I have a 20 month old son and I’d like to come up with special pet name for him. Since I am 100% Polish I thought it would be even more special if the name was Polish. In looking for suggestions online, I found mostly romantic names or names that are generally used for females. I didn’t find anything that fit from a mother to a son and they never give an audio pronounciation for them.
Unfortunately, all of my relatives who spoke fluent Polish have died, so suggestions from family are no help.
My dad, who was fluent in Polish and who died before my son was born, had a cool nick name for my cousins son. I have no idea how to spell it, but written phonetically it was SCHNU-deck. I was told it meant something like “string bean”. My cousins son is tall and thin.
That would’ve been a great name for my son since he is built like a stringbean, but it’s been taken.
I know usually pet names happen organically, but I’m hoping one might click and stick.
So, all you Polish speakers of the SDMB, any suggestions?
My mother calls our daughter MilliCal Mala Schwinka – “Little Pig”. It rhymes with the Polish diminutive form of her real name. And, apparently, calling someone a “pig” in many European languages is taken as a form of endearment. YMMV.
Often, Poles have nicknames that seem a bit random to American ears. My mother’s cousin is called Blackberry, and I knew a Mosquito once, for example. Poles are HUGE on diminutives - tack on a diminutive ending onto practically any noun and voila!
Common ones I’ve heard are Kitty (Kotka or Koteczko) and Sunshine (Sloneczko).
Mała świnka would be the Polish spelling, if interested. “Little piggie” (świnka is the diminutive of “pig.”)
My own nickname was pietruszka, which means “parsley,” and is arrived add from my given name: Peter -> Piotr (Polish) -> Piotruś (diminutive Peter, like “Pete”) -> Piotruszek (double diminutive, maybe “Petey”) -> Pietruszka (parsely).
My brother’s nickname was mrówka (“ant.”) One friend of mine was bocian[ (“stork.”) You could do kotek or koteczek (“kitty(cat)”), misiu or misiek (“bear”), słońce or słoneczko (“sun”/“sun” diminutive.) Pretty much anything can work, especially when you tack on a diminutive.
I bet this is sznurek, which means “string” and is the diminutive form of sznur (“rope.”)
Green beans: “fasolka.” If you still wanted that one.
(They’re commonly served topped with bread crumbs.)
Fasolka/fasola is just the general word for “beans” in Polish, not necessarily green beans. For example.
How do you pronounce *** słoneczko*** ?
Something akin to swoh-NETCH-koh.
Oh, yay internet, here’s an audio sample.
My mother insisted that swearing wasn’t really swearing if it was in an unintelligible* language. Thus, all her kids were lovingly called ‘gówno’, ‘dupa’, and ‘dupa jasz**’ on occasion.
*…to those around us.
**I’m guessing that’s how it’s spelled. It was certainly pronounced “yush” by her.
In general, a z paired with a consonant acts like the english h in the same manner. Thus, sz=sh and cz=ch. The ł always sounds like a w while the written w sounds like a v. There is no written v. So just pretend you’re a Russian four-year-old that reads Z’s as H’s and you’ll be most of the way there!
My grandfather’s nickname was Fasolka. I never knew what the translation was before this. 
Thank you for your suggestions.
Pulykamell, I think you’re right about my Dad’s nickname being sznurek. How do you pronounce it? Was I close?
I really like sloneczko and we’ve said schwinka in my family, but it was usually used in a negative way.
I found some others that might work, but I’m not sure how to pronounce them.
misiu = teddy bear
kotku = baby
kochanie = sweetheart
zabka = frog and tygrysku = tiger (easy enough to pronounce, but I wanted to list because I like them)
słoneczko is the best one I think. “Little Sun” literally, but the meaning in English would be something like “sunshine” or “ray of sunshine”.
I’m of Mexican descent, but my dear Stephen is Polish.
With my handwriting, I cross my z’s and 7s , is this going to be a problem whenever i’m using the Polish I’ve picked up here?
SHNOO-rek, but the “r” is a flap, which many people say sounds like a “d” in English, so “SHNOO-dek” would be close. Although, when I say sznurek and SHNOO-dek, it’s slightly different for me.
MEE-shoo
KOHT-koo (it literally means “kitten.”)
koh-HAHN-yeh
ZHAB-kah
tih-GRIH-skoo
(“ih” representing a short “i” sound, as in “bit.”)
My Polish friend said that you wouldn’t want to know what his mother called him at times. He did suggest thislullaby. He said he remembers his mother singing this for him. Here are the words:
Na Wojtusia z popielnika
Tekst kołysanki
Na Wojtusia z popielnika
Iskiereczka mruga
Chodź opowiem ci bajeczkę,
Bajka będzie długa.
Była sobie raz królewna,
Pokochała grajka,
Król wyprawił im wesele…
I skończona bajka.
Była sobie Baba Jaga,
Miała chatkę z masła,
A w tej chatce same dziwy…
Cyt! iskierka zgasła.
Patrzy Wojtuś, patrzy, duma,
Zaszły łzą oczęta.
Czemuś mnie tak okłamała?
Wojtuś zapamięta.
Już ci nigdy nie uwierzę
Iskiereczko mała.
Najpierw błyśniesz, potem gaśniesz,
Ot i bajka cała.
(At least, I think these are the words to the linked song, I mean. Communication problems happen often with him.)
The words are a little different here and there in the linked song, but it’s the same song.
Thank you. I didn’t think that my friend would send me a dirty Army song…but sometimes we miss links. And he is a man…so the joke could have been on me.
Perhaps, there is some form of “tiny cabbage”, like the French, “Petite Chou”, “Kohlchen” or “Sprout”.