Scheherazade

It's beautiful and it's what I wanted to name my imaginary future daughter when I was a child!
as an adult tho who has absolutely no persian heritage i thought it too ott to genuinely use it... I still think it's gorgeous tho

Indeed - see also "so where are you really from..Essex?...I mean.. your name"
it's the having to explain your origin to strangers when you don't want to, but they'll think you're rude if you don't.
"How do I spell that" and they still get it wrong because they add/remove a random letter.
The nicknames you don't really want by someone who can't be bothered to pronounce it correctly.
The misspelled diplomas and certificates that only get reissued with lots of chasing from you.
The engraved prize that won't have the correct name so you feel a bit miffed at the prize giving ceremony.

And that for about 80 years. It's exhausting.

Is it as in the piece of classical music? (Which I love)
it is long and will mean a lifetime of spelling it, but I do like it and like Zadie as a nickname

3 letters @AngryBirdsNoMore

That's bad people get it wrong

Fabulous name. Yes, she would have to spell it out all of the time, but I do with my name that only has 2 syllables!

Also one of my favourite orchestral suites particularly the 3rd movement.

Lovely! Perfect in fact.

@Mirabai ,long ah sound, like in non-rhotic ar

What we think of as vowels (uh, short ah, o, oo, i, I think) are not written but they're there.

I used to know one and the long name was always used, she didn’t have a pet name.

Sharzad is nice too.

I mean, my name is three letters long and still gets misspelled. Sooo.

See that is an excellent name. Beautiful, two syllables.

Is it Shahrz aad or ahd?

@Mirabai , شهرزاد
sort of Sh-ah-r-z-A-d

@CaribouCarafe , I know one and I'm not aware that anyone butchers her name but I've not specifically asked her. I knew the name from 1001 Arabian Nights anyway.

A friend with an Arabic name with a non-English sound in her name has said hers does get mangled and that people mistake it for a man's name. They mispronounce or misspell it. She goes by a more monoglot-friendly nickname on a day-to-day basis.

Its a really well known name isnt it?
Or us it one the english say differently to farsi?

If its pronounced the popular way, its a lovely name.

So can I ask you, how would you render the Farsi Scheherazade in English?

If you're going with that, you're going too have to stake your claim on your preferred shortened version before she starts school. Because kids are bound to choose the ugliest version and she'll be shezza before you know it. So she needs to start school with the diminutive already in place and known to the teacher.

I have visions of her in a GP waiting room, not realising that "She here zayd" is referring to her 😁

But in any case, if someone is happy saddling their kid with a name that everyone is gonna struggle with initially then crack on. But she will have to get used to almost every customer service agent/recruiter/hiring manager etc pause briefly before working up to her name and still butchering it 90% of the time before being asked "that's such an interesting name, where is it from..." and having to explain for the millionth time.

I just think it works better as a middle name

@CaribouCarafe , I'm aware of the pitfalls, especially if you have names with sounds that you don't get in English in them, but that doesn't apply to Scheherezade. One way round it is to use a nickname or an anglicized version.
e.g Jerzy going by Jez or George or similar.

In the workplace, I found people would struggle with fairly easy-seeming names but not with something from another language shortened to something like Katy or Jez.

Something like Nia or Anjali might seem really straightforward but IRL if people aren't all that interested in names they'll try to make it into a name they know, so they'd be saying Nina, Mia, Nita or Angie-Lee/Angela/Angelina or whatever.

I have a surname which could have one of several spellings, and usually spell it out. People still get it wrong or say it strangely.

It's a lovely name pronounced correctly but people will say it and spell it wrongly all her life.

I know one, I think it's a great name and not hard to pronounce one you know how it's said.

My friend is generally called Shero.

@DuchessOfSausage just speaking from personal experience, it was incredibly frustrating having to explain my first name repeatedly, having it mispronounced, having it misspelt etc. In the end I just went with my English middle name in England instead of my Persian first name, but it's still a pain when it comes to forms, interviews, proving my identity when I've forgotten which name I previously provided etc.

If you have a 'normal' first name, you wouldn't understand how often it crops up. Scheherazade is a really easy name in Farsi, much easier to spell, everyone knows it, everyone knows how to pronounce it, it sounds beautiful in Farsi, it's not an issue. But in English, it will most definitely be misspelt and mispronounced all the time, and shortened to much uglier diminutives or pronunciations.

With names you need to think about the perspective of the child, not the parents - imagine having to explain your first name and your ethnic origin all the time. It gets tiring. Especially when there's other Persian names that fit in much more easily in English.

@CaribouCarafe , but why should she. It's not particularly tricky.
The names people struggle with aren't obvious unless you know someone with that name.

Some people will struggle with John or Jane.

I have a Persian first name that everyone struggles with, I'd advise you keep it as a middle name or choose a Persian name that's easier in English/gets shortened to something nicer than Sher/Sheher

I love it. it's fabulous. I wouldn't have a problem with the spelling or the pronunciation but maybe that's because I grew up reading the stories. But yes, agree on a nickname. If not, I can see it being Sherry, which to me is OK but not fabulous!

It's only 1 letter longer than Christopher.