Ethnic names

[olga3860]

We are from Russia, however we live in the UK temporarily. We should be back before our daughter is born, however if we aren’t I worry her name would be hard to pronounce. A neighbour when I asked her yesterday said that these names are too hard to pronounce for our area, and that I should choose something less ethnic and more English. She recommended names but we would really like a Russian name for our daughter. People struggle with our sons names in our area, and our names, so I am not surprised. Maybe my accent is hard to understand? We have tried explaining how to say them all the time.

Aleksandra
Irina
Maria
Tatiana
Yekaterina

We had Xenia on our list, as well as Anastasia but people have said it would be too hard to pronounce the way we do.

Irina is my top name, however my husband does not mind. Her siblings are Vladimir, Nikolai, Anton, Mikhail and Kirill.

They’re all fine OP. Pick the one you like best. English people will figure those out in 2 or 3 tries at most.

Pick the name you like best. They are all nice. None of the names you mention are difficult to pronounce and your neighbour sounds a bit odd. Please don't take her advice and call your DC Khloe (or anything else she suggests)!

She would pronounce it Blad-i-mer, but we say Vlah-dee-meer. I tried to explain it several times, but she still cannot say it.)

A lot of the time it's won't rather than can't so don't pay any notice to her.

Which name do you actually like best?

Honestly op, she sounds a bit dim. Just ignore her

Your neighbour is being ridiculous. Pick the name you like the best.
They are fine for English people.

Has your neighbour never heard of the name Vladimir before? I think she’s best ignored.

I’m intrigued by what would be a ‘soft K’ as mentioned by a PP.

You were talking to a Little Englander. Ignore her and give your child the name you want from your own culture/language. DS’s school has lots of new Ukrainian children, with Ukrainian names, and people manage just fine.

They are lovely names OP 😊

I, too, recognise and would have no problem with any of these names (English born and bred). I have also come across people young and older with all of the names you have listed, including Xenia and Anastasia with the Russian pronunciation (London).

Please go with the name you feel happiest with - in general English people will try their best to get it right and look for guidance from you if they get it wrong - in general they won't mind and will go with your direction!

I think I like Irina, Yekaterina/Ekaterina and Tatiana the best out of my list. It is difficult picking one, I had so many girl names listed from when I was a young girl and ended up having 5 sons and no chances to use them until now!

She's remarkably thick and / or trolling you, and the only further thing you need to say to her is "Go away".

"Bladimer", chrissakes. All your names are nice.

This is ridiculous. You tell someone the name . They say oh, how lovely! Pronounce like this? Yes. That’s it. 🤷‍♀️

Yeah your neighbour is crazy. I'm not from a multicultural area at all and would be fine with having a decent stab at all of those names, and more than happy to be corrected on my pronunciation if I was wrong (the vowels in Irina could have a few different sounds for example).

Of course you want to give your daughter a Russian name.

What a pretty list of names. Love each one and can pronounce them all! Ignore the neighbour!

Thank you! I have found this site to be useful. I have found it hard to communicate with others since coming here, and I feel very welcome. I am glad my name ideas will work))

Maria, aleksandra and Tatiana are very easy to pronounce. I can think of two different ways of saying Irina but it’s nice and perfectly fine for the uk. Yekaterina is a bit more difficult and probably the only one that people may not have heard of before

Love Anastasia like Tatiana, can imagine them pronounced with Russian accent, beautiful.

Your neighbour is a bit thick and/or xenophobic.

I think a fricative /kh/ like in Khalid (not Russian or girl's but another lovely name incidentally!).

Bladimir! Is the neighbour's first language English?

I ask because pronoucing /v/ as /b/ or /w/ happens in quite a few languages. /v/ is quite an unusual phoneme worldwide.

Spanish doesn't have it, for instance (it is written as in Valencia but not pronounced).

I wonder if she's coming from a place of having had difficulty with her own or her children's names being pronounced, rather than just being ignorant.

Either way, your beautiful choices will be fine.

Out of interest as I am fascinated by Russian naming conventions, can I please ask whether you use any diminutives for your boys and which ones?

I can pronounce all of these and Anastasia as well. The Disney film helped people. Would you write it with double S?

You should choose a name you like and other people just have to learn how to say it.

Aleksandra
Irina
Maria
Tatiana
Yekaterina

Maria is a very common middle name in countries like Portugal so not difficult to say. Would you always use the whole name or nick names? I like Katya and Katinka, too. I feel Irina is old fashioned like Irene rather than a classic name. I accept I am likely to be wrong.

So many lovely names to pick from: Alisa, Sofiya, Mila, Lilia, Aleshka, Anoushka etc.

In UK Nikita has often been a girl name whereas my experience has always with Nikita boys.

Out of interest how do you pronounce Anastasia?

a lot of people on here are saying they know how to but it is a name where the British and Russian pronounciation is quite different.

It's Ana-stay-si-a or Ana-stay-sha in the UK, and Ana-sta(r)-si-a in most of Europe (I think). Don't know about Russia,

DD has a Russian friend called Dasha - I’ve always thought that it is such a lovely name and she definitely doesn’t encounter any issues with pronunciation. Maybe one to consider?

My neighbour is English, and she is very proud of it. She has a nice flag on her house. Vladimir is Volodya, Nikolai is Kolya, Mikhail is Misha, Anton is Antosha and Kirill is Kirya)

I think all the names with -ka or -ha in the end are nick names such as Misha or Sasha. Dasha from Darya? Mitya, Petya etc.