Names for foreign middle-class toffs

[csillus]

Hello. We are Hungarians living in the UK, but to be honest we do not understand well the British class system and which names are considered posh/chav. My husband is from an old upper-class family in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but they lost their fortune more than a century ago, and as far as I understand it, in British society we are middle-class, provided these classifications apply to foreigners too. Our surname sounds like JEZSÉNSZKY DE LUDÁNY (slightly altered). We can't decide whether to give a native Hungarian name or its English equivalent to our baby ( sex is not known yet) considering s/he will probably go to an English primary school in the Midlands. We do not want to seem too pretentious, but want too respect our heritage as well, while helping the integration of our child. Below I list our favorite names with English equivalents if any. Please, share your opinion about them. Should we use the English or the native forms?

Male:

László (Ladislaus)
Árpád
Atilla
Vazul (Basil)
Miklós (Nicholas)
Milán
Huba
Xavér (Xavier)
Hunor
Miksa (Maximilian)
Gyula (Julius)
Zoltán
Géza

Female:

Arduina
Édua
Damira
Ilona

Thanks a lot

For the boys names I like

Xavér (Xavier)

For the girls names I like

Ilona

I'd keep with the hungarian name.

Do what you most prefer - other people will just have to get used to the name and how to spell and pronounce it.

Go for a Hungarian name.

We are a Scottish/German family and my DC have Scottish names, despite them being born in Germany.

The advantage of being foreign is that you can choose the name you like, and are not constricted by chav/posh ideas. No one here knows if Damira is posh or the Hungarian equivalent of Chardonnay.

László (Ladislaus) - Like
Árpád - makes me think of iPad
Atilla - no, for reasons already mentioned
Vazul (Basil) - not so keen
Miklós (Nicholas) - yes, but Miklos not Nicholas
Milán - like
Huba - no
Xavér (Xavier) - love
Hunor - no
Miksa (Maximilian) - no (but that is just me cause it sounds close to Wichser in German, which mean "wanker". Would not occur to a Brit.
Gyula (Julius) -no
Zoltán - love - despite the comic hero connotations, or perhaps because of that.
Géza

Female:

Arduina - looks pretty, how is it pronounced
Édua - sounds a bit like Eduard
Damira - like
Ilona - like

My compliments on your wonderful thread title.

I love Arpad, Milan (easy for everyone to pronounce and there are famous ones like Milan Kundera etc), Miklos, and Xaver.

Not sure how Huba is pronounced - if like Cuba then probably ok. If like hubba bubba, that will probably be a problem.

Also Miksa, while perfectly nice, sounds exactly like mixer (common piece of kitchen equipment, more often called blender), or short for mixamotosis

As a Hungarian myself I will be facing the same dilemma hopefully sooner rather than later- from your list I really love

Attila (with double t rather than double l), Arpad, Hunor and Milan, not keen on Xaver and Geza, the rest are nice and would make great second names.

Girls' names are tricky as I haven't heard Arduina or Damira before, I would prefer Edua but Ilona is beautiful as well.

I regret not using Irish names for my DCs, so I would say go with the Hungarian names, and don't try too hard to fit in name-wise.

Julius is a GREAT name. Tis a bit posh, but being foreign you will be able to pull it off.

i know some Hungarian people and sadly they changed their names (decades ago) from absolutely fabulous sounding names to david and Anne black.....