I agree--"creative" spellings don't make names special, and having the same name as a classmate is seriously not a big deal at all and does not diminish your child's oh-so-specialness in any way. All a "creative" spelling does is doom the kid to a lifetime of having to spell their name when someone asks for it.
I know someone who got the best revenge for the "creative" spelling of her otherwise very nice first name. Her parents named her Nikkole, so that it would be "easier" to shorten to Nikki. She never wanted to be called Nikki, always went by her full name, and as soon as she was old enough she changed it to the standard spelling.
