Aleks or Maks?

*challenged

"Ignorant" = lacking knowledge

So if you don't know that a name/spelling is Polish, or indeed that unusual names/spellings might possibly have non-English origins, then yes you are ignorant as far as that topic is concerned.

Not necessarily ignorant in general - you might know a lot of other things.

But I suppose people will get defensive when challenge. Oh well.

As PPs have already explained, there are many variations in the most common of names..

Sara/Sarah
Claire/Clare
Katy/Katie
John/Jon
Stephen/Steven

One of the above is my name. I always have to stipulate he spelling. It is not in the slightest bit detrimental to my life.

There was even a character on EastEnders called Aleks recently, it's that common a name/spelling now.

All three are great names. Not much help to your original question OP!

Both are lovely, maybe go with one for first and middle name?

I prefer Aleks but I agree that it will be spelt Alex unless the reminds every time. It's not like Catherine/Claire as there is only one spelling of Alex in England.

Which is your ignorance of polish spellings of names! but it is not ignorant for a British person to have no knowledge of polish names. In fact it is more ignorant to expect that the uk population DOES know all polish names than the other way round

MN is so hung up on putting unique name spellings down, they can't imagine that actually some names are spelt differently in other languages. Maybe some posters should think before they post.

"It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that they were non English spellings of the names."

It was obvious to anyone who knows anything about non English spellings of names. I know a Justyn. It's not a non English spelling. It's a "unique" one.

Sorry - there should be a full stop after 'boys' names' above.

Youw ill spend your entire life spelling the names out if you make them different to very commonly spelled boys' names I don't like the look of either, especially Maksymilian. Sorry.

It was obvious to anyone with half a brain that they were non English spellings of the names.

"Personally I wouldn't put "ease of spelling" at the top of my list of name-choosing criteria." Neither would I. But, at the risk of further abuse, in this particular case the irritation will come from the fact that the names appear to English speakers to be easy to spell. So they will always be spelled wrongly. My own name is the same. 99% of English speakers spell the name one way. It is a pain in the neck to constantly correct people.

Even the nickname I go by has multiple possible spellings!

Personally I wouldn't put "ease of spelling" at the top of my list of name-choosing criteria. And I say that as someone who (despite the Anglicised variant) has both a first name AND a surname which both require spelling and are both three syllables each. With my two middle names my full name doesn't even FIT on forms.

Yes of course I have. I said credit cards and car insurance.

Car insurance, credit cards etc are all applied for online now. You fill in the forms yourself.

anyway, I really like Maks, I wanted to name my son Macsen nn Macs, which is very similiar. but his dad vetoed it.

my daughter has a name with a welsh spelling that has a well known spelling in english. think Alys/Alice. it's never been an issue. when i introduce her to someone who isn't writing her name, i just say 'her name is Alys', if its to be written down I will say 'Her name is Alys, spelled A L Y S'. no big deal. Do people mis spell it sometimes? yeah, of course, but i have a very normal name,spelled the conventional way and people misspell it all the time!

I would think those names were made up.

Which is your ignorance of polish spellings of names!

Well there is no problem but the OP asked what people thought and people gave their thoughts. I don't get what is the problem with that, other than people were honest enough to say what they thought and it wasn't well received.

*MY name is without reference to my heritage

Presumably either would be followed by a Polish surname, so what's the problem? It'll be obvious why they're spelt the way they are. I prefer Aleks.

FWIW my parents gave me an Anglicised version of a Polish name as they were worried I'd spend my whole life explaining how to spell it! Although I have a very British surname. I'd have rather had the Polish version in retrospect as I feel a bit cut off from all my Polish cousins who have Polish surnames at least (my mum was the only girl sibling), whereas name is without reference to my family heritage at all.

I recognise Aleksander as being a "foreign" name but not Maksymilian, although a Polish surname would be a giveaway!

It will be a minor PITA whether you go with a name people spell incorrectly or one they pronounce incorrectly (I would assume Kuba is like Cuba for example).