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Baby names

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

Original poster

Spanish speakers - would you?

33 replies

ScotinSpain · 26/04/2019 17:07

Name changed for this as potentially outing. I'm Scottish and expecting a baby boy in July. I'd love a name with Celtic connections and the only name DH and I agree on at the moment is Finn.

However, we live in Spain and will be staying here for the foreseeable. Given that 'fin' in Spanish means 'end', I have my doubts about using the name. Would you do it?

All thoughts gratefully accepted!

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BertrandRussell · 28/04/2019 22:39

My half Spanish nephew
Is Oscar. Works well in both languages.

daisychain01 · 28/04/2019 22:36

It does work well youarenot my DSis was in Cataluña/ Catalunya when she had my DN's, she and the family are back in UK and Tomás and DBro Daniel slotted into UK schools very well. And no teasing even though the spelling is different - aren't kids so strange!

youarenotkiddingme · 28/04/2019 15:49

My son born in Spanish country with Spanish step grandparents.

We went with Daisy's suggestion. Works very well in uk too as we returned many years ago!

Original poster
ScotinSpain · 28/04/2019 15:30

He's Australian, so any names with an 'r' sound in the middle can sound odd and his vowels come out a little differently from mine! One of my closest colleagues has sons called Alex, Daniel and Samuel so seems to have cornered the market in international names!

OP posts:
RuggarWoah · 28/04/2019 15:16

Where's your husband from?

It's difficult. My friend kids need names that work in 4 different languages. Alex seems to be the most international name, even with different accents, Alex is still Alex. With Daniel it often gets shortened to Dani and is pn Dan-E-Elle

Original poster
ScotinSpain · 28/04/2019 14:00

Great feedback and ideas here from you all, thank you so much for taking the time.

@RuggarWoah I'll show my husband your list - one of the names there is his name, so he'll love it. We've thought about Alex and Daniel too as there are family links to both of these names, so maybe we'll consider them again.

I'm a teacher so have a good idea of the girls/boys name differences - I LOVE Noa for a little girl! I have female teaching colleagues called Louise and Joan, which really confuses the students. It's fascinating.

To top it all off DH and I come from different ends of the world so the name has to work in both of our accents too. It's so hard. Girls names seem to be much easier!

OP posts:
daisychain01 · 28/04/2019 02:30

How about Tomas (with an accent on the a, to show the emphasis is on the a and not the o)

All Spanish vowels are short sounds, not eee or aaa or oooo so Finn would sound like the start of the word 'finish' not like the start of the word 'feel'

RuggarWoah · 27/04/2019 20:21

It wouldn't be Fleen, it would been Flynn. I've checked with a few Spaniards today.

Efren would be -Ef-ren, with the stress on the Ren.

EspressoPatronum · 27/04/2019 20:02

How about Efren?

PetraRabbit · 27/04/2019 20:00

I don't think Flynn is that great either:"Fleen". Just doesn't work nicely in Spanish.

PetraRabbit · 27/04/2019 19:58

Definitely no to Finn. Unfortunately a lot of the celtic nsmes can sound really downmarket in a Spanish accent (in one South American country I know "Brayan" is considered pretty much the ultimate chav name- maybe unfair but true). What about Kian or Rohan /Ronan? They are easy to pronounce for Spanish speakers and kind of in the same vein as Finlay?

DonkeyHohtay · 27/04/2019 14:50

It will be pronounced Feeeeen and not Finn.

Flynn would still be Fleen and not Flinn. the "i" sound in Spanish words is almost always said as "ee".

lolaflores · 27/04/2019 14:43

Spanish in my experience (4 years. Dad of dd1 spanish), laughed at the very normal English name I gave her. Translated unto Spanish not very different but was seen as common. I got on with it.
Basque gallego Catalan regional names very popular. In canaries Iriome was the height of chic back in the day.
Spanish are not shy about open mockery and that's from personal experience

RuggarWoah · 27/04/2019 14:35

Flynn would be Flynn and means nothing as far as I know.

FogCutter · 27/04/2019 13:49

How about Flynn?

Would that work in Spanish (I can't speak Spanish!)

RuggarWoah · 27/04/2019 13:48

We do have some what would be considered different names here. In the last couple of years I've met 2 baby Veras (pn Vair-Ra)

A popular boys name is Joan (pn Jo-Anne)

Also Adrián is another popular name (pn Add-Re-Ann), whereas in the UK it would be thought of as a very 70's name.

I totally understand saying no to Finn. If the OP is living here and the little boy will be going to school here then it's not fair to give him a name that other kids could mock at school.

You do have to consider the country you are living in, where the child will be going to school. It's mean not to.

YeOldeTrout · 27/04/2019 13:38

I dunno. I met a Spanish woman called her DD Nina. Which just sounded WEIRD in Spanish (imho). But none of the Spaniards seemed to think it was odd, just me! So I don't think Finn (Feen!) would be so bad.

Finlay could work, too.

sparklytwinklyfairylights · 27/04/2019 13:34

I understand the reasoning for not using Finn, it would sound a bit strange in Spain but how about Finlay?
Still get the Scottish connection

RuggarWoah · 27/04/2019 12:26

Oh and Alex. They couldn't have that because nephew was already called it, but they loved it.

RuggarWoah · 27/04/2019 12:09

Glad you decided no.

We live in Spain. My friend liked Noah when she was preganant and her Spanish DH said no. Noa is a crazy popular girls name here pn the same way. So it would be like calling your boy in England Amelia or something.
They decided on Daniel, Dani in the end as it a really international name.

She's pregnant with their second now, also a boy so we've been talking about international names a lot.

The ones we came up with were:
Max
Marc
Lucas
Christian
Thomas/Tomas
Sol
Carl
Luca
Diego (Spanish but everyone knows it)
Oscar
Pablo
Mario
Nicolas
Sebastian
Patrick

Hoppinggreen · 27/04/2019 11:33

Daniel seems to work ok if you like that?

Hoppinggreen · 27/04/2019 11:33

You might not like it but our son is called Oscar
DH is German and we spend several months a year in Spain too.
We partly chose it because it works in English, Spanish and German
As I’m sure you know avoid English names with a J or TH sound, our friend is called “Yack” and we know a “Teeo” .

Hoppinggreen · 27/04/2019 11:30

It would probably be pronounced “Feen” as well, which isn’t great

Bumblebeesmum · 27/04/2019 09:55

I don’t like the name Finn particularly but actually I can’t see why it would need to be avoided - end is not the worst word. If you find something you both love instead then that’s great but I really think this wouldn’t be a deal breaker for me - just a downside

Bumblebeesmum · 27/04/2019 09:53

I never understand why people get called names for giving their opinion of a name on a the name section of an opinion site Grin

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