Classic: how do they get "sand"??

Casadena

Dear Prudence,

I was adopted, and most of my biological family was gone when I started looking. I did have a chance to meet my great grandmother who was “Dutch.” Her name was “Sanne.” Pronounced Sah-nuh. My husband and I are expecting a little girl, and I want to name her Sanne. My husband is fine with the name but disagrees with the spelling. He thinks it is going to be a hassle for our daughter to have to explain and correct her name to people for the rest of her life.

He proved it to me by texting it to friends and asking them to pronounce it. The majority was Sand. He thinks we should name the baby “Sana.” Which is phonetically close, but nowhere near Dutch. I feel like I am getting ganged up on here a little. Everyone likes the name and has been supportive of me wanting to honor my great grandmother, but agrees with my husband or suggests using it as a middle name. I need an outside opinion, please.

— Does Not Like Sand

banana468

I'm wondering if it was "Sounds like the word sand but not with a d" when people said so? Why they didn't just say "Anne with S in front of it," I don't know. 

I'm sort of on the fence.  If you go with a name that's hard to say it's going to be mispronounced but it's not made up or funky. However it's also your H's kid - so figure out where you both need to align here especially when you can still honor her without the actual name spelling. 

VarunaTT

IDK where they got sand.

My name is a common name from the 70s.  My mom wanted it spelled differently from the common spelling though.  We thought it was that way until I was 16, when the birth certificate got pulled our for my driver's license, and we discovered it had been spelled the common way (my bioparents are not good parents, obviously).  Growing up, I hated that I couldn't find my name at the stores and things like that.

Times have changed though and you can get so many things individualized.  I think it's a beautiful name, with a great story.  If people can learn to say McKenzie and Siobhan correctly, they can learn Sanne.  Also, I think just as many people will mispronounce Sannuh as well.

I get compromising on things; this just seems something that you shouldn't have to compromise on.  

MyNameIsNot

In what way is Sah-nuh difficult to pronounce? 

We live in a global world and people have names. Unless she's going to live in a box, she's going to meet people who have never heard of her name and whose names she's never heard before. "Actually, it's Jeff, not GeeOff" is not that big of a deal.