Source
r/namenerds•
concise_dictionary

Would the name Maarten trip you up as an English speaker?

I'm an American living in a Dutch-speaking country and my husband and I are trying to come up with a name for our first son. We're probably going to be living here long-term, so we need a name that works in Dutch, but this boy is going to have half of his family in the U.S. and I want him to have a name that works in English too.

Maarten one of the only ones we both like. It's the Dutch version of "Martin" and is pronounced roughly the same: the "a" is just a little longer. So I think in-person introductions would not be too bad, but I worry a bit about people reading it for the first time. Do you think it would be a big deal?

Posted Apr 15, 2017, 11:48 AM UTC

618
LaFl00f•

Martin is also a viable and well-known Dutch name, although probably used a little less often - using it would get you out of the issues with the unusual spelling of Maarten and it's associated pronunciation issues. As a rule, Dutch people are quite familiar with English language names anyway, so I'd be tempted to skew on the side of English-language familiarity, if needed.

34
concise_dictionaryOP•

Thank you for your thoughts! I'll talk to my husband about using Martin instead of Maarten and see how he feels about it.

1
apinkelephant•

People who don't recognize that the spelling is Dutch may assume that you spelled it that way in a misguided attempt to make it look unique, but I doubt that pronunciation would be an issue.

23
nachklang•

As a Dutch person, I don't think the pronunciation of Maarten would be a problem, spelling would be. On the other hand, Martin is a little old-fashioned, but definitely not outdated and easy to spell and pronounce. I also have friends called Mart, Marten and Martijn, although Martijn might have the same problem as Maarten. Veel succes met kiezen!

9
concise_dictionaryOP•

Bedankt! That's good to know about Martin. I think Martijn might cause even more problems than Maarten, since the -ij doesn't look like a vowel to any English-speaker I know. :)

1
nachklang•

The ij is pretty obscure in the English language, that's definitely true, haha! I just realized that Marnix might also make for an interesting name? It's unique, but not hard to spell or pronounce. I don't know if it's a common name in America though, I just know it's not too common here.

2
quejesache•

Echoing what other people have said: Maarten is a little obscure in NA, and Martin is much more acceptable.

However... you live there. If he lives back in NA, part of his story is always going to be a Dutch background and would completely explain his Dutch name.

It fails the Starbucks test, but would totally work in a corporate environment or whatever. People will probably pronounce it Martin, and if that bothers him he can correct them.

If you love it, use it.

8
serrakat•

I'm an English speaker and I pronounced it correctly the first time. So I think it's fine.

7
Elephasti•

I don't think the pronunciation would trip me up, but I'd probably misspell his name quite a few times before getting it right.

5
itsmeeloise87•

I think a lot of English speakers will mispronounce it upon reading it, similar to the Dutch name Aalbert, but can easily be corrected and then not have difficulties saying it afterwards.

4
antonina99•

I'm English and have lived in the US; I'd have no problem with it! It's easily readable and sayable (as long as you're ok with it being said in an English and not Dutch accent, obv!)

4
anothertokengirl35F, US PNW•

How much longer? My instinct was about 4-5x longer. Pretty long. Comically long.

4
Pm_me_some_dessert•

As an American / English-only speaker, if I saw the name in an email or something I would probably assume it was a typo to have both a's in there. Keep in mind that the folks answering here probably are way more name-aware than folks you'd encounter day to day.

2
OakAtlas•

I have no idea how to pronounce the 'a' for longer so my brain wants to pronounce it 'Ma-Are-Tin'

2
TatianaAlenaName aficionado•

I'd probably pronounce that as Martin. Mar-tin.

2
blomqv•

It's like a zombie saying Martin. Maaaaarten

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

2
moosue34•

My brain went "maar-TAN". Basically the French pronunciation of Martin.

1
justrun21just really love names•

It wouldn't trip me up at all. I've never been to a Dutch-speaking country and don't regularly interact with any Dutch people, but I think it's easy enough to deal with. All he has to say to people who question it is that he grew up in a Dutch-speaking country and it's a Dutch name. I grew up in the US with a very German name and a very German spelling not often used here, and I don't look German at all. It has not caused me any major problems in my life and I love my name that connects me to my German heritage

1