I love [name]John[/name]…so simple & manly & strong.
I love [name]Johnny[/name]…so 50s clean cut yet hipstery to me.
My in-laws & husband are from [name]Russia[/name] & struggle with theJ sound.
My husband would use [name]John[/name]. Is it weird if half of the family used [name]Ivan[/name] or [name]Van[/name] for a boy named [name]John[/name]?
My daughter’s name sounds great in Russian but she still has a Russian nn that they use 80% of the time & I use occasionally. Mostly while with them or if we are doing some Russian language singing or playing.
I wouldn’t even see where you get [name]Van[/name] from. To me it’s close to calling [name]James[/name] [name]Ray[/name] or I don’t know. Okay, [name]Ivan[/name] might make sense, but I think it’s weird, cause they sound so different. I’d just chose a name that works in both languages.
Personally, I think it would be weird for a [name]John[/name] to be called [name]Von[/name]. I just can’t see where you’re getting [name]Von[/name] or [name]Vaughn[/name] out of [name]John[/name], except maybe the ‘ohn’ part of [name]John[/name], but that’s still a stretch. I can kind of see where you’re getting [name]Von[/name] from [name]Ivan[/name], but only because of the ‘v’ and ‘n’ really. I think it could get confusing for half of your family to call you one name, and the other half a completely different name as well. I could see it if the name was like [name]Joseph[/name] where one half called him [name]Joseph[/name] and the other [name]Joe[/name] or like [name]Julio[/name] where you would just have a slight pronunciation difference, but not a completely different name. I agree with taylorblueskye, I think it would be easier to choose a name that works in both languages, or one that has an obvisous nickname (or at least semi-obvious) that works with both languages like your daughter’s name.
I’d totally understand a [name]John[/name] named [name]Ivan[/name] by Russian family members because it’s the Russian translation right? [name]Ivan[/name] is [name]John[/name] in Russian. Makes perfect sense to me.
[name]Von[/name] or [name]Vaughn[/name] though, not so much.
I’m not sure if this is easier to pronounce for Russian family members, but what about [name]Evan[/name]? It’s a form of [name]John[/name], similar sound as [name]Ivan[/name], you get the “van” but without the [name]John[/name] to [name]Van[/name] name switch.
Yes the connection is to [name]Ivan[/name] so I figured the nn would be [name]Van[/name] but the pronunciation would be softer than the end of [name]Ivan[/name] & more like [name]Von[/name] ([name]John[/name] with a V) or [name]Vaughn[/name].
I don’t love [name]Ivan[/name] and I dislike [name]Evan[/name] so I wouldn’t consider using them as a first name.
Does knowing that the V came from somewhere & isn’t just a randomly chosen letter make it any better/more usable?
My husband is [name]Maksim[/name] & he is [name]Max[/name] to American friends & Maca to Russian friends which could be mistaken as a nn for [name]Macaulay[/name] or some other [name]Mac[/name] name but it never caused ant problems.
I would also consider having Russian family & friends use [name]Ivan[/name] while [name]John[/name] would be his real name in school, at home, with my family…but is that even more confusing & strange? That way it would be a translation like if we had an [name]Anna[/name] that my in-laws called [name]Anya[/name]. Feels like 2 different names to someone who doesn’t know the translation but is the same name.
[name]John[/name] called [name]Ivan[/name] by Russian family members makes total sense to me. [name]Van[/name] is a bit more of a stretch but I could see it being a nickname used by family members. With school/friends would he still go by [name]John[/name]?
I like it as a way to get [name]Van[/name] much, much more than just straight up using [name]Van[/name].
Interesting… my husband is from [name]Russia[/name] and we have many many Russian friends and they have no problem with the ‘J’ sound. [name]Just[/name] speaking from my experiences most Russians in [name]America[/name] we know would have no problem calling [name]John[/name] born here [name]John[/name]. The Russian nickname for [name]Ivan[/name] would most commonly be “[name]Vanya[/name]” which is pronounced “[name]Von[/name]-ya”, so not [name]Van[/name] or [name]Von[/name].
Have you asked them what they would call a [name]John[/name]? Are they set in having a Russian name?
FTR my dd have a very Russian name and most Russian here upon meeting us, call her by the English version of her name…as most of there kids go by the English version of their name in school. Interesting how communities in different places are different.