely incorrect.)