I have a 10-month old baby. Her name is Hahna; that’s right – H-A-H-N-A – for people to pronounce it the European way (although many times she is still called Hannah). Picking a name that would work for both “worlds” was very important to me. I didn’t want to name her something very ethnic like “Drahomira” so that she wouldn’t be ridiculed at school and my husband could pronounce it. I also didn’t want to name her something like Cloe; although I like the sounding of that name, as far as Czech language is concerned, it is unfortunately completely useless and that’s because:
- you cannot decline that word (in Czech language the nouns, pronouns and adjectives are inflected into 7 different cases)
- you cannot cute-ify it, a BIG thing with Czech words (especially when it comes to babies)
So Hahna worked out perfect; my husband loves the name and I can call her all of the billion cute derivative names of “Hahna”: I can call her Hanicka (my favorite), Hanulka, Hanule, Hana (you need a mark above the “n” and “a” here), Hanka ( although my husband cringes whenever I call her that; he says it sounds like the word “honk” as for a “honking car”)….the possibilities are endless. She is the cutest thing ever. Her head is full of blond stubborn curls. But do you know what’s extra-cute? The fact that she is already bilingual!!!! Not only she (although unknowingly) can already name out all of the family members like “ta-ta” (daddy) and “ba-ba” (grandma) and “te-ta” (aunt) and “de-da” (grandpa). She also raises her hands above her head anytime someone says “how big” or – the Czech translation – “jak jsme velky”. She bongs your head when you say “berany, berany, duc” (Czech goat riddle). She slaps your hand when you say “Give me five” or “placni me”. And that’s just the beginning of our journey together…I will keep you posted!!
Anyone has a similar mommy story??? Let me know and I will post it!
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She’s adorable! And I love how many names you can give her. Our daughter came close to being named Barunka or Katka (so I can call her Kaca or Kacha?). But we settled on an American name because her last name is hard enough as it is.
Hanka (love that the best!) is so lucky to have a bilingual mother. I think moms teach so much more than dads.
Thanks Sue! We think so – but we may be just a little too subjective:). It is really hard to pick “both-sided” names! Especially for a boy!!!!
Tanja
Thanks so much for your comments on your little girl! That’s what I like about Czech names, you can express your thoughts about the person by just pronouncing their name. We also wanted something bilingual but the best we could do was Kristyna, (Christine) Filip (Philip) and Stepan (Stephan). And, of course, Miloslav is not translatable, so when my friends heard my name it became “Mel.”
Hi Mel,
You are right, “Philip” and “Stephan” work too! I really like Jakub (Jacob) as well….
And it is true, when the child is misbehaving they know it just by the way their Czech parents call on them – it’s pretty cool if you think about it:)
What a delightful story. It has everything a storyteller needs, human interest, comedy and drama (the picking of the name). Wonderful.
thanks Mike!
Well, you can always name your boy Adam, Roman etc, which sounds the same?
How did you pick the name Hahna? Is your husband an American?
It is an adorable girl, really gorgeous.
Hi Lydia,
thank you for your compliment! She is pretty cute..
Yes, my husband is American (I should probably put that in for other people to understand what am I actually writing about) so that’s why. And I love the name “Adam”! I haven’t even thought of that one…thanks for the tip!
Hanka is such a cutie!!!
OK, I’m a full blooded Czech, married to an american for the past almost 8 years.
We have a 2.5 year old son, who’s name is Dominik Josef. We had the hardest time coming up with a name, so this was a nice compromise. My whole family in the Czech Republic can pronounce his name, the middle name is after my dad actually. So it’s spelled the Czech way, we pronounce it the American way. I call him Domi on occassion when I actually do talk to him in Czech. But people keep asking why I’m calling him “dummy”, so I don’t do it in public much.
Our one year old daughter is named Alanna. We call her Laney, and her name is pronounced like Alena (but the “e” s carkou), so it works for my family as well. And ever since my son started calling her Nee Nee, my parents translated it into Czech and call her Nanynka! lol
I am very envious that you’re able to keep up with the Czech language when talking to your daughter. I’ve lived here almost 11 years now and don’t really speak Czech unless talking to my family back home. It’s been very hard for me to speak to my kids in my native language, even though we have plenty of books and movies. It makes it quite hard when all of my friends with children are American…………
Hi Petra,
thanks for the input – how interesting! It’s funny how we all battle with the same things. As for the language struggle…it’s hard!!!
Ted neco v cestine…zrovna si pripravuju clanek ktery se jmenuje “How to have a biligual child”, tak tam shrnuji nejake me typy, ktere mi kazdodenne pomahaji, abych do Hanicky “lila” cestinu 🙂 To vis, je to tezky, ale “We have to prevail!!!”. Ja mam taky vetsinu americkych kamaradek, mam tu ale 2-3 ceske kamaradky (i kdyz vzdalene dosti daleko ode me), se kterymi se schazim hlavne kvuli tomuhle duvodu: CESTINA!! Myslim si, ze moje nova kategorie “Czech moms abroad” ti doda silu,aby jsi se svymi detmi mluvila cesky jak se jen da…;))
PS: ja jsem tu v US uz taky 11 let!! Od 1998..to to utika..
Bilingual children, that sounds good in theory but I am Czech (born raised) and my husband is French and we live in the US. Our two kids Alex 3 and Sophie 14months were born in US and so far understand mostly English since that is the only way me and my husband can communicate. I would love for our kids to speak French but I can understand it.
I had my step mom living with me for 2 months (she does not speak English at all) and the only words that my kids picked up on were “ne ne, ty ty ty, supej” not good 🙂 so we will keep trying
Ahoj Zdenko/ Hi Zdenka,
that must be so hard! I have a friend here whose husband is Spanish and she is now pregnant too and dealing with the same issue. However, I have to encourage you as we know a family where a French husband and a Swedish wife have a son (about 20 years old now), they live here in the US and he does speak all of the languages!!!! And he also knows Spanish…I guess once you learn Swedish, French and English then all other languages come pretty easy to you…
Tak nezoufej!!!
Hi Tanja and everyone.
This is a fantastic idea for a website! I found it while I was looking for ceske pohadky. I live in Melbourne, Australia (since 86′). My husband is Italian/Australian and I have a brand new daughter – nearly 3 months old. We named her Milana – (s dlouhym a) as this is easy to pronounce and reflects both our heritage. I can still “cute-ify” it and all grandparents can pronounce it! I am determined to teach her Czech language – and I found your tips on bilingual children very useful. Here is some inspiration for all us struggling bilingual mums – My school friend Andrea married a German guy (they communicate in English) and they live in Spain. She has a 4 year old daughter (Nikky) and she speaks all 4 languages and apparently doesn’t get confused!
I was worried about how I am going to manage teaching Milana Czech but now I am determined to perservere.
PS Lukas is also another name that work in both English & Czech
PPS Has anyone come across Czech Fairytales in English?
I would not bother with Czech fairy tales in English. They are usually translated terribly. If you want your baby to know Czech, just read in Czech, talk and talk and talk.
Hi, Tanja. That is an interesting name. I would probably just go with Hannah, which sounds the same in both languages, but yours is pretty good! Nice blondie you’ve got there!
Thanks Tom! /Dik!
Actually Americans pronounce Hannah HEENA, which we didn’t wont so phonetically “Hahna” does sound like the European “Hana” 🙂
For boy, I am thinking of names Adam or David. For girl Dana, after my mom. All these names can be used both in English and in Czech. Hannah is good too, but our niece has that name already and our neighbors’ kid is Lucas so those are out of question 🙁
Hi! I found this post because the last time my mom was here (she was born to Czech-Canadian parents, learned enough of the language to get by, but not everything, and she’s quite rusty) she taught my 7month old the “berany duc” game. I’ve been trying to find a translation for it… and your blog is the closest I’ve found. Do you think you could tell me more about it?
Hi Sarah!
Yes, I know that game very well 🙂 I do it with my two little kids as well – at least once a day!
“berany” is a derivation from ‘beran’ which means ‘ram’.
‘duc’ is something like ‘boing’ (a hitting sound). So in translation it’s something like ‘ramy, ramy, boing’ :)) when to rams are fighting together. I hope I made it a bit more clear