Hello again! I’m having a hard time sorting through how I want to spell a particular character’s name, and it’s something that’s been bothering me for some time. I’ll put a poll so you can answer quickly if you want, or you can take a peek into my thought process. I certainly won’t hold it against you if you don’t want to look into the dark depths of my brain though.
The character’s name is pronounced MAH-tee-us. The “a” is pronounced similar to that in “father”.
The dark depths of my brain
I won’t be picky if people say it MATT-ee-us, and probably not even with mah-TEE-us either, but just so you know where my mind was at initially. [name_m]Just[/name_m] no “th” sound.
The prince is from a fictional kingdom whose language and culture is based loosely on Hungary. I knew I wanted something along the lines of [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] but the Hungarian form of [name_m]Matthew[/name_m] is Mátyás. I’m not afraid to use accent marks in character’s names but that seems a little unnecessarily complicated for [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers.
I was open to [name_m]German[/name_m] variants as well. Enter: [name_m]Mattias[/name_m] and [name_m]Matias[/name_m]. (I’m forgoing [name_m]Matthias[/name_m] or [name_m]Mathias[/name_m] because I don’t want mah-THY-us, which is my first thought). Through the whirlwind of my mind though, I’ve also come to [name_m]Mateus[/name_m], which is apparently Portuguese. There’s no other Portuguese influence in the kingdom (and since he’s a prince, I figure the name should be pretty representative of the kingdom’s culture) but also, the kingdom is made up, so why couldn’t there be a natural-born “Hungarian” prince with a Portuguese name? I mean, in this world, there’s no such thing as Portugal or Hungary.
There’s also [name_m]Matteus[/name_m], which is Norwegian. While there’s no kingdom based on Portugal though, there is one based on Scandinavia, which obviously Norway is part of. So yeah.
So that’s where I came up with [name_m]Matias[/name_m], [name_m]Mattias[/name_m], [name_m]Mateus[/name_m], and [name_m]Matteus[/name_m]. I’ve been using [name_m]Mateus[/name_m] but I can’t decide if the Portuguese thing does (or should) bother me.
The poll
- [name_m]Matias[/name_m]
- [name_m]Mattias[/name_m]
- [name_m]Mateus[/name_m]
- [name_m]Matteus[/name_m]
0 voters
Bonus! If you’re not sick of me yet, I have a bonus task for you! This is a prince after all, and he has several middle names. One will be [name_u]Benjamin[/name_u] (his father) but if you want to give me a long, over the top, prince-of-a-magical-world combo including your favorite spelling and [name_u]Benjamin[/name_u], I will be so appreciative!
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