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Baby names

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

Original poster

German and English boy's names

38 replies

Phobicmum · 26/10/2021 18:26

Hi all,

My son was born nearly a month ago and we still haven't chosen his name. It needs to work in both German and English which is the big stumbling block.

We like Otis, Raphael, Flynn, Magnus (Gus), Hugo and Jago but all of them I still have reservations about. Has anybody got any ideas of names that we might like that would work in both languages?

Hugo for example is a cocktail in Germany.
Magnus sounds a bit like "Ich mag Nüsse"...

Thanks

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PenguinBarnotBird · 26/10/2021 18:51

Christian
Tristan
Alexander
Dirk
Andreas
Karsten

MartyHart · 26/10/2021 18:44

Magnus is a common enough name in Germany, I don't think it would cause any confusion at all.
Henrik is really nice

Snowisfallinghere · 26/10/2021 18:44

I live in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, it's quite an international area so there are plenty of kids from English speaking countries with English names like James or Milo, and they always get pronounced almost exactly the same way we do in English. So I wouldn't worry about German friends or relatives struggling with pronunciation, unless it's something really unusual.

Also, there are four kids in my son's class with variations of the name Nick... Nico, Nick, Nicolas, and Nicolay!

Shopgirl1 · 26/10/2021 18:43

Magnus doesn’t sound like I like nuts in German, I know a few Germans with that name.
Other ideas:
Thomas, Martin, Daniel, Sebastian, Oliver.

MarshmallowSwede · 26/10/2021 18:41

Oh what about Helmut.? I’ve always liked this name. Or Karl?

Shouldbedoing · 26/10/2021 18:41

Harry - world famous name

Shouldbedoing · 26/10/2021 18:40

Love Henrik

MarshmallowSwede · 26/10/2021 18:40

I’ve met germans named both Hugo and Magnus. I think germans can distinguish between someone liking nuts and Magnus as a name. I like Magnus as it’s also popular in Scandinavia. Henrik or Gunter or Gunther are also nice.

Xavier is nice or Anders. Both also nice.

Shouldbedoing · 26/10/2021 18:40

Ralph
Franz
Avoid letter J, there is no German sound for it
Max
Dominic

SummaLuvin · 26/10/2021 18:37

Does Wilbur work?

Miliao · 26/10/2021 18:35

Florian
Gunther
Thomas
Peter

Theforest · 26/10/2021 18:34

We have a German friend called Henrik who lives in UK and works well here.

Blubells · 26/10/2021 18:32

Bilingual German English boys we know are called

Sebastian
Quentin
Marcus
Alexander