Hvad hedder du?

• hvad = what
• hedder = am/is/are called
• du = you (singular)

So the sentence is literally closer to What are you called? than to the more literal English-style What is your name?

Because Danish commonly asks for someone’s name with the verb at hedde, which means to be called.

So instead of saying something like What is your name?, Danish usually says the equivalent of What are you called? That is the normal, everyday way to ask.

hedder is the present tense form of at hedde.

• infinitive: at hedde = to be called
• present tense: hedder = am/is/are called

Danish present tense verbs often end in -r, so this is a very common pattern.

In a normal Danish main-clause question, the order is usually:

question word + verb + subject

So:

• Hvad hedder du? = correct

The version Hvad du hedder can appear inside a longer sentence, but not usually as a stand-alone direct question. For example:

• Jeg ved ikke, hvad du hedder. = I don’t know what your name is / what you are called.

In modern Danish, hvad is often pronounced roughly like va.

A few useful points:

• the hv- is not pronounced like English hv
• the h is usually not clearly heard here
• the final d is often very weak or disappears in everyday speech

So learners are often surprised that hvad does not sound like it looks.

A rough learner-friendly pronunciation is something like HEH-thuh or HEH-thur.

A few details:

• the dd is not a hard English d
• it is a soft d, somewhat similar to the th in this
• the final -er is usually reduced, not fully pronounced like English air

You do not need perfect pronunciation immediately, but it helps to know that hedder sounds much softer than its spelling suggests.

A rough approximation is:

va HEH-thuh doo?

That is only an approximation, but it is useful as a starting point. In natural speech, Danish pronunciation is smoother and more reduced than the spelling suggests.

Yes, du is the normal word for you.

Modern Danish uses du in almost all everyday situations, even with strangers. A more formal De exists, but it is rare and can sound old-fashioned, very formal, or distant.

So for most learners, du is the right choice almost all the time.

Yes, it is grammatical and people will understand it. But it is usually less natural in everyday Danish than Hvad hedder du?

• Hvad hedder du? = the usual, natural question
• Hvad er dit navn? = understandable, but often more formal, stiff, or textbook-like

So if you want to sound natural, Hvad hedder du? is the better choice.

The most common answer is:

• Jeg hedder Anna. = My name is Anna / I am called Anna.

You can also say:

• Mit navn er Anna.

Both are correct, but Jeg hedder ... is usually the more natural everyday reply.