Choice of three Hungarian boys names...

Zoltan & you can shorten it to Zolly which is cute. I am half Hungarian and this is my fave name

Kende is best. Ken is a handsome nick name.

I’d agree

But can you not find something that will be easier in English?

Hungarian is not like any other language in terms of people getting used to the pronunciation - my very common and easy to spell and pronounce hungarian surname is continuing to cause endless confusion, misspelling etc.
I naively gave a couple of my kids nice solid traditional hungarian first names - they have changed them to a shortened UK version because they were so fed up

People will soon learn how to say the name correctly

People who you are around a lot will but you’ve still got to go through it with everyone you come across in daily life who you will prob not speak to again, call centres, reception staff, interview panels etc. If you have dodgy phone signal that ramps the whole tedious business up a notch.

@inquisitorgeneral I thought that as well! Reminded me of both Bethel and Lehi (who is a prophet in the book of Mormon, randomly).

This was Hungarian FILs name, so I like it, but it's not obvious how to pronounce it (like Ference)
His brothers are Laszlo, Jeno (yennuh) and Gergely (gergey) . They're all older men, though.

Of your names OP, I like Levente best.

I like Levente and Kende the most. Lehel also has an interesting sound - to me it sounds a bit Hebrew (I'm not familiar with the Hungarian language myself). English people will probably not pronounce them exactly the same as Hungarians, but that's the case with literally any name.

I have a very mixed first name and surname albeit I'm very British. Choose the name that works best for you. People will soon learn how to say the name correctly.

On a different note I really love Bela and Lazslo. So much so that I may name my new robot vacuum one or both of them!!

Heh yes! Likewise Zoltan

Zoltan, Sandor, Lazlo, Bela or Biblical names, Mark, Josef, Tamas, Andras.

I like all of those. Bela might be mocked as Bella though.

OP your baby has to be called László, it's the coolest name in the world! Congratulations on your wee boy.

I like Peter

@TakeTheShiteOutYaMouth nothing to do with denying heritage. Having had a Hungarian surname for 32 years that no one could pronounce, it’s bloody tiresome. I still speak the language and when people ask my name, they’re surprised but love the story behind it all.

I’m assuming ops baby will have the df surname, so I think op should choose a name that is both easy to pronounce in Hungarian but English. Depends if you’re staying here or going to Hungary to live eventually. My dp were settled here in the Uk and had zero intention of going back, hence our English version names.

My FIL was Polish. He and my MIL deliberately choose names that worked in both languages, and weren't going to cause their kids and spelling or pronunciation issues (and weren't going to cause the Polish relatives any prohibition issues either). They did well..

I came to suggest Laszlo, I had a Hungarian colleague named Laszlo early in my career and he’s still one of my favourite people!

So people should deny their heritage to suit those who are too lazy to learn how to pronounce a person's name?

Thats not what I mean. But it gets pretty wearing every time you speak to someone who doesn’t know you and you have to start the whole correcting them thing yet again. You can’t expect everyone you encounter to correctly pronounce a very unfamiliar name . It’s not that people are too lazy to learn, it’s just that the person at the other end of the phone, reception desk, interview panel etc, just probably hasn’t come across it before, does their best but gets it wrong.

Rude!

Kende sounds African to me, and the nickname Ken is a bit old fashioned maybe?

I like Lev as a nickname I’d go for that.

I guess it depends how easy or difficult you want your child's life to be and a name is a very important part of who we are. One of my husband's parents is foreign and he was given a foreign first name. He says at least once a month how disappointed he is in his parents who did not think through when naming him while knowing he'd be growing up in the U.K. His name is constantly misspelled and many people treat him as a foreigner even though he's lived here all his life.

English is not my first language and when we picked out son's first name I was adamant that I wanted a name that works in both languages and I wouldn't need to spell his names over and over again. As a result he blends in at school and finds introducing himself easy.

Good luck in picking a name, but please do consider pros and cons before using a name that might create extra challenges for your child in the future when growing up in the U.K.

Plus, there is always an option of giving him a Hungarian middle name.

What about Mathe? Boy in my DS class has this name and I love it.

How about Ferenc?

Kende sounds great. My second choice would have been Levente but the youth paramilitary association makes it a pretty big no-go for me. Lehel is fine but isn't as nice as the others. For what it's worth I pronounced Kende and Levente easily, immediately and correctly and I'm in a fairly undiverse area.

Even if your child needs to clarify pronunciation or spelling it is really no big deal, many people do. Even a British Thomas would need to in Poland. It really isn't here or there. The difficulty is when you use a well-known name that has a standardised spelling or pronunciation and you alter it to be different. Then you're just a muppet who's making their kid's life unnecessarily faffy. Congrats on your child and I hope you let us know what you choose. I'm rooting for Kende!