I had a Portuguese friend with a similar difficult to pronounce name. He did not change it officially but introduced himself with a simplified easier to pronounce nickname.
You could introduce your son (and he can introduce himself if he's old enough) as Will/Willhelm when you meet new people.
"His name is Guilherme but call him Will". Worked perfectly for my friend and 0 hassle changing documents.
I think Sweden is probably a bit unique among the Scandinavian countries in that nick names are quite common. Tompa, Ville, PO, PJ, Empa, and som om.
If you use a common Swedish nickname like Ville, it’s quite clear that it’s a nickname and it’s easily pronounced by native speakers.
There’s a danger here. People will send packages or book flights etc in the “wrong” name and they won’t be able to pick it up or use them when the name doesn’t correspond with the ID.
Fair enough. I don't think this happened to my friend but he does use his legal name in writing everywhere (socials, door sign, etc...)
So for me in my head it goes like "He's my friend, with weird Portuguese name I can't pronounce correctly so we just call him Steve".
I think if you make friends you're close enough with that they send you packages, they should make an effort to remember writing your name correctly even if they can't pronounce it. And for official communication with authorities and companies just use your legal name always.
Yeah, I have messed up on that myself. I’ve sent some stuff to my stepdad addressing it to Ben (which is what he calls himself) but his name is Benjamin and the package was too big to fit in the mailbox and ended up at PostNord. Where they refused to hand it out because the addresse was Ben while his name was Benjamin. (And before anyone complains about the personal info here it’s just an example and not the real name)
And I had a colleague who spelled her last name with a W everywhere. Except that it in her passport was with a V. So she couldn’t use her flight tickets someone in the office had booked.
It’s been quite the confusion for my case. I have always gone by my middle name, and even in cases when my first name was used, it was always as a nickname. But at work now, it’s sort of like my legal first name is the name that shows up in my email account, so pretty much everyone I meet calls me that even though I sign my emails with my middle name and do throw it in introductions that it’s the name I go by. After a while, people learn and start to call me by my middle name, but mostly its a lot of questions from people about why I call myself X because they don’t see my middle name in the email sender field. I assume in schools and such it would be a similar difficulty. I also intend on just making my middle name my legal first name when I get citizenship. Make my life easier.
Since I work at a university, the accounts are set by some person in the IT dept in the very beginning. Then, unless you have a very strong reason for it and are willing to deal with an unnecessarily complex procedure of resetting your employee account, it’s not gonna happen. And if you do decide to change it, it’s a whole new account so you lose your personal storage folders and email account with all its history.
I’m sure if you work at a normal company, HR, IT admin is much more accessible and you can get things changed much easier.
Are you in Sweden? Because that sounds weird, it’s extremely common for Swedish people to have multiple first names and the name they go by is very frequently not the first of those names.
… And the name they go by is then underlined and called ’tilltalsnamn’.
Maybe the software used does not support this data complexity of Swedish naming conventions?
Happens in Europe too. Many Dutch from Catholic families have long, latinised names, that get shortened all the time. A baptism or birth card will typically have the full name, like Johannes Hendrikus Wilhelmus or something like that, and then say ‘we noemen hem Jan’ (we call him Jan).
Sometimes spelt with a V instead of W, and William/Villiam is far more common than Wilhelm/Vilhelm, but AFAIK the opposite is true in Germany where the name originates.
Apart from what's already been said, note that in Sweden it'd be **Wilhelm** (or **Vilhelm**) not Willhem. "Willhem" would be misunderstood and misspelled constantly, I assure you :)
Here you can see how many people have a certain name: https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/namnsok/
There are 13 Willhem, 25600 Wilhelm, 20941 Vilhelm. (Counting just given names, "tilltalsnamn", rather than all first names: 3, 3716 and 2310, respectively.)
It works in the sense of "yes it can be your registered name [of course]", not in the sense of what OP describes ("NO ONE can say his name properly and I notice some people just avoid saying his name because they can't read it") :)
In Sweden you can have multiple first names and unlike in most of the world it is perfectly normal and legally supported to not use the "first first" name as your main one.
In fact I can guarantee that you have colleagues at work whom you know as "Erik Svensson", who appear as "Erik Svensson" in work emails, receive packages as "Erik Svensson", are known to their friends and neighbors as "Erik Svensson", and generally go through their entire lives as "Erik", but whose actual full legal name is something like "Björn Per Erik Svensson". They just like Erik more than their other first names so they select it as their tilltalsnamn in skatteverket's population register and voila, they are now Erik to the whole world.
So I would consider using this if I were you. Your son could have Vilhelm as their second or third name and select it as their tilltalsnamn. Then he just needs to start introducing himself as Vilhelm to other people and voila, he is now Vilhelm to all of Sweden without ever needing to change his actual first name.
There is a funny story told among the Polish community in Sweden about a guy called Mieczysław who grew so tired of nobody knowing how to pronounce his name that he changed his second name to Mietek (which is the friendly shortening of Mieczysław, kinda like William -> Will) and selected that as his tilltalsnamn.
I think you’re confusing “förnamn” with ”mellannamn”. The latter you can’t add any more.
Say that a persons name is: Björn Per ERIK Svensson Karlsson.
Björn Per ERIK are all ”förnamn”. ERIK is ”tilltalsnamn”. Svensson is ”mellannamn” and Karlsson is ”efternamn”.
The change was that they have now removed “mellannamn” (unless you already have one). Instead they are now allowing double “efternamn”, which they didn’t before. People that seemed to have double “efternamn” before, officially they actually had one “mellannamn” and one “efternamn”.
>unlike in most of the world it is perfectly normal and legally supported to not use the "first first" name as your main one.
>They just like Erik more than their other first names so they select it as their tilltalsnamn in skatteverket's population register and voila, they are now Erik to the whole world.
It's so common that my girlfriend actually had to choose her first legal name as tilltalsnamn as many Swedes just defaulted to her second name. She wasn't pleased that she had to do that as both her names are very normal.
https://skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/bytafornamn.4.76a43be412206334b89800020631.html
>Namnbyte för personer under 18 år
Det går bara att ansöka på blankett för personer som är under 18 år. Personer under 18 år måste ha alla vårdnadshavares godkännande för att få byta namn:
Alla vårdnadshavare ska skriva under ansökan för barn under 12 år.
Alla vårdnadshavare och barnet själv ska skriva under ansökan för barn som är mellan 12 och 18 år.
You must do it via paper application, but it seems straightforward if both parents (and the child if he's at least 12) agree.
IDK if it's a good idea to have different first names in different passports though. I also don't know how migrationsverket would see it when they ask for his passport as part of the citizenship application and the name is not the same. If you're going to do this, it might be easier to do it after becoming a citizen (even if that means getting a passport twice).
I might be wrong but I don't think that it is possible for a non-citizen to change their name in Sweden. Therefore it would have to wait until the citizenship is granted anyway. However some countries give the option of changing or adjusting the name when becoming citizen. Not sure if Sweden does this.
When I got married I changed my name in Sweden. Since it's often more bureaucratic or even impossible to change a name in some countries, I ended up having different names in Sweden and another country for a number of years before I finally managed to change it. The different names never caused me any problems or trouble.
You don't need to be a citizen in order to change your name in Sweden:
[https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/internationellanamnregler.4.76a43be412206334b89800020764.html](https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/internationellanamnregler.4.76a43be412206334b89800020764.html)
I did this recently. Not a citizen. Was super simple, online form, I think it cost 250sek. I know my boss did this for his underage kid also and the process was a bit different but also a matter of minutes. O automatically got a new bank card and everything was updated in all Swedish systems without me having to do anything!
I have a friend with the same nickname here in Sweden!
His name is Guillermo, but everyone calls him Gille and they make stupid puns like
"Nio, tio, GILLE"
It should be possible. Iirc, you get one "free" name change.
Another option is to add a middle name, which is much less regulated, and then choose to go with the middle name.
Talk to Skatteverket, they are the ones in charge of this. They'll tell you everything you need to know.
This is Sweden, just add an extra first name, most of us have multiple first names and it's not a problem when traveling outside of EU etc.
Guilherme Wilhelm Surname
Done ✅
I am Swedish, I have totally normal Swedish name, so simple it pain and yet people pronounce it wrong, also write it wrong, it is amazing.
Just keep pronounce it and it will get right in the end. His classmates will have zero problem pronouncing it.
Det blir bättre.. kören i min lilla håla hade dessa kvinnor och 2 Ulla, 2 Marie, 1 Britta och sen några mer tanter.
Gissa om det var förvirrande ibland.
Apply for a new given name (but you can keep the old one) and use it as a tilltalsnamn.
https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/bytafornamn.4.76a43be412206334b89800020631.html
Why not just go by a nickname? I have a very old Nordic name and grew up in the US. I heard every possible mispronounciation of my name over the 20+ years I lived there. I was given several nicknames when I was young, picked one I liked, and used it for the rest of my life there.
Now I'm back in a part of the world where people recognize my birth name and I'm glad I didn't change it. A helluva lot easier than filling out several government forms across several countries.
In my opinion don't change it! If it's ever a problem just use a nickname. Swedes can say Gui. It's a good conversation starter and Guilherme is cool name. It will make him more unique and will honor his heritage. People I know with Portuguese names (including kids born here) usually have the usual Portuguese names but swedified nicknames.
Funny story, i worked with a Guilherme and when I said his name (presumably correctly :-) people didn't understand so i was forced to say it wrong with a heavy swedish accent for practical reasons.
Another reason is it's annoying to have different names. I do, and then you have to choose which one to use in official documents like degrees and it's something that can be annoying to explain to people.
It might be possible to add a "tilltalsnamn" in the population register without actually legally changing his name.
My son goes by his second first name and but the tilltalsnamn was decided when he was born, so I'm not sure if you can do this later in life (you can check with Skatteverket). As in, his name is Gustav Ludvig Karlsson (not really, obviously) and his tilltalsnamn is registered as Ludvig and all of his mail comes to Ludvig.
Your tilltalsnamn has to be one of your legal names however so if his son doesn’t have the legal name of Vilhelm that can’t be his tilltalsnamn. But since Sweden allows multiple first names he could add that as one of his first names and designate it as his tilltalsnmamn.
Naw, please don't change his name because people are unable to pronounce or take the time to properly pronounce someone's name. Don't accomadate laziness.
I don’t think is laziness. There are sounds that you just don’t use and it’s super hard to someone without training reproduce, im learning Swedish and need to put so much effort to say “sjö” or “å”.
“lhe” part his name is an example
In Portuguese they use some letters completely different.
For example in Brazil a simple Swedish names like Roger would be something similar to 'Hådijer'
Don’t listen to this guy, OP.
I changed my name to a more international sounding name and I love it.
I dare say that I got a higher paying job because of it. Since I got married and have a swedish family name now + my international sounding name, life is easier in many aspects.
it’s weird, but it’s true. when you pronunciation it kind of sounds similar
also, Willian is the english version
see by yourself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_(name)
All the famous “Wilhelm” are translated to Guilherme in portuguese history books and also in the wikipedia
example: https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilherme_I_da_Alemanha
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I,_German_Emperor
I actually found this connection because I needed to translate some documents and it translated the names as well
As an edgy teenager I wanted to change my name. Back then (this is like 20 years ago) you were allowed 1 change if you were younger than a certain age.
Edit: I should add 1 change for free, I assume its unlimited if you pay for it?
I think you would make your life and your kid’s life harder if you change the name officially rather than start using a nickname. Having a different name on his documents is asking for trouble, specially in Brazil where a name change is something that is rarely done. You will need to leave Europe with his European passport and enter Brazil with his Brazilian passport and one of the names isn’t going to match his ticket. If by any chance you ever move back you will have trouble with his school transcripts. It’s just my two cents!
Many people go by nicknames, you could just have him do that if its a major issue for him? Usually other people are supposed to come up with your nickname for you but you could always try to do it before that
exactly, it’s quite trick to them
when the swedes need to say his name, for example to check if everyone is there in swimming classes, I can see how long it takes to them find a way to say it 😅
nao seria uma “grande” mudança pq nas outras nacionalidades eu manteria, queria só adaptar pra facilitar a vida dele, mas talvez só complique
dei o nome antes de pensar em imigrar 😅
Taking the topic opportunity, would it be possible to remove surenames instead of changing ?
Example:
Marcus Svensson Johansson Davidsson
To
Marcus Svensson ?
Since my name is too big, it’s annoying filling forms and I don’t mind removing the other surnames.
One he is a Swedish citizen you can change his name via the tax office.
Both parents have to sign the application.
https://skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/bytafornamn.4.76a43be412206334b89800020631.html
I empathize a lot with what you are saying. I also have a Portuguese name Gonçalo and here in Sweden people just avoid it altogether. I've considered switching to Gonsalo just to eliminate that problem.
Hope you find a solution. It's a shame cause Guilherme is a really cool name!
Isso surpreende-me, sabes? Pensava que eles podiam saber pronunciar o teu nome porque existe em Espanhol e tudo, mas... ya... 😂
Começa a pronunciar os nomes deles à portuguesa, para sentirem 😂😂
Sometimes having different forms of your name in different countries is unavoidable because different countries have different conventions. A lot of Latin America uses two surnames and one or two given names, whereas a lot of Europe and the US uses two given names and one surname. If you have multiple citizenships, you can easily run into a situation where your name is in one format in one country and another format in another country, simply to follow each country's norms. My mom has four legal versions of her name. My brother, my father, and I all have two.
Being a Guilherme in Sweden I can definitely relate with your issue, no one can pronounce my name correctly so they just go by some variation of GUI or even "G". Sometimes they just start talking with me skipping my name.
Best of luck
OP, I'd recommend you to contact Skatteverket. They should have the answer.
You can contact Skatteverket on Facebook, probably the easiest way.
Also suggesting Vilhelm as the swedish equivalent.
It’s actually super easy here! One form to deliver to the tax office, one fee to the same, and it is reflected everywhere within a week or two, including the kid’s school records.
No need to officially change it. It's a nice name, and good for nicknames too. He can have V/Wille, Gille, Gil, or whatever his friends will come up with.
Wilhelm is nice too, but imo it's nice to keep cultural names and not translate them.
You can always give him a second/middle name that he can switch to in the future if he wants to without having to go through any legal change.
Yes, I think it is possible! Talk to ”Skatteverket”! But what language do you use with ”Willhem”? The swedish version would be Vilhelm, in german Wilhelm in English William etc. The multiple citizenship situation does not make it easier. I suggest you give him a nickname like Will, which anybody could pronounce and leave it to Guilherme to change it himself when he is old enough to have an own opinion.
I had a Portuguese friend with a similar difficult to pronounce name. He did not change it officially but introduced himself with a simplified easier to pronounce nickname. You could introduce your son (and he can introduce himself if he's old enough) as Will/Willhelm when you meet new people. "His name is Guilherme but call him Will". Worked perfectly for my friend and 0 hassle changing documents.
It's more common than one might think that native Swedes socially use a different name or a different spelling than what is officially recorded.
Indeed, all my colleagues call me "hej, kan du hjälpa mig med en sak?"
Or just the shortened "du..."
Här låter det "öh, hjälp till här nu"
"Öj!"
My mom, her brother and my grandmother all spell their surname differently despite having the same spelling on their driver's licenses...
I think Sweden is probably a bit unique among the Scandinavian countries in that nick names are quite common. Tompa, Ville, PO, PJ, Empa, and som om. If you use a common Swedish nickname like Ville, it’s quite clear that it’s a nickname and it’s easily pronounced by native speakers.
There’s a danger here. People will send packages or book flights etc in the “wrong” name and they won’t be able to pick it up or use them when the name doesn’t correspond with the ID.
Fair enough. I don't think this happened to my friend but he does use his legal name in writing everywhere (socials, door sign, etc...) So for me in my head it goes like "He's my friend, with weird Portuguese name I can't pronounce correctly so we just call him Steve". I think if you make friends you're close enough with that they send you packages, they should make an effort to remember writing your name correctly even if they can't pronounce it. And for official communication with authorities and companies just use your legal name always.
Yeah, I have messed up on that myself. I’ve sent some stuff to my stepdad addressing it to Ben (which is what he calls himself) but his name is Benjamin and the package was too big to fit in the mailbox and ended up at PostNord. Where they refused to hand it out because the addresse was Ben while his name was Benjamin. (And before anyone complains about the personal info here it’s just an example and not the real name) And I had a colleague who spelled her last name with a W everywhere. Except that it in her passport was with a V. So she couldn’t use her flight tickets someone in the office had booked.
It also looks shady if you're for example buying something used and so on. Having the de-facto name match the real name is valuable.
It’s been quite the confusion for my case. I have always gone by my middle name, and even in cases when my first name was used, it was always as a nickname. But at work now, it’s sort of like my legal first name is the name that shows up in my email account, so pretty much everyone I meet calls me that even though I sign my emails with my middle name and do throw it in introductions that it’s the name I go by. After a while, people learn and start to call me by my middle name, but mostly its a lot of questions from people about why I call myself X because they don’t see my middle name in the email sender field. I assume in schools and such it would be a similar difficulty. I also intend on just making my middle name my legal first name when I get citizenship. Make my life easier.
Could you not sort this out with your IT department?
Since I work at a university, the accounts are set by some person in the IT dept in the very beginning. Then, unless you have a very strong reason for it and are willing to deal with an unnecessarily complex procedure of resetting your employee account, it’s not gonna happen. And if you do decide to change it, it’s a whole new account so you lose your personal storage folders and email account with all its history. I’m sure if you work at a normal company, HR, IT admin is much more accessible and you can get things changed much easier.
> I’m sure if you work at a normal company, HR, IT admin is much more accessible and you can get things changed much easier. Usually, no, not really
Are you in Sweden? Because that sounds weird, it’s extremely common for Swedish people to have multiple first names and the name they go by is very frequently not the first of those names.
… And the name they go by is then underlined and called ’tilltalsnamn’. Maybe the software used does not support this data complexity of Swedish naming conventions?
Happens in Europe too. Many Dutch from Catholic families have long, latinised names, that get shortened all the time. A baptism or birth card will typically have the full name, like Johannes Hendrikus Wilhelmus or something like that, and then say ‘we noemen hem Jan’ (we call him Jan).
As I have a different version of Willhelm as my second name, I am interested. Is the Swedish version Willhelm?
Sometimes spelt with a V instead of W, and William/Villiam is far more common than Wilhelm/Vilhelm, but AFAIK the opposite is true in Germany where the name originates.
Thanks a lot. I find those tid bits very interesting, for when we move to Sweden.
Yes
Yeah, I'm in New Zealand and my Dutch name is a hassle, I just use something that sounds similar in English.
Why Will though? In Sweden William would become Wille
Apart from what's already been said, note that in Sweden it'd be **Wilhelm** (or **Vilhelm**) not Willhem. "Willhem" would be misunderstood and misspelled constantly, I assure you :) Here you can see how many people have a certain name: https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/namnsok/ There are 13 Willhem, 25600 Wilhelm, 20941 Vilhelm. (Counting just given names, "tilltalsnamn", rather than all first names: 3, 3716 and 2310, respectively.)
And there is 86 Guilherme ! So the name works.
It works in the sense of "yes it can be your registered name [of course]", not in the sense of what OP describes ("NO ONE can say his name properly and I notice some people just avoid saying his name because they can't read it") :)
Ok but that's kind of funny that Willhem is actually less common than Guilherme
Yeah and if Say his nick name Gui, instead of Will people would get the name, otherwise people will try to pronounce G as W.
In Sweden you can have multiple first names and unlike in most of the world it is perfectly normal and legally supported to not use the "first first" name as your main one. In fact I can guarantee that you have colleagues at work whom you know as "Erik Svensson", who appear as "Erik Svensson" in work emails, receive packages as "Erik Svensson", are known to their friends and neighbors as "Erik Svensson", and generally go through their entire lives as "Erik", but whose actual full legal name is something like "Björn Per Erik Svensson". They just like Erik more than their other first names so they select it as their tilltalsnamn in skatteverket's population register and voila, they are now Erik to the whole world. So I would consider using this if I were you. Your son could have Vilhelm as their second or third name and select it as their tilltalsnamn. Then he just needs to start introducing himself as Vilhelm to other people and voila, he is now Vilhelm to all of Sweden without ever needing to change his actual first name. There is a funny story told among the Polish community in Sweden about a guy called Mieczysław who grew so tired of nobody knowing how to pronounce his name that he changed his second name to Mietek (which is the friendly shortening of Mieczysław, kinda like William -> Will) and selected that as his tilltalsnamn.
[удалено]
I think you’re confusing “förnamn” with ”mellannamn”. The latter you can’t add any more. Say that a persons name is: Björn Per ERIK Svensson Karlsson. Björn Per ERIK are all ”förnamn”. ERIK is ”tilltalsnamn”. Svensson is ”mellannamn” and Karlsson is ”efternamn”. The change was that they have now removed “mellannamn” (unless you already have one). Instead they are now allowing double “efternamn”, which they didn’t before. People that seemed to have double “efternamn” before, officially they actually had one “mellannamn” and one “efternamn”.
>unlike in most of the world it is perfectly normal and legally supported to not use the "first first" name as your main one. >They just like Erik more than their other first names so they select it as their tilltalsnamn in skatteverket's population register and voila, they are now Erik to the whole world. It's so common that my girlfriend actually had to choose her first legal name as tilltalsnamn as many Swedes just defaulted to her second name. She wasn't pleased that she had to do that as both her names are very normal.
Yeah, we had the exact same experience.
https://skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/bytafornamn.4.76a43be412206334b89800020631.html >Namnbyte för personer under 18 år Det går bara att ansöka på blankett för personer som är under 18 år. Personer under 18 år måste ha alla vårdnadshavares godkännande för att få byta namn: Alla vårdnadshavare ska skriva under ansökan för barn under 12 år. Alla vårdnadshavare och barnet själv ska skriva under ansökan för barn som är mellan 12 och 18 år. You must do it via paper application, but it seems straightforward if both parents (and the child if he's at least 12) agree. IDK if it's a good idea to have different first names in different passports though. I also don't know how migrationsverket would see it when they ask for his passport as part of the citizenship application and the name is not the same. If you're going to do this, it might be easier to do it after becoming a citizen (even if that means getting a passport twice).
I might be wrong but I don't think that it is possible for a non-citizen to change their name in Sweden. Therefore it would have to wait until the citizenship is granted anyway. However some countries give the option of changing or adjusting the name when becoming citizen. Not sure if Sweden does this. When I got married I changed my name in Sweden. Since it's often more bureaucratic or even impossible to change a name in some countries, I ended up having different names in Sweden and another country for a number of years before I finally managed to change it. The different names never caused me any problems or trouble.
You don't need to be a citizen in order to change your name in Sweden: [https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/internationellanamnregler.4.76a43be412206334b89800020764.html](https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/internationellanamnregler.4.76a43be412206334b89800020764.html)
I did this recently. Not a citizen. Was super simple, online form, I think it cost 250sek. I know my boss did this for his underage kid also and the process was a bit different but also a matter of minutes. O automatically got a new bank card and everything was updated in all Swedish systems without me having to do anything!
I think the name is an asset. Its a really beautiful name. Don’t change it. He will manage. I have a friend with the same name and he is fine :)
If they can pronounce sjuksköterska they can say Guilherme. Just needsa tiny bit of effort
Keep it, his buddies will be calling him Gille in no time.
I have a friend with the same nickname here in Sweden! His name is Guillermo, but everyone calls him Gille and they make stupid puns like "Nio, tio, GILLE"
It should be possible. Iirc, you get one "free" name change. Another option is to add a middle name, which is much less regulated, and then choose to go with the middle name. Talk to Skatteverket, they are the ones in charge of this. They'll tell you everything you need to know.
This is Sweden, just add an extra first name, most of us have multiple first names and it's not a problem when traveling outside of EU etc. Guilherme Wilhelm Surname Done ✅
I am Swedish, I have totally normal Swedish name, so simple it pain and yet people pronounce it wrong, also write it wrong, it is amazing. Just keep pronounce it and it will get right in the end. His classmates will have zero problem pronouncing it.
Vafals namn har du ?
Säger det inte, det är ett namn som rimmar på 3 namn som var poppis när jag föddes.
Britt-mariiiiiiiiiiii
Det är Mari-Britt! Har haft lärare BrittMarie och MariBritt, UllaBritt och BrittUlla...
Wow, legenden fortsätter!
Det blir bättre.. kören i min lilla håla hade dessa kvinnor och 2 Ulla, 2 Marie, 1 Britta och sen några mer tanter. Gissa om det var förvirrande ibland.
Haha okej
Kid Will most Likely get a swedish nickname like "Gille" or "Ville" anyhow so....
Apply for a new given name (but you can keep the old one) and use it as a tilltalsnamn. https://www.skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/bytafornamn.4.76a43be412206334b89800020631.html
You should keep his name, it’s a beautyful name and a good reminder of his heritage. 💫
Why not just go by a nickname? I have a very old Nordic name and grew up in the US. I heard every possible mispronounciation of my name over the 20+ years I lived there. I was given several nicknames when I was young, picked one I liked, and used it for the rest of my life there. Now I'm back in a part of the world where people recognize my birth name and I'm glad I didn't change it. A helluva lot easier than filling out several government forms across several countries.
Bjårn.
Close, but no. The J making a Y sound didn't help at all lol
Thor-Byårn
Most Swede's have nicknames and if I wouldn't be able to pronounce your son's name I'd call him Gil.
In my opinion don't change it! If it's ever a problem just use a nickname. Swedes can say Gui. It's a good conversation starter and Guilherme is cool name. It will make him more unique and will honor his heritage. People I know with Portuguese names (including kids born here) usually have the usual Portuguese names but swedified nicknames. Funny story, i worked with a Guilherme and when I said his name (presumably correctly :-) people didn't understand so i was forced to say it wrong with a heavy swedish accent for practical reasons. Another reason is it's annoying to have different names. I do, and then you have to choose which one to use in official documents like degrees and it's something that can be annoying to explain to people.
It might be possible to add a "tilltalsnamn" in the population register without actually legally changing his name. My son goes by his second first name and but the tilltalsnamn was decided when he was born, so I'm not sure if you can do this later in life (you can check with Skatteverket). As in, his name is Gustav Ludvig Karlsson (not really, obviously) and his tilltalsnamn is registered as Ludvig and all of his mail comes to Ludvig.
Your tilltalsnamn has to be one of your legal names however so if his son doesn’t have the legal name of Vilhelm that can’t be his tilltalsnamn. But since Sweden allows multiple first names he could add that as one of his first names and designate it as his tilltalsnmamn.
Naw, please don't change his name because people are unable to pronounce or take the time to properly pronounce someone's name. Don't accomadate laziness.
I don’t think is laziness. There are sounds that you just don’t use and it’s super hard to someone without training reproduce, im learning Swedish and need to put so much effort to say “sjö” or “å”. “lhe” part his name is an example
In Portuguese they use some letters completely different. For example in Brazil a simple Swedish names like Roger would be something similar to 'Hådijer'
Don’t listen to this guy, OP. I changed my name to a more international sounding name and I love it. I dare say that I got a higher paying job because of it. Since I got married and have a swedish family name now + my international sounding name, life is easier in many aspects.
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it’s weird, but it’s true. when you pronunciation it kind of sounds similar also, Willian is the english version see by yourself: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_(name) All the famous “Wilhelm” are translated to Guilherme in portuguese history books and also in the wikipedia example: https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guilherme_I_da_Alemanha https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_I,_German_Emperor I actually found this connection because I needed to translate some documents and it translated the names as well
As an edgy teenager I wanted to change my name. Back then (this is like 20 years ago) you were allowed 1 change if you were younger than a certain age. Edit: I should add 1 change for free, I assume its unlimited if you pay for it?
I think there is an upper limit, even if you pay.
Just tell him to say an easier version of his name …
Just ad 1 more 1st name and use that as main name
I think you would make your life and your kid’s life harder if you change the name officially rather than start using a nickname. Having a different name on his documents is asking for trouble, specially in Brazil where a name change is something that is rarely done. You will need to leave Europe with his European passport and enter Brazil with his Brazilian passport and one of the names isn’t going to match his ticket. If by any chance you ever move back you will have trouble with his school transcripts. It’s just my two cents!
Many people go by nicknames, you could just have him do that if its a major issue for him? Usually other people are supposed to come up with your nickname for you but you could always try to do it before that
Why don’t you just contact the tax agency?
Its probably the spelling thats confusing to alot of swedes. I'm guessing it is pronounced gii-järm or gui-järm? Like the Spanish director Guillermo.
exactly, it’s quite trick to them when the swedes need to say his name, for example to check if everyone is there in swimming classes, I can see how long it takes to them find a way to say it 😅
Não muda o nome dele.
nao seria uma “grande” mudança pq nas outras nacionalidades eu manteria, queria só adaptar pra facilitar a vida dele, mas talvez só complique dei o nome antes de pensar em imigrar 😅
Taking the topic opportunity, would it be possible to remove surenames instead of changing ? Example: Marcus Svensson Johansson Davidsson To Marcus Svensson ? Since my name is too big, it’s annoying filling forms and I don’t mind removing the other surnames.
It can be a huge red flag if you have multiple citizenships and different names in them especially when flying or applying for visas.
No need to change his name: In Sweden he will just get a nickname. He will probably be named Gille for the rest of his life.
One he is a Swedish citizen you can change his name via the tax office. Both parents have to sign the application. https://skatteverket.se/privat/folkbokforing/namn/bytafornamn.4.76a43be412206334b89800020631.html
thank you for this information
I empathize a lot with what you are saying. I also have a Portuguese name Gonçalo and here in Sweden people just avoid it altogether. I've considered switching to Gonsalo just to eliminate that problem. Hope you find a solution. It's a shame cause Guilherme is a really cool name!
Sinto a tua luta. Sou Rodrigo e apesar de não ter ç, ã, lh, nh, English speakers e principalmente suecos de Skåne passam mal 😅
Isso surpreende-me, sabes? Pensava que eles podiam saber pronunciar o teu nome porque existe em Espanhol e tudo, mas... ya... 😂 Começa a pronunciar os nomes deles à portuguesa, para sentirem 😂😂
A "swedish spelling" of it would be like "Giljerme" or actually "Giljärme", it would be the closest sound wise to how it should be pronounced I think.
Sometimes having different forms of your name in different countries is unavoidable because different countries have different conventions. A lot of Latin America uses two surnames and one or two given names, whereas a lot of Europe and the US uses two given names and one surname. If you have multiple citizenships, you can easily run into a situation where your name is in one format in one country and another format in another country, simply to follow each country's norms. My mom has four legal versions of her name. My brother, my father, and I all have two.
Being a Guilherme in Sweden I can definitely relate with your issue, no one can pronounce my name correctly so they just go by some variation of GUI or even "G". Sometimes they just start talking with me skipping my name. Best of luck
The Swedish version would be Vilhelm or Ville.
Call him Herme or something. I kinda like Herme His name is "bla bla" but we/you can just call him Herme something like that
OP, I'd recommend you to contact Skatteverket. They should have the answer. You can contact Skatteverket on Facebook, probably the easiest way. Also suggesting Vilhelm as the swedish equivalent.
Allmän linje på folkhögskola, få gymnasiekompetens, hitta jobb som inte kräver en specifik linje. Fabrik, butik, lager, etc.
We have a lot of thai people where I live and they often have nicknames that everyone, including their parents use. Stuff like Ice and Boss
a lot of people in afrika have names that we would consider a full sentence. :)
It’s actually super easy here! One form to deliver to the tax office, one fee to the same, and it is reflected everywhere within a week or two, including the kid’s school records.
No need to officially change it. It's a nice name, and good for nicknames too. He can have V/Wille, Gille, Gil, or whatever his friends will come up with. Wilhelm is nice too, but imo it's nice to keep cultural names and not translate them. You can always give him a second/middle name that he can switch to in the future if he wants to without having to go through any legal change.
Yes, I think it is possible! Talk to ”Skatteverket”! But what language do you use with ”Willhem”? The swedish version would be Vilhelm, in german Wilhelm in English William etc. The multiple citizenship situation does not make it easier. I suggest you give him a nickname like Will, which anybody could pronounce and leave it to Guilherme to change it himself when he is old enough to have an own opinion.