Opinions on Ivan (pronounced Ee-vahn)

[ttcAlex]

The title says it really. What do you think of the boy's name Ivan (pronounced Ee-van)? Be honest pls.

I'm so old. I immediately thought about Ivan Drago.

Having read all your posts, and living in a non English speaking country where I tried to choose international names before I realised that they are exactly the ones which get pronounced differently in different languages, I say call him Ivan.

You pronounce his name the way it's pronounced in your mother tongue.

You introduce him as that.

However you happily accept people pronouncing it in the way standard in the country you live in.

This causes no problems to a bilingual child.

My older two have international names and pronounce their own names differently depending upon which language they are speaking. They have done this as naturally as they've calked me Mummy and refered to me as meine Mama, since they were toddlers.

The only one of my children who's name gets pronounced the "English" way by everyone is the one who's name would be written completely differently and be a longer name if it wasn't the English version. Similar to calling a girl Mary in a country in which Mary is a foreign name and the biblical figure is Maria.

@LolaSmiles

With eastern European heritage then your pronunciation would make sense and be nice, but you need to weigh up whether constantly having to correct people (and your ds constantly having to correct people) is worth it.

In the UK most people will read it as eye-van. If that's likely to annoy you then maybe use it as a middle name. If it's not going to annoy you then go ahead.

This.

Use it as a middle name ( unless you are going to have a patronymic ) and use a first name that’s more likely to be correctly pronounced here.

What about Antoni , Aleksander , Daniel , Andrei ( sorry not sure of your exact heritage ) .

One issues is that English speakers expect the stress to be on the first syllable of names, whereas you expect it to be on the second.

So we say VLADimir and you say VladEEmir .
We say EYE van and you say eeVAN .

She does not have to correct anyone though, she's ok with both pronunciations!

As long as youre not going to ve precious about correcting people it works completely fine to use the pronunciation that goes with the speaker's mother tongue.

My children have this and its a total non issue.

Their names are pronounced differently in each of their languages, like every other word.

The end.

S00LA all those names will be pronounced differently in different European languages.

Every name is except ones specific to one language/ language family.

The only way to force people with a different mother tongue to use your pronunciation is to give your child a name specific to your language so they won't have preconceived notions of the correct pronunciation.

Roll with both possible pronunciations, just pick a name you like in both languages, pronounce it naturally and accept that others will pronounce it the way it's pronounced in their language, and there are no problems.

I'm actually flummoxed because I don't believe I have ever met anyone called Ivan who was eye-van. I would always check, but I would think it rare and unusual. Is it a regional name?

It’s a nice name! I like it pronounced that way.

@SeanCailleach

I'm actually flummoxed because I don't believe I have ever met anyone called Ivan who was eye-van. I would always check, but I would think it rare and unusual. Is it a regional name?

I've met two eye-vans (one English and one maybe culturally Scandinavian if that makes a difference) and no ee-vans at all.

As for "sophistication test".. 🙄

t if you are living in the UK, you have to decide if you want to burden your child with correcting the pronunciation or spelling of his name with every single person he meets for the rest of his life

How bloody depressing is this? Assimilate, don't be different, don't expect anyone to call you your name right...

(The only way to force people with a different mother tongue to use your pronunciation is to give your child a name specific to your language so they won't have preconceived notions of the correct pronunciation

Or, you know, you just tell them how to say it.

DTIsOnlyForNow no, its just unnecessary. International names are pronounced differently in each language. Its fine, nice even.

Why set yourself up to fight the world - pronounce the name your way, let the child use the pronunciation which fits the language they are speaking at the time, the way bilingual children do with every word they speak.

I really like Ivan pronounced the way OP plans. The British pronunciation, not so much.

Thank you all so much for contributing to this thread. Reading different opinions is very interesting and I've gained some new perspectives over this. As I said before, I really do like both pronunciations, but with the EE one feeling more natural to me to say to my DC. A bit like a child called William born to British parents in, let's say, Germany, who the native speakers would call "Villiam", and although his parents would go along with that pronunciation and even use it in certain situations, he would always be "William" to them. As a PP said, when growing up bilingual, it is no problem switching between languages and pronunciations effortlessly, and it gives you certain flexibility and broad perspective. That's why I hope this won't be issue for him and the history behing the name, its meaning and origin would feel more important than who pronounces it how and when.

It's pronounced I-van????

I love your pronunciation - I'm a huge Ivan Lendl fan which helps - and have a great uncle Ivan pronounced that way (he is Russian).
However my immediate go-to pronunciation would be EYE-van just because I'm British I suppose.
But I would still use it if I was you. I know 3 Xaviers all pronounced differently and manage to remember which is which (most of the time!)
My friend is Spanish and has a son called Gabriel. She pronounces it Gabriellee and all his peers pronounce it Gay-briel (anglicised version) and his father/siblings pronounce it different ways depending on how they feel that day - it seems to work fine.
But I think people would try and pronounce it correctly once they heard you say it.

It's pronounced I-van????

It isn't.

And rtft