Kacpar

Maybe in some circles, but I reckon in plenty of areas he would find the name was pretty remarkable indeed - this thread is proof of that!

It's not just his class teacher who will have cause to read his name either - awards in assembly, sporting teams etc etc will involved multiple teachers and students reading his name out in public.

I hope this kid goes to your school!

None of the Kacpers I know answers to Cackpants. I can't imagine why any of their friends might call them that, just because some adults are a bit slow to take on board unfamiliar names & might mispronounce it.

They'll have been introduced to him as Kacper, pronounced with a soft c - they'd only make that connection if a teacher mis-pronounced it when taking the register, & in my experience at that point it's the teacher that looks a bit silly.

Kacper really is a perfectly unremarkable name.

Very interesting thread. I've never heard of the name and if forced to guess I would have said the c like a "ch" like they do with Russian names.

Raven - adults being able to pronounce it is hardly going to be relevant for a little boy who is being called Cack-pants? I'm pretty sure he won't care and won't be impressed by his parents choice.

Good grief, it's not difficult - most teachers can manage six unfamiliar names before breakfast, & it's not even on our official superpower list ...

I've taught a few Kacpers, all of whom pronounced it like the English 'Casper'. Patrycyja, for example, might be a little trickier as I know one who calls herself Patricia & another who pronounces it as Patrick-zia.

You just have a stab at pronouncing an unfamiliar-looking name correctly, accept being corrected with a good grace if you get it wrong (you are unlikely to be the first to mispronounce it), & try to get it right next time. Manners, innit. If you keep getting it wrong you're going to look a bit socially inept, frankly.

I once had three Faisals in one class, pronounced Fessel, F-eye-zal & Fah-ee-zal respectively. You just quite quickly associate the name, including its pronunciation, with the individual, & it really isn't a problem.

It's okay because we Scots piss ourselves at English people not being able to say "loch".
Bahaha! But it's not really about not being able to say it Scottish-style, its just that you feel like you're putting on a funny accent if you say it that way.

I would read cack par in my head then work out what it should be.
But most people won't automatically know it's Polish nor know enough about Polish pronunciation to realise c is pronounced t, how would people even know that there isn't a name that is pronounced cack par?

Perhaps we should avoid Welsh, Irish and Scottish names too. It took me ages to figure out Eilidh but I worked out it probably wasn't Eyelid and asked. I wouldn't suggest the parents of an Eilidh should choose Aylee or Ailie why should parents of a Kacper choose the less common Casper.

For the same reason that if I had a choice between the surname Coburn and Cockburn (and I didn't live in Scotland) I'd choose Coburn every day.
For the same reason that DH's colleague in Hong Kong, Fanny Pong, should have consulted a native English speaker before choosing an Anglicised name.

Welsh names are tricky but in England they're pretty well recognised and generally don't look rude or nasty if they're not recognised. Poor little Cack-Pants (putting on my 8yo boy hat) is not going to thank his parents.

I think Kacpar is a fine name, no different from giving a child an irish name.
I would read cack par in my head then work out what it should be.

It's okay because we Scots piss ourselves at English people not being able to say "loch".

I must be exceptionally immature but when I see Cockburn and Kacpar I do laugh to myself, even though I know it's not pronounced as it's spelt, it's just the association the word cock or cack has in the English language.

Once you know how to pronounce it you don't see the rude words. Similarly when I first saw Aiofe spelt, I hadn't a clue how to say it, but once I did it was fine I didn't see the spelling, I didn't laugh though like I did when I saw Kacpar.

Incidently I doubt the child will be able to sail through school without sniggers. That's why I find it such a strange choice when there is no obvious family polish connections. I think there have been a lot of replies with people getting on their high horses because they don't want to admit they also found it funny!!

But Cockburn is not mispronounced in Scotland! And while it might not be as common as MacDonald or Farquharson or even Dalyell it certainly isn't unusual. In addition to the famous Cockburns port, there is also a well known street in Edinburgh called Cockburn Street, the Cockburn Society and a village called Cockburnspath.

OK, it's an English language surname then. My point still stands. It's not pronounced as it first looks and it's not so common that everybody knows it anyway.

DSs middle name is spelt Caspar, it's one of those names with many spellings.

Cockburn isn't an English name - it is Scottish.
It's not at all unusual and I've never heard anybody mispronounce it, far less snigger about it. But then I live in Scotland.

And then there is the English names of Featherstonehaugh. Or Cholmondley. Or Belvoir etc. All are impossible to divine unless you know how to say then.
Different strokes for different folks.

There's an English surname Cockburn which is pronounced Coburn. If I were thinking of using this name for a child, I could go with the version everybody could see immediately how to pronounce or the one that would cause a significant percentage of the population to snigger and/or mispronounce. Gosh, that's a tricky decision!

I see this as similar. Kacpar to the average Briton looks like Cackpar. That is presumably not how the parents want it pronounced. Why put your child through that endless irritation of having to correct the pronuncation?

C in Polish is ts though. So his name is pronounced Katsper.

Perhaps we should avoid Welsh, Irish and Scottish names too. It took me ages to figure out Eilidh but I worked out it probably wasn't Eyelid and asked. I wouldn't suggest the parents of an Eilidh should choose Aylee or Ailie why should parents of a Kacper choose the less common Casper.

Lots of names are counterintutive in the English language though, John, Phoebe, Chloe, Zoe should they be Jon, Feebee, Cloey and Zoey. Do we need phonetic versions of every word so people who are unfamiliar with them can pronounce them.

…and has a well known local spelling.

Because Elodie and Amelie are obvious how to pronounce whereas Kacpar is counter intuitive in the English language.

But loads of people are calling their kids Elodie or Amelie etc with having no French connections and nobody has a problem, why is this situation so different?

Kacpar with the a probably is made up it is certainly not a recognised variant that I can find in any language so far. Kacper with the e however is the standard uk and polish spelling

I'd feel exactly the same about Ptolemy, Katie! It's all familiarity. Once you know how a name is pronounced or spelled, it doesn't seem hard. John is hardly an intuitive spelling, but just about everybody knows it and can get it right. Maybe in 20 years there will be tens of thousands of Kacpars and Ptolemys about and nobody will struggle with those names either. We're not in that position now.

It still seems a lot easier than Ptolomy! And I doubt that all the parents of the little Ptolomys have Egyptian connections. But that never seems to be brought up.