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Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

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Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

Baby names

Italian English names

29 replies

chewbacca83 · 16/02/2018 20:40

Looking for names that work in both Italian and English. Husband has a short Italian surname. I don't really want names that are usually spelt or pronounced differently in Italian.

OP posts:

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MammieBear · 16/02/2018 20:49

Adriana
Beatrice
Celia
Dulcie
Emilia
Francesca
Gabriella
Honora
Isabella
Julia
Katherine
Louisa
Maria
Novella
Odetta
Paula

Rosalia
Sofia

Viviana
Willa
Xanthia
Zoe

PerfumeIsAMessage · 16/02/2018 20:58

Francesca, Giulia, Martina, Isabella, Angela, Maria, Anna, Lidia, Cristina, Antonia, Angelica, Roberta, Veronica, Rosa

Others with similar spellings but pron differences: Paola, Beatrice, Caterina.

Boys are harder as there is inevitably a bigger spelling difference.

PS a few of the above are very very old fashioned (Antonia, Caterina)

TheWizardofWas · 16/02/2018 21:00

Laura
Claudia
Luisa
Bruno

grasspigeons · 16/02/2018 21:06

Chiara
Melissa

Marco
Stefano

chewbacca83 · 16/02/2018 21:10

Thanks everyone. A lot of the names are already on my list like Rosa, Marco, Bruno. I love Julia but it's spelt Giulia in Italian. Do you think that will be confusing? Like Cecelia is pronounced Chechelia

OP posts:

PerfumeIsAMessage · 16/02/2018 21:37

Cecilia is Italian, not Cecelia.

Giulia wouldn't be as confusing as a lot of the other suggestions because the pronunciation is the same. People aren't going to think it's Gee-oolia or anything (unless they are very dim!)

chewbacca83 · 16/02/2018 22:11

Oops sorry wrong spelling of Cecilia. Which is a beautiful name (I prefer the English pronunciation).

OP posts:

SaraTwelve8 · 16/02/2018 23:35

Cicely
Valentina
Luca
Lucia
Gia
Flora
Rosa
Pia
Leo

Smoliver · 16/02/2018 23:51

Chiara
Maria
Alessia
Francesca
Eleanora
Ginerva
Nicola
Elisa
Noemi

Samuel
Daniel
Christian
Luca
Nico
Andre
Arturo
Edoardo
Matteo
Lorenzo
Francesco

LovelyBranches · 16/02/2018 23:53

Alessandra is one of my favourite names.

Josephina
Antoine
Raphaela
Rosalie

chewbacca83 · 17/02/2018 08:40

I love Rosalie 😍

OP posts:

MikeUniformMike · 17/02/2018 10:30

I'd go for ones that sound and spell the same regardless of language.
Sofia
Francesca
Giulia (?)
Daniela
Leo
Enzo etc
Also I would generally avoid names that are girls names in the UK but boys names in Italy - Andrea, Daniele, Michele and so on.
I would avoid Cecilia and other names with Ce, Ci and ch and names with Gi, Ge in them because of the pronunciation .
I don't know what Italian names are currently in fashion.

thethoughtfox · 17/02/2018 11:20

My lovely posh friend with Italian husband has an Olivia and Eva. Both lovely traditional names which go with their very Italian surname.

daisypond · 17/02/2018 11:45

You probably need to avoid names with a ci/ce, some names with gi/ge, or a J, ch and gh - as in Cecilia or Julia/Giulia. I love the Italian pronunciation of Beatrice - I prefer it to the English - but it's not like the English pronunciation at all. Similarly with names like Lucia - you'll get people saying Looseeah. Currently popular in Italy for girls are: Sofia Giulia Aurora Giorgia Martina Emma Greta Chiara Sara Alice. To be ultra careful you'd have to rule out Giuilia, Chiara (though surely people will get this right!) and Alice. Aurora is likely to be pronounced differently as well.

NukaColaGirl · 17/02/2018 11:49

In our family we have:

Gia
Ada
Maria
Giovanna (shortened to Anna)
Amalia

PerfumeIsAMessage · 17/02/2018 13:27

Alessia, Martina, Sofia and Giulia are pretty much the most popular girls names at the moment.

I have a class of 22 with 6 Alessias.

Boys are a bit more traditional, Francesco still reigns supreme. Luca is massively popular though.

SpongeCake23 · 17/02/2018 15:19

Christina/Cristina
Sienna
Sylvia

Fabio
Antonio (Ant)
Paolo
Enzo

Camomila · 17/02/2018 17:05

This was our criteria, Italian me and English DH. We wanted names pronounced the same in both languages.

Boys:
Leo
Sebastian
Alessandro (Alex)
Francesco
Luca
Matteo (Matt)

Girls:
Chiara
Matilda
Aurelia
Allegra
Sofia

chewbacca83 · 17/02/2018 17:18

Some great ideas thanks. I love Francesco for a bit and matteo. I'll add them to the list thanks!

OP posts:

allegretto · 17/02/2018 23:14

Does it matter if they are pronounced a bit differently? Leo is pronounced differently in English, as is Alice but it is still the same name.

Popular names where I am in Italy at the moment are: Greta, Alice, Matilda/e, Beatrice, Sofia, Anna, Sara - and Caterina is having a bit of a come back!

For boys: Matteo, Mattia, Edoardo, Giacomo, Giovanni, Alessandro, Luca, Nicola, Nicolò.

Elmo303 · 18/02/2018 07:38

I used to know a girl with Italian heritage called Laurena pronounced Lor-ray-nuh. Always thought it was so pretty

cittigirl · 18/02/2018 07:40

Alice
Priscilla

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cittigirl · 18/02/2018 07:42

Laura

cittigirl · 18/02/2018 07:43

Maria

daisypond · 18/02/2018 09:49

cittigirl - Alice, Priscilla and Laura are pronounced completely differently in Italian and English.

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