Dear mums, it's the first time I am writing here, but I read this forum quite a lot before :)
We are getting a second baby soon, and we won't know the gender until birth, so I am preparing two sets of names.
We would like a short first name (3-5 letters maximum), but to make it more complicated, it should sound well and have no negative associations in 3 languages.
I am Russian, my husband is German and we have lived in England for the past 7 years and are planning to stay for at least a few more. We have filtered out quite a few names based on our knowledge of German and Russian culture, however I would be grateful for advice from native British mums. For example, after having read through some threads here, I realised that Kai and Ian are not widely accepted in the UK.
Ok, to cut it short, we came up with the following names and I would like to hear your opinions or suggestions.
Important: it's not really about personal opinions on the name itself - we all have our tastes. It's more about cultural acceptance and country associations I may not be aware of. Also, the name may sound exotic in one of the languages, but still sound pleasant. Thank you!
For girls, we are thinking about Liv (as a full name) or Zoe.
The middle name will be Anastasia (connected to a family situation)
I am not up for Olivia, but my concern is that there are many baby Olivias nowadays whose names are probably shortened to Liv?
For boys, we are considering Elias or Jan. Middle name is still to be chosen. Maybe Theodor.
I am not sure if Jan will always be pronunciation correctly (/Yan/), and Elias seems to be getting too popular in Germany (my concern), but not so in the UK.
Whay do you think about these 4: Liv - Zoe, Elias - Jan? Any other suggestions?
Please be mindful with "I like / I don't like" as you may hurt someone's feelings. Again, it's more about general cultural acceptance.
Many thanks!