Opinions?

[callmepatsy.livejournal.com]

So partner and I have been thinking about names...a boy is set, but as far as girls we're at an impasse.  There is a name we both LOVE, but we're not sure of it would be cruel to potential-female-child to use it.  Basically, I'm American and he's British, and we both have very common, "normal" English names.  We're currently living abroad in Russia, but we'll likely move back to either the US or the UK within the next few years.  The name we like- Ksenia- is fairly common in Russia, but there is no English equivalent (it's not like Anna or Katya or Natalya, which can be easily anglicized.)  The spelling in English is also pretty weird looking.  So guess I'm looking for opinions on 1.) would it be ridiculous to use a name from a culture we have no real connection to other than living here for a bit, and 2.) will potential-female-child eventually hate us for giving her a strange, hard-to-pronounce and weirdly-spelled name?  and 3.) will said weird, hard-to-pronounce first name sound silly with a common British last name?

Comments

[wolf-shadow.livejournal.com]

I love that one too. I'm a Russianist but can't get it past the husband at all... If you like it, use it. It's not like it would be hard to pronounce in English. It's a beautiful older name and personally I'd prefer a more unusual first name with a common surname as it means it's more likely to be you. One thing though that I would say, silly though it is, as a child growing up with a then relatively unusual name, I loathed that I couldn't ever get my name on things like pens and rulers, but that was the only thing that got to me... Would you shorten Ksenia? Oh, and do you go with the ya or iya sound at the end (I've seen both in original documents, so...).

By the by, I've heard some Russians say that Oksana is the modern form of Ksenia, but I don't quite trust that as I have no sources...

[callmepatsy.livejournal.com]

We've been saying it with an iya sound at the end, but spelling it in English as "Kseniya" somehow looks more complicated for an already unusual name. We'll probably use the Russian diminutive "Ksusha," since the boyfriend LOVES that, but not sure if we'd shorten it otherwise.