Kacpar

There is no problem with Polish names. There is a little bit of eyebrow-raising going on that a couple with no ties whatsoever to Poland and Polish culture have gone out of their way to choose an unusual name which happens to be Polish and which is going to mean that their son will spend a good part of his life saying 'No, you pronounce it KAHTS-per' and 'No, that's not the right spelling - it's not Casper/Kasper/Caspar/Kacper, it's Kacpar'. We're all different. He may be utterly relaxed about this and feel having a very distinctive name is a real plus. I would have hated it.

So names like Ptolomy are popular and never mispronounced but there is an issue with Kacper?
For flips sake.
The biggest single immigration to the UK was in 1945 with Polish soldiers remaining here after Churchill sold them out to Stalin. That is nearly 70 years ago. You'd think people would be a little more understanding about proper spellings varying from culture to culture.
The name statistics show UK babies have Gaelic, Welsh, Arabic, French etc names but there is a problem with Polish ones?

surfsup

Also, FWIW, while I would probably look at it and assume it was a foreign name, I would not recognise it and would have no reason to think that it was not pronounced Cack-par.

While I agree that its not very nice to laugh at forgeign baby names that don't translate well into English, I do think it's rather strange that a couple who are British would knowingly choose this for their child.

"Darling, I love the name Casper, but surely we could find a more obscure spelling that will obviously be mispronounced and sound rather unsavoury, but is actually a correct spelling somewhere in the world, so we'll be able to sneer at the ignoramuses who aren't sophisticated enough to appreciate our worldly references?"

If the issue is people with no Polish connection using a Polish name, how about people who are not Christian using names of saints or popes from ages past, or apostles; or people whose ancestry does not include Italian, Spanish, French, German or Scandinavians using French or German or Scandinavian, etc. names -- Freya, Aurora, Gabrielle, Otto, Alexander, Louis, etc.

Laughing at children's names? Just because a C makes and S sound in many origins? FFS. Heaven forbid there be some diversity amid a million Harry's and Ava's (also very lovely names.... but let's embrace difference!)

Don't have an issue with it. However my personal opinion is that it would be better to go with the spelling that made sense in the place I lived and was planning to bring the child up, where I live that would not be Kacpar, Wictoria or Oliwia.

I will emphasise again this is just my opinion! I am neither xenophobic or racist.

It does seem on here there are people looking to take offense at nothing and could start a bloody argument in an empty room.

If my Polish friends called their child that, I wouldn't worry at all. Although I might warn them that many British people will pronounce it wrongly.

I would have an issue if my English friends with no Polish connections whatsoever called their child Wiktoria, yes.

Would people have an issue with Oliwia or Wiktoria?

I'm in the midst of multicultural London and DCs are in a very mixed school where they are in a tiny minority as children with an English heritage and I've never come across Kacpar before. We don't have any polish people round here but every other nationality pretty much. It doesn't work beautifully in English and that's a shame for a kid being brought up in Britain. Not narrow minded to think that.

It's a normal reaction to see the syllables "kac" together and think cack. I realised after a moments thought that it must be pronounced Casper but didn't stop me thinking cack-par. No need to get on your high horses about it. I don't know nor have I ever seen the polish spelling of Caspar before, now I do and it won't make me laugh like It initially did when I saw the title of this thread!!

There is no need to be so superior because some of us aren't conversant with Polish names. I guessed it might be Polish but wasn't sure.

I too would assume it is pronounced Kasper - I'm surprised that some of you would honestly say Kak-par .

It is a perfectly normal Polish name.

"Kacpar however I'll conceed is probably 'made up' "

It is a normal name, not made up at all. Just because it is not the English spelling does not make it made up!

Really cack-par? I don't live in London. I can tell its polish just looking at it. I would also assume Casper and ask. It's no harder than dawid or ewa. I ever worked out pieoter (or however it is spelt) is Peter in polish the first time I saw it. I found the surnames harder to say because I can't try to work out what's the English eqivalent is.

also sorry I obviously can't order names it should be
Kacper
Casper
Kasper
Caspar
Kaspar

Kacpar however I'll conceed is probably 'made up' but the pronunciation should be obvious to those who know the standard spelling (Kacper)

In order of popularity in the UK 2013
Kacper- 335 babies
Casper- 160 babies
Caspar-55 babies
Kasper-64 babies
Kaspar-12 babies

Kacper is the 'normal' spelling in the UK.

If I saw the name Kacpar written down I would assume it was another version of Kaspar or Casper - and I would pronounce it accordingly.

And if I did pronounce it wrong the first time, I'd be corrected and know from then on. No big deal.

Am surprised that so many of you have an issue with this name!

I agree it's a bit try hard if the couple have no Polish links at all. But not exactly hard to pronounce once you are told. I would probably just have gone with the English version to avoid having to correct people. Although I suppose it depends where you live - maybe it's super well known in some areas. Personally I had never seen that name before.

No idea how you pronounce that though.

secpar :

[ n ] a unit of astronomical length based on the distance from Earth at which stellar parallax is 1 second of arc ; equivalent to 3 . 262 light years

action?
actor?

Although I can't think of a word that has a 'cp' in the spelling. I would assume it was a foreign spelling and check pronunciation as mentioned above.