Aleks or Maks?

[Chilly1987]

Would be Aleksander / Maksymilian on the BC.

I used to teach a boy called Kuba. He was a delightful child and so I associate that name with loveliness.
The other two names are really lovely too though!

Since you are polish I would argue either.

If it were me just going with a weird spelling I could not carry this off but you can x

I think people quickly get used to it, and spell it your way.

"kids don't bat an eyelid at unusual names "

Of course they don't. But Alex and Max are not unusual names. So it won't cross anyone's mind not to spell them that way. Hence a lifetime of correcting. I know. Welcome to my life!

Alexander or Maximilian are both fabulous names. But the spellings of both yours I really hate.

Oblomov, they are the polish spellings - parents are polish

I have a Polish name (I've lived in the UK since I was 11) and I've never had an issue BertrandRussell. The conversation normally goes: "what's your name?" "Aleksandra, but it's spelt the Polish way" "how's the Polish way spelt?" "there is a ks instead of an x" "thank you" and that's it. Aleksandra isn't my name though!

I really like aleksander. A nice nod to polish heritage and easy to pronounce in English too

I like Aleks best, and Maks is nice as well.

I'm not keen on Kuba since to an English eye it looks like an alternative spelling of Cuba, whereas Aleksander / Maksymilian are clearly Eastern European names.

I like them both to be honest, and they will both work in the UK. It makes sense now, as you're picking culturally appropriate names as opposed to someone adopting fashionable spellings! :-)

Both strike me as made up by somebody that can't spell. Maks is very wrong

I never realised they were Polish spellings, I would have assumed the parents were just trying to be 'different'. Sorry.

People do ask Bertrand. Especially when the surname is obviously Polish.
I had a lot of this little England weirdness about my dc's awful foreign names when I lived in a shit hole in Fenland but then we moved to a very diverse city elsewhere in the UK and it hasn't been an issue at all.

Really? So someone says their name is Max and you say "How do you spell that?" I think not.

Oh, and bollocks to the "little Englander" crap.

But I've already explained how the conversation goes.

Kuba for me, I've never heard it before and I like the sound. Maks and Aleks both sound the same as v popular boys names.

I suppose you could get people thinking you've yooneekly spelled Cuba, but if you have a Polish surname I think it would be clearer that you haven't.

Re-read chilly's post, Bertrand.

I like Aleks, I would know straight away this this spelling was due to eastern European heritage. Don't worry!

I think you should spell them the polish way. The poor brits will just have to get over that theire are people who are not English living here now.

Both are great but as he will be living here I would think Aleksander/Aleks would be easier for him going forward (can I just mention Jerzy too!). In terms of Polish spellings, I have a Polish friend called Tomasz, and it has never once occurred to me that it should be spelt Thomas but perhaps Maksymilian does not work quite aso well here?

"The poor brits will just have to get over that theire are people who are not English living here now."

And the poor kids will have to get used to correcting the spelling of their names every time they give them for the next 90 years.That is the point here.

I agree that in today's multicultural classrooms either will be fine - much easier with a Polish surname than with a British one because people will immediately clock "oh that must be a Polish spelling" rather than "wow his parents must be strange". However I do personally think that Maksymillian is unattractive to my Anglophone eyes - dunno why - so I'd go for Aleks.

So you've never had a friend/colleague with a non-english name, that you've got used to, Bertrand? It's really not hard and - these days - not unusual! I have an English name that can be spelt two ways so am always having to explain which spelling it is. Once people know, they know. What's the difference?