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Baby names

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

Original poster

Boys names that work in English and German - help!

96 replies

indecisiveAprikose · 08/09/2023 18:49

Ideally we are looking for
Not too common (outside U.K. and German top 100)
Works in both English and German (both pronunciation and culturally ie not super dated sounding)

Two syllables

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irw · 08/09/2023 21:04

Maxim

MerryChristmasToYou · 08/09/2023 21:04

It's finding one with the same pronunciation in both languages and that is not too popular in either country that makes it tricky.

Livingmagicallyagain · 08/09/2023 21:03

We are a German/English family and here is what we considered for the same brief without being limited to two syllables though. We went for Gabriel which still suits him perfectly.

Killian
Sebastian
Daniel

PastTheGin · 08/09/2023 20:55

MerryChristmasToYou · 08/09/2023 20:42

Adolf

There is always one. Soooo funny 🙄

Bruisername · 08/09/2023 20:54

I had this issue and found every name is pronounced at least slightly different!

we ended up going with the names we liked - ds name is actually french and is sometimes mispronounced here and always in Germany. However, we just told relatives how it’s pronounced and ds is happy to correct people

dishyrishi · 08/09/2023 20:54

Hannes
Andreas
Jan
Klaus
Axel
Dominik

PastTheGin · 08/09/2023 20:54

One syllable names work well.
Tim
Tom
Finn
Max
Ben
John
Jim
Frank
Luke
Paul

Whu · 08/09/2023 20:52

Sebastian / Seb
Ralf
Max
Rudi
Oskar

Gloschick · 08/09/2023 20:52

Gustav

HejLittleAppleBlossom · 08/09/2023 20:51

Killian

ShanghaiDiva · 08/09/2023 20:48

Alex or Max

Mushroom2023 · 08/09/2023 20:48

Sebastian
Nicholas
Jonas
Marcus/Markus
Lucas

PerfectMatch · 08/09/2023 20:47

The English/German couple I know have boys called Felix, Timmy and Oli.

romdowa · 08/09/2023 20:46

Erik / Eric

MerryChristmasToYou · 08/09/2023 20:46

That was a jokey suggestion, but it fits the brief.
Sigmund?

JustKen · 08/09/2023 20:45

Kurt/Curtis?

MerryChristmasToYou · 08/09/2023 20:42

Adolf

Toseland · 08/09/2023 19:56

Herbert

ShoesoftheWorld · 08/09/2023 19:36

A lot of names people are suggesting are massively popular in Germany - Max, Louis, Yannik, Luca, Jonas, Jakob, to name a few. And some (Christian, Rudi) are definitely 'old man names, but not old man enough to be coming round again any time soon'.

SnowmenMadeofIcecream · 08/09/2023 19:34

I live in a German speaking country. Here are some names that were on my list.

Kalle
Alexander
Noah
Matteo
Sebastian

ShoesoftheWorld · 08/09/2023 19:33

Adam, Conrad and Otto are good calls (in German Adam would sound a little more like Ahdahm).

Clemens
Bruno (I know a couple of these born recently)
David (would be Dah-vid in German)
Anton
Magnus
Philip (Germans would mostly spell it with two Ps at the end)
Marcus (was popular in Germany once but not many around these days - most of them are in their 30s and 40s)
Robert (ditto)

LadyMonicaBaddingham · 08/09/2023 19:28

Alex
Max

newbeggins · 08/09/2023 19:26

I like Hennes

Ambleen · 08/09/2023 19:25

Otto
Timo
Josef
Peter
Fredrick

MinnieMountain · 08/09/2023 19:24

Edmund/Edmond seems to work in most European languages.