My husband’s family is Hungarian: not just of Hungarian ethnicity, but physically from Hungary. It’s our goal to select names that will not be difficult for his relatives to pronounce when we go to visit, but that are not too out of the ordinary in English either. We have one daughter, [name]Sara[/name]. We want to begin TTC again soon and we’re thinking about sibling names.
We both like [name]Sandor[/name] (it should have a mark over the A, but I can’t get my computer to do it). It is pronounced [name]SHAHN[/name]-dor. The normal Hungarian nickname for it is [name]Sanyi[/name] (no accent mark), pronounced [name]SHAWN[/name]-yee. We’d like to simply go for [name]Sean[/name] as a nickname when not using his full name. We hope that [name]Sandor[/name] fits in with the popular [name]Connor[/name]-[name]Hunter[/name]-[name]Sawyer[/name]-[name]Taylor[/name] name meme, and the nickname makes it even more mainstream. [name]Do[/name] you think it’s too much?
Our current favorites if we were to have another girl are [name]Mary[/name], nn [name]May[/name] or [name]Maya[/name], and [name]Edith[/name]. My husband likes [name]Narcissa[/name] as a pretty flower name, but I think it needs to go into the middle slot to avoid “sissy” baiting. Thoughts on those?
I don’t think [name]Sandor[/name] is too much but I do think you should prepare yourself for a lifetime of the name being mispronounced as san-dor/san-der. If that doesn’t bother you, then I’d go ahead and use it. If it does, then either put [name]Sandor[/name] in the middle or keep looking for different name to use up front.
Well, [name]Pansy[/name], he’d be [name]William[/name] [name]Sandor[/name] (dad and granddad are both named [name]William[/name], but go by their middles), so in formal or legal situations he’d probably use [name]William[/name], and informally introduce himself as either [name]Sandor[/name], demonstrating the pronunciation properly, or [name]Sean[/name], and be either of those at home as well. Does that help?
I agree with [name]Pansy[/name]'s comments. Since most English speakers don’t know how it is supposed to be pronounced, I think it will be mistaken for [name]Sander[/name].
I think it might be mistaken for [name_u]Sander[/name_u] upon initially meeting him, but if that doesn’t bother you, go for it. However, I don’t know if [name_f]Narcissa[/name_f] is a good idea ([name_f]IMO[/name_f])- although it has a lovely sound, it has an unfortunate connection with narcissum. [name_f]Mary[/name_f] and [name_f]Edith[/name_f] are lovely classic choices that would fit well with [name_f]Sara[/name_f].
I agree with the others… I think [name_m]Sandor[/name_m] is just asking for a lifetime of mispronunciation. I really love [name_m]William[/name_m], it’s one of my favorite names! [name_f]Mary[/name_f] is lovely too.