Legally changing my Polish name to English one?

As with the others, I agree with Dice. There is this great Polish guy where I used to work. His name is Arkadiusz. He went by Arek / Eric. Don't give up your heritage.

Me and the wife have already decided that when we have a child, if it's a boy I'll be naming it and she will if it's a girl. I can't decide between Rościsław, Mścibor or Mścisław.

I was actually surprised to read many of the above posts. I am also polish with a very difficult polish name for canadians to pronounce and for a while now i've been seriously considering changing it (legally) to my middle name, which i will spell the english way of course. Marcin is a better name in the sense that it can be anglicized quite easily but my name has no short forms or similar english versions.

I also hate having to tell people my name 5 times or meeting someone who will forget my name the next day or even 15min later (ie: like at social settings, bars, parties, sports etc..). I have no trouble learning/remembering foreign names, but canadians are completely incapable of learning different names (not trying to offend anyone, i love this country/people - just making a point). For those of you who are surprised at marcin's idea, you obviously have common names in your country and don't know what it feels like.

There's also discrimination in the workplace and in hiring. It's not very common but it does happen and can easily hamper your efforts in getting that job you really want. Yes you could do elsewhere for work, but why??

MARCIN: go to servicecanada.gc.ca to find info if you live in canada, i think it'll cost you around $175.



LOL! Nice names:) (i hope you're being sarcastic though)

Hey canuck....(nice country..great memories...great people..etc)..... Im not being sarcartic. I know my English kin will be tongue-tied....but I can say all these names! And I like them, but my wife's really the boss and I can only do this if she agrees[i]![/i]

It's a nice name :) I just found out it was the name of a guy I'd seen around work today. I was working beside him today, and when he said his name I caught it first time around...but that could *possibly* be because I read your post yesterday or something :P

Far from it,in fact my name is so uncommen in the UK that i wont say what it is to preserve a little net anonimity for myself :) As I said before ,if other people cant pronounce your name ,their loss, just get a nickname..

Years and years ago when I was about 14 or so I decided that my middle name was trendier than my first name and proceeded to tell my parents that I'd like it legally changed. Nuclear explosion doesn't quite cover the reaction but the gist of it was that they weren't happy. So it never happened.

What they did say though (later when it had all calmed down) is that if I preferred my middle name I was most welcome to try and get everyone to call me it. I did try it for a while but most people thought I was a bit insane so I just stuck with my original first name.

Nowadays I am mostly known by two shortened versions of my first name. Even my parents use them.

I'm not trying to ridicule you for liking those names, i'm just a little surprised since those names are old polish names (maybe you already know this). In canada it would be like naming your daughter Golatus, Esther ... can't remember the others i had on my mind. Basically your kids will be prone to teasing.

Dont do it. Stick with the name you have, you can shorten it to what you want for everyday use, and still legally have the proper name on your passport etc. My dad changed his name to and English one and I am stuck with some stupid English name that has nothing to do with my past or family - it has robbed by of some of my identity. If you want to look at some awful to remember and pronouce names try some of these from Sri Lanka :

Mahinda Rajapaksa
Shiranthi Rajapaksa
Wimal Weerawansa

See what I mean?

Simon

New ideas!?!? Esther is still used in England! I was sometimes teased at school, but granted not because of my name. However this gave me strengh of caractor and taught me important lessons in life! There's nothing wrong with older names!

These names are easier to pronounce/learn than many polish names: grzegorz brzeczyszczykiewicz, wojciech/wojtek, malgorzata, jacek, przemyslaw/przemek etc...

I really hate to disagree with everyone here, but this is not the same. South Asian names are usually easier to pronounce than polish names. Asians write their names in english such that they can be pronounced simply by sounding them out. Doesn't work this way with polish names. Poles with difficult names have to change the spelling (ie: wojtek > voytek). IMO that looks stupid and it's better to

In my classes there are many asians and the profs suffer much less with their names than with european names.

ah that's enough from me. You have to have a foreign name to understand.

How about Bert then?

edit: I was given a Polish equivalent to my name by some when I was on holiday.
That looks sort of wrong when my name looks like it's Osioł.

I understand what you are getting at. Guess I need a smarter way of going about it.

Okay so in casual setting such as bars, gyms, parties, any social settings I can use any nick name I desire. It is a laid back atmosphere so whatever goes. But professionally? For example, I apply for a job with my real name Marcin xxxxxxx. Then comes the interview, I introduce myself and shake the interviewers hand. Now what would I say my name is in English. Do I butcher the pronunciation and say "Hello my name is, Marsin, pleasure to meat you." OR "Hello my name is, Marsin, but people call me Martin". I am confused.


How come? Is it a way to give him a deeper identity by having him remember his roots?
Wondering if I am making too big of a deal about this name issue.

I wouldn't want to legally change my name to Osioł. That's mostly for fear of how people might pronounce it.

I'd say between a quarter and a third of people I know aren't called what their official name is eg. James > Jim, David > Dave, Bartosz > Bert! (Only joking with the last one).

Marcin is my friend's name, but he introduces himself as Martin and that's how he's known to all his English friends. The only place where Marcin appears is his passport and driving license - even his bills get sent to "Martin". I say this because I don't think you need to go to the lengths of getting the name changed legally - it may be that only a handful of official documents need to have the original spelling but the others don't really care as long as you don't end up owing them money.