Teodor for a baby boy - Polish family in the UK

[mamamuminka]

Dear mumsnet users,

What do you think about the name (and spelling) "Teodor"?
How would you expect majority of people to pronounce it in the UK/other English-speaking countries, including the short "Teo"?

The traditional spelling "Theodore" with "th" and "e" would look strange back home - I think stranger than "Teodor" here, but keen to hear your thoughts.

Don't name baby Theodore, that spelling will only cause confusion in Poland, people will mispronounce it terribly. I think Teodor will look ok in UK, here people are used to the different, imaginative spelling of names, in Poland not so much

It's fine. People may mispronounce it the first time, but it shouldn't cause any problems.

Go for it. It's a Polish spelling and you're a Polish family

Is it pronounced tee-o-dore or tay-o-dore?

Thanks Grazka! That's exactly what I think, better for the spelling to cause a bit of confusion in the UK than A LOT of confusion in Poland:)

@Classica thanks for your vote:)

In Polish we'd pronounce it a bit as if you were reading it in Italian or Spanish so neither tee-o-dore or tay-o-dore but more like te[h]-o[h]-dore where the "h"s are silent.

In English, I'd be keen to make it easy for English speakers, but thinking of encouraging tee-o-dore/tee-o in short.

@Stichintime thanks a lot for your opinion too.

Your pronunciation looks like Tay-o-dore (your silent h example).
I think most in the U.K. would first say Tay rather than Tee. Congrats !

I really like it. Will he have a polish surname? If he does then you will be avoiding the people who think you have just spelled it differently and tried to be trendy.

I have a friend whose son is Josef, pronounced sort of Yo-sif because that's how you spell and pronounce it in her country of origin, and nobody had batted an eyelid.

I love it.
you might get the odd Tee-odore.

I know a little thea and most people call her teya without th sound.

I’d pronounce it like Theodore but beginning with t not th! If that’s what you’re going for it’ll be easy for the English

I think it would be very easy.

I love it both long name and shortened form. It's close enough to Theodore to be easily recognisable/understandable but a bit more unusual.

I really like it and don't think you'll have too much difficulty with pronunciation

The English will have trouble pronouncing it as Te o dor.

They'll probably say Tay o dor or Tee o dor.

Just use the Polish spelling.

You might get some confusion with Tudor, but I think not a big deal.