Hubby is Turkish, I’m English, we live in the UK. Our first baby; a boy , is due in 4 and a half weeks. We want a name that is used in both countries and have narrowed down our options to two favourites: Zechariah and Izaak. We would spell them as I have written them here. This is because the ‘e’ in Zechariah makes the name so much closer to the Turkish version (which is pronounced zek-ah-REE-ah) although Turks would still have trouble reading the name and if pronounced as read they would call him ‘zej-ha-ree-ah’ (they pronounce C’s with a J sound). The spelling Izaak would make his name equally pronounceable in both languages; the difference in pronunciation being EYE-zak versus EE-zak. I know that his name would often be misspelt in both countries!
With either of the options we would use the nickname Zach/k. If we use Zechariah on the birth certificate I’m sure Zach will get used that much more often and I would introduce him as Zach most of the time and probably even have them call him Zach at school when the time comes. If he is to be an Izaak then my mum, dad and brother all wish to nickname him Zack still and I would be okay with this but would often address him by his full name too. We wouldn’t want to use any other nickname for either name as I dislike Ike and Zeke sounds like a very rude Turkish word!
Baby is to have a Turkish middle name (Alperen) and our surname is 4 letters and 2 syllables long beginning with U.
My worries with each name are as follows:
1) That Zechariah is a bit of a mouthful and that it may appear overly religious, old-fashioned and strange. I do however feel that Zechariah isn’t as overdone as the very popular Zachary.
2) That people may feel our chosen spelling of Izaak is tacky or dumb however it will be obvious from babes’ last name that dad is foreign and this spelling is a legitimate international variant. There was also a 15th century English writer called Izaak Walton who, for some reasons, make me like the name even more. On the plus side at least, again, the spelling is more unique and , we all think, kind of cool and cute at the same time.
So after that very looooooong spiel… what do people think, which name would you pick?