Andre, Andrei or Andrey?

[Anonymous]

Just use Andrew. Don’t get into weird names that will get your kid made fun of at school unless you have to. Signed, a Russian and Ukrainian speaker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just name him Andrew and call him Andrey at home. Gosh.

Andrew is out of the question for parents unfortunately!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've known a few guys named Andre at school. I do think people will tend to default to that spelling and you risk the fault of someone pronouncing it An-dre-ee with Andrei or Andrey.

That being said as someone with a standard but not most common spelling, it's not a huge deal.

Were the guys named Andre black?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't Andrej the proper spelling if Slavic?

With Andre, people will probably assume he is African American. Which should not be a bad thing, but given discrimination resumes receive, could cost him jobs in the future, sadly.

Not sure how people react to Andrej, tho.

Given our relationship with Russia right now, not sure Andrei would lead to less discrimination.

Andrey will be constantly mispronounced and misspelled. Definitely not that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Andrei may read Russian. Andrey may read Polish or Ukrainian. Andrey is probably more likely to be pronounced correctly.

For best results, use the version that correctly matches the parents' country background and let the kid choose his Americanized nickname.

I work with a fully Americanized, possibly American-born, Istvan from a Hungarian-American family. He only goes by Steve but his official paperwork says Istvan. Nobody cares.

Another solution is to name Andrew then nickname Andy or Drew.

The parents (my very good friends) are telling me that Andrei vs Andrey are just two spellings of the same name and don’t differ by country. I have no way of checking of course, they are asking what looks better. I think with Andrey the kid can be called Audrey.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Andrei would be mispronounced (unless it is Andre-ee?)
Andrey would get confused with Audrey 90% of the time, and the other 10% would be pronounced as Ann-dree

I vote Andre. I actually don't think Andre reads AA. I've known several Andres that were Hispanic/Italian/latin, so that would be my first thought.

#1 Andre
#2 Andrei

Thank you, I like this reasoning!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The first Andre I ever knew was Italian. So I have always thought of it as a white name, the cooler, more Euro version of Andrew.

I always thought of it as a French name (the Italian version would be Andrea, go figure) but recently the only ones I’ve met are AA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The first one is the most obvious and common. Know a couple Andres of varying ethnicities. The second one is fine, people will know how to pronounce it but he will forever be correcting people on how to spell it. And as someone who has a name that I always have to correct the spelling on, it can get tiresome. The third just looks like you're trying too hard.

I was thinking he could always say “Andre with an i”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:André is French. A lot of African-American names are modifications from their French or European origins, OP. The accents are usually dropped.

The parents should pick whatever they want.

The parents are asking for my input…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn't Andrej the proper spelling if Slavic?

With Andre, people will probably assume he is African American. Which should not be a bad thing, but given discrimination resumes receive, could cost him jobs in the future, sadly.

Not sure how people react to Andrej, tho.

Honestly idk but the parents only asked me about the above 3 options!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just use Andrew. Don’t get into weird names that will get your kid made fun of at school unless you have to. Signed, a Russian and Ukrainian speaker.

Thank you, the parents don’t want Andrew, something about a completely different Cyrillic version?! Not sure.

[Anonymous]

OP here, thanks everyone, I’m going to recommend to at least rule out Andrey. I’ll try to update on what the parents chose even though it’s a few months out lol

[Anonymous]

My first thought seeing Andrey was that people will think it’s a typo for both Audrey and Andrew. So don’t do that.

I think either Andre or Andrei are fine and I’ve known people w both spellings (including a few Andres who weren’t black since you asked about that) but Andre is more likely to be pronounced and spelled correctly here in the US so I’d probably go w that. I’m sure lots of people will still mistake it for Andrew though.

[Anonymous]

They all suck

[Anonymous]

What specific ethnicity?