English speaking advice on polish name

[szscesliwedni]

As a polish speaker I’m struggling to see what would be best to do with the name I like.

I would like to name unborn DC Łukasz Nikita.

In Poland Łukasz is pronounced like woo-kash (not perfect but the best i can mange)

The letter Ł (lowercase ł) doesn’t exist in English and I’m thinking this could cause some difficulties? Łukasz would more then likely end up being written as Lukasz by most people (and machines which don’t accept polish letters). So would be pronounced Loo-kash or Luke-ash. I have a feeling this might cause unborn DC a nightmare with name spelling questions for their whole life as they will be English, not polish, and will grow up in the UK with the likelihood of about 10, (probably less, as I have no intention of ever living there), visits to Poland in the first 18 years.

Would you go with
A. Lukasz (pronounced Loo-kash/Luke-ash)
B. Wukasz (which would be more like the polish pronunciation but the Ł changed to W)
C. Or stick with the Ł for Łukasz (pronounced Woo-kash)

@SortMyHouse

Don't erase your heritage for the ease of English speaking people. Spell it in your language. Say it how it's meant to be said. If people get it wrong correct them or ignore them. People that have respect learn to say someone's name properly or attempt to. What's the point in giving a name from a different culture to your kid?

Recognising that languages have different alphabets and phonemes is not erasing heritage.

How would you pronounce Noach? To ensure it is pronounced correctly and to respect its Jewish heritage, perhaps I should insist on it being printed using the correct letters: נוֹחַ
By your reasoning it doesn't matter that English people won't be able to read it and the letters don't appear on standard keyboards.

It's not just pronunciation either , it's keyboards and letters available and whether it could cause an issue on official documents ,forms etc later on.

Some very mixed responses. I take what everyone’s saying, either go for Łukasz or Lukasz. After some thought I don’t want to go with Wukasz, it just seems… wrong.

I’ve had a really good think about Lukas as an anglicised version. It’s a nice name, and I can understand why people are suggesting it, but feel like I might regret it later.

I’m sort of warming to Lukasz. I think if it was slightly anglicised I would have to choose the Lukasz version, I agree, children do tend to correct adults about their name, I was, and still am, forever doing it.

Don’t really want to go with Nikita as a first name, we already have a Nikita in the house so this could get confusing and DC would end up being called Lukasz/Lukasz anyways.

Ok, I take the whole “funny character” point everyone’s being going on about. I had English keyboard selected for that last post and I Łukasz got autocorrected. How annoying!

I'm also foreign living in the UK. We went with a name that worked in both languages.

Firstly as an adult I'm always spelling my name - it has an English version but it's still annoying. Also people having no idea how to pronounce it. And I have no unusual characters in my name.

Can they even register it with the Ł? Will baby be born in the UK? I would also imagine it will be a nightmare for him later in life for anything official when "computer says no" because of the unusual character - passports and so on.

I would pronounce that name written in polish as Lucas. I think Lucas is a very nice name and a potential compromise

Option 3. You just tell people. :)

I would know that the -asz ending should be pn ash.
I would not know that the L with a line through it would be pn W and I try really hard to pronounce names correctly!
I would either go for a W spelling or expect a lot of people to say L at the beginning.

If I came across it I would pronounce it Loo Kash. I wouldn’t know the L with line is pronounced W. If it was Wukasz I wouldn’t know if it was Woo or Voo. I think with pronunciation you have to accept that whilst friends, family, school, colleagues etc will just learn it, it will be mispronounced a lot by others. People are bothered by that to different degrees. I think having a character that isn’t in the standard alphabet of the country you are living in is likely to be a ball ache. My last name is too short for some computer systems to deal with, it will be similar to that.

If you’re warming to the anglicised version of Lukasz, but prefer the ash ending rather than Lukas, would you consider compromising a bit more and spell it Lukash?

Then people are more likely to always spell and pronounce it correctly in England. Might cause problems in Poland though?

Another point to think about is how he will feel about walking around with his name. We gave my DD a name that’s unusual but familiar to British people, and then we moved unexpectedly to another European country where it doesn’t exist at all. Poor child. People would ask her name, she’d tell them in a big loud voice, and they’d go “what??” EVERY TIME. After a short time, she really shrank into herself. It was sad to watch. Now we’re back in the U.K., where strangers’ response to her unusual name is very often “that’s a lovely name”. But she still hates her name, and worries about saying it. I don’t regret calling her it, but I’m really sorry she had that experience. Just something to bear in mind.

I work with some Polish people and they go with the anglicised version of their name e.g.Peter, David, Vicky etc
He'll probably be Lucas.

The initial letter will cause problems.I'd pick an 'easier' name

Despite what might have beenn pp, many Brits struggle with non-English names

I don’t want to go with Wukasz, it just seems… wrong.
It is. Wukash is worse.

Nikita
This is mainly used as a girl's name in the UK.

@SortMyHouse

Don't erase your heritage for the ease of English speaking people. Spell it in your language. Say it how it's meant to be said. If people get it wrong correct them or ignore them. People that have respect learn to say someone's name properly or attempt to. What's the point in giving a name from a different culture to your kid?

Exactly.

50 years ago,I had an issue with a teacher, who insisted on pronouncing my Polish surname name incorrectly.

One day I refused to answer. When she pulled me up, I said “that’s not my name. My daddy says that if you tell people how to say your name, and they still say it wrong, then they are being rude”

She got it right after that.

People are often assured on this board that calling a child an Irish or Welsh name (which have different pronunciation. Rules to English) won’t be a problem.

But for Polish names, it is different. Not sure why.

The biggest single immigration into Britain was the Poles who stayed after WW2. But for some reason, our history/presence in the U.K. is ignored.

I think Lukasz works well and keeps the nod to heritage.

As an aside, this has made me realise how much I like the name ‘Kash’ either as a full name or nickname. If it appeals to you as a nickname it gives a large clue on the pronunciation of Lukasz.

People are often assured on this board that calling a child an Irish or Welsh name (which have different pronunciation. Rules to English) won’t be a problem.

The welsh names threads usually result in posters arguing, probably because Welsh is phonetic and others argue about regional variations. The regional variations are anglicised versions so to a Welsh speaker, the insistence on the anglicised version is a bit offensive.

I know an adult Polish Łukasz.
In England everyone I know writes it as Lukasz.
90% of people pronounce it as Loo-cash. The sh ending doesn't seem to be a problem. The other 10% say Oo-cash in an attempt to say it more correctly because he asked them to.

@Cornettoninja interesting suggestion. However, we don’t really go for nn so DC, if we go for Lukasz, will get Lukasz at home.

@WhoppingBigBackside. I had a little panic when you mentioned Nikita as mainly a girls name. I do know one female Nikita and also one male Nikita. The latest stats show (screenshot), of the 44 Nikita’s born in the UK in 2019, 24 were male and 20 female. Might be an unusual year, but seems 50/50 to me so going to stick with Nikita.

@TrashyPanda, you are so right with the Welsh and Irish names. Thanks for the nod in that direction and for reassuring us it would be ok to have a polish name.

Thanks all who said to include heritage in DC name if we want to and not to give it up. That’s very reassuring and we have taken that on board. However, we have to take into consideration DC will grow up in the UK and will likely (unless he decides to move there at 18+) never live in Poland so his name needs to be able to be used all over the UK for the likes of computer systems ect so dropping the Ł makes sense.

DH read this thread and has suggested we forget the name Łukasz/ Lukasz completely and go with Erik or Vladimir as it would be so much simpler

The names Lukasz (with potential spelling Lukash that I’m not a fan of), Lukas (yes, it’s back up for discussion in the household), and now Luke are all being thought about.

But, I think really, the favoured name is Lukasz. As many have said, without the Ł it’s not complicated but everyone will get used to and learn to pronounce the sz ending as sh. It also points to heritage and we like the name, I think I’m actually starting to like Lukasz more than Łukasz. . Anyways, still a lot up for discussion (including Vladimir, DH has just told me he is actually being serious.... )

@WhoppingBigBackside, I forgot the screenshot here it is.

@szscesliwedni, there was a pop song called Nikita in the 1980s.

and the name started to be used for girls. People who are middle aged would guess a Nikita to be female.I'd not use it as a first name for that reason

I like Vladimir and Erik. Vladimir is linked with another president though. Kazimierz is nice

Before that it was linked with President Khruschev

Lukasz is neither here or there. Just spell it as it is “Łukasz”. You feel strongly about your son having a Polish version of the name and Lukasz ain’t it. You can download a Polosh keyboard programming on your computer so can use the “Ł” when needed.

Personally I would have gone with Lucas considering you said you’re son will be brought up in the UK but horses for courses.

Vladimir is Russian, is your DH Russian?

For me the connection would have been Vlad the Impaler so would steer clear from that.

Ahhh yes, that song. That’s fair enough. Still keeping it. It will be middle name anyways. There’s a family connection there.

Erik isn’t bad.

Vladimir is an absolute no for me. Just reminds me of Putin. I’m putting my foot down regardless of how much DH seems to have become obsessed with it in the last few hours. Definite no. I wouldn’t be able to look as DS without thinking of Putin!

I actually really like Erik.

I happened to mention this language and names issue to ds just now, and he reminded me that there had been a Polish boy called 'Meewosh' in his class in primary school. I had never seen his name written down and had assumed his name was written Miwos. Turns out his name was written Milosz and he became known as Milo (My-low) within a term of starting secondary school. Ds thinks this may have been because at the beginning of primary you are told names and cannot read them, whereas in secondary you meet many new people who see your name written down. Also the kid's choice.