Henning?

[Thusnelda]

What do you think of Henning as a boy's name?
A brother for Frieda. It's a fairly well-known name in Northern Germany without being too common, but what do English ears think of it?

[RightUpMyRue]

Sounds like something you do with chickens.

[Christmascheerinateacup]

Rightup, it does. But I think I like it.

[poppydaisy]

I like Henning and know a lovely German one.

[CupOfGoodCheer]

Are you German/living in Germany? If so then fine, but otherwise it's too "out there" for me...

[poppydaisy]

Why would it be too 'out there'? Shouldn't we be encouraging more name diversity - would make life much more interesting. Henning isn't exactly hard to pronounce for a Brit, is it?

[RightUpMyRue]

So do I christmascheer, it's a good, strong name, just a bit chickeny!

[IWillNotDanceIWillNotPrance]

Herring.

[Thusnelda]

We live here in Britain and Daddy is English.
I like the fact that it is pronounced exactly the same in English and German and not hard to spell either. But I also thought it sounded like a verb. Chickening. We still have four months to think about it - any other suggestions are very welcome!

[rachel234]

Lovely name and easy to pronounce in English.

[AnotherMincepie]

Too chickeny.

[CupOfGoodCheer]

"Shouldn't we be encouraging more name diversity"

No, actually I don't think we should.

A large proportion of the names I see on MN imo are trying to be different for the sake of being different. Parents seem to want to pick names which scream "we're educated in the Classics/hippies/aspirational/whatever" with no thought to the poor child Hieronymus, or Dipsy, who has to go through life saddled with the godawful name

NOT a reflection of this OP btw...

[rachel234]

I actually agree with poppy in that the whole point of naming a person is to identify him/her. So yes, I do think we should try to give our children as many different names as possibly - that way they can be identified without having to add modifiers (e.g. surname initial, big, small Jack or whatever).

And Henning is a nice, interesting and easy to pronounce name - it would be a shame if the OP got dissuaded for not using it just because it too different.

[AnotherMincepie]

How about Henry?

Henry is of Old German origin, and Henning is a variant of Henry.

[mathanxiety]

Not bad.

I love Frieda.

[EldonAve]

I love it

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Terrible.

[jasminetatu]

Henning is lovely :)

[jasminetatu]

also have met a couple before, from Germany and Amsterdam, I don't think it's a super unusual name.

[Bluestocking]

I like it, sounds strong. My only association would be Henning Wehn who is hilarious so all positive!

[stickyLFDTfingers]

lots of people will have heard of Henning Mankell as well, since Wallander got so popular here.

[cory]

For me as a Swede it is a very middle-aged name, not to say elderly. Are you expecting to give birth to a 60yo?

[Thusnelda]

No, but names come around again - Frieda is also the name of lots of 90 year olds.

[FaverollesWithBoughsOfHolly]

I know a Henning. It's a lovely name but I keep calling him Herring by mistake

[yellowflowers]

I like it. I think people v accepting of foreign names when it's from one of the parent's cultures

[swanker]

Henning v nice.