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Baby names

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

Original poster

"Spanglish" Boys and Girls names.

56 replies

Zorion · 07/07/2016 14:03

Baby will be British but spend a fair amount of their childhood in Spain.

I'm looking for the perfect combination of a name which is pronounced more or less the same in both languages, and doesn't scream "foreign" in either country! And that isn't in the top 50. DS is Albert which works well as even though Alberto is Spanish, Albert is Catalan so everyone knows it.

So far I have these, but I'm not really sold on them, they just feel a bit compromisey:

Girls:
Clara
Penelope
Isabel

Boys:
Daniel
Oliver
Oscar

Thank you.

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Original poster
Zorion · 07/07/2016 15:38

I also really love love Alba but I already have an Albert... When I was younger I wanted to call my future child Bernarda Alba after the Lorca play!

Those names are pretty but they are Spanish names which the English can pronounce. I don't really want it to be identifiably Spanish.

Irene is lovely but in English eye-reen (isn't it?) and in Spanish more I-Ray-Nay. Beatriz also lovely but pronounced differently. And Leo (I also love) is lay-oh here and lee-oh back home. I guess I don't want the child to be correcting the pronunciation whichever country their in. The stress being on a different syllable is ok, but if possible I want to avoid an entirely different vowel sound.

Nothing wrong with a foreign name at all, but I'm English and would prefer an English name. Actually, more a name that is recognised throughout Europe, itd be nice if it was pronouncable in many places iyswim!

I like Anna/Ana and Maria, I will add them to the list! Thank you

I know... its really tough!

OP posts:
Sadik · 07/07/2016 15:34

Rafael is one of my all time favourite boys names, and I think these days perfectly OK in the UK :)

BTW we spent hours coming up with a suitably non-country-specific name for dd then the two children joining nursery at the same time were called Marlon and Kimberley! (Admittedly parents I think came from Argentina / Bolivia respectively, but still . . .)

Sadik · 07/07/2016 15:31

Isabel is the really obvious one for a girl - but very common if not top 50 I'd have thought (maybe wrong, we left Spain a few years back). Otherwise Francisca, Maria-something, Lola, Ana-Maria, Ana.

Tomas, Daniel, David all good for boys.

Kalispera · 07/07/2016 15:17

Alba. It's one of my face girls names.

100paperclips · 07/07/2016 15:11

Irene
Andrea
Camila
Gabriela
Luna
Carmen
Sofia
Beatriz
Cristina
Veronica
Susana
Monica

Luis
Rafael
Ruben
Adrian

caju · 07/07/2016 14:47

Luis
Marcus
Leonardo
Rafael
Abel

Ana
Maria
Juliana
Fernanda
Vanessa
Alicia
Adriana

It's kind of tough if you don't want it to sound at all foreign in either country. If it's pronounceable in both, what's wrong with it being a bit foreign (i.e. Santiago)?