Page 3 | German boys names

FünfundvierzigLuftballons · 2024-01-28T16:22:35+00:00

Would love some suggestions on German boys names that work well in English. I generally like short and snappy over long and flowing but open to anything.

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DancefloorAcrobatics · 28/01/2024 20:54

Tilo
Albert
Bernd or Bernhardt
Dieter or Dieterich
Jürgen
Heiko
Herbert
Eberhard
Karl
Volkmar

PastTheGin · 28/01/2024 20:45

Oh my, I had forgotten about that Otto. Just no.

Friends of ours called their son Anton while abroad. When they came back all they got was “Anton aus Tirol”, which they had never heard of!

DiamondSnake · 28/01/2024 20:43

Our own son was Gabriel and his name was also used and fit in fine.

DiamondSnake · 28/01/2024 20:41

We lived in Germany recently for a few years, some of the names their friends had:

Albert
Johannes
Philip x 2
Philip-Paul x 2
Paul (pronounced Pa-owl) x2
Tobias
Manuel
Jonas x 3
Tiberius (nn Tibbi)
Lysander
Lukas
Jannik
Jannis
Moritz
Maximilian x 2
Kevin
Konstantin
Vincent

EducatingArti · 28/01/2024 20:18

Martin?

lanadelgrey · 28/01/2024 20:16

Don’t go for Jens, it’s the once no one gets in English.
Otherwise around us from German friends we have Jonas, several Kai, Christoph, Konrad and Luc/kas I am fond of Florian and I think it’s getting more popular

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FünfundvierzigLuftballons · 28/01/2024 20:05

KentishMama · 28/01/2024 19:47

@FünfundvierzigLuftballons I hereby grant you permission to use my very special boy's name if you wish.
More seriously, we travel a lot and I love that we've had no name dramas anywhere. It's Adrián in Spanish, Adrien in French, Adriano in Italian... Always recognisable, and DS tends to make friends with other kids wherever we go. I think he's the only Adrian at his school here in UK, but there are a couple of Adrianas in other years, and he's friendly with an Ayden.

Haha thank you.

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KentishMama · 28/01/2024 19:47

@FünfundvierzigLuftballons I hereby grant you permission to use my very special boy's name if you wish.
More seriously, we travel a lot and I love that we've had no name dramas anywhere. It's Adrián in Spanish, Adrien in French, Adriano in Italian... Always recognisable, and DS tends to make friends with other kids wherever we go. I think he's the only Adrian at his school here in UK, but there are a couple of Adrianas in other years, and he's friendly with an Ayden.

Cotswoldmama · 28/01/2024 19:45

My dad is German he's called Tilo his middle name is Johannes. His dad was Dieter, my cousins are Konrad and Tilman. If I was a boy I was going to be called Niko short for Nikolaus.

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FünfundvierzigLuftballons · 28/01/2024 19:40

KentishMama · 28/01/2024 19:29

We're bilingual German and English. Our DS is Adrian. The pronunciation is only minimally different in German and English, and generally works well across Europe.

Also on our list were Henry, Milo, Noah, Luca, Felix, Oliver, Maximilian. Not a fan of Otto, personally, sorry!

Avoid any names with J or TH, and be cautious with R sounds. That's where you'll run into the worst mispronunciations.

Ooh I love Adrian. Hadn’t thought of that one. Adam has been the current front runner.

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Vinrouge4 · 28/01/2024 19:31

MissyB1 · 28/01/2024 18:34

No one has mentioned Wolf? Dh has a great German friend called Wolf.

I know one too. It’s really cute.

KentishMama · 28/01/2024 19:29

We're bilingual German and English. Our DS is Adrian. The pronunciation is only minimally different in German and English, and generally works well across Europe.

Also on our list were Henry, Milo, Noah, Luca, Felix, Oliver, Maximilian. Not a fan of Otto, personally, sorry!

Avoid any names with J or TH, and be cautious with R sounds. That's where you'll run into the worst mispronunciations.

ShoesoftheWorld · 28/01/2024 19:29

There are tons of Finns around in Germany atm. I think that alongside Ben and Max are pretty much the only names with fundamentally no pronunciation difference. Even names like Alex or Leo or Noah are very different from in the UK - 'Ah-lex' (with a very enunciated E), 'Lay-o', and a very different O in Noah plus an enunciated A rather than a schwa.

Anything 'international' with a short A sound in it, your German side will almost certainly insist on pronouncing as if it's English, or rather as they think it will sound in English, which means with a short E sound. So Daniel will become Denyell.

My dd has two Brunos in her class, which slightly surprised me when I found out, but it's clearly in the air - that might be an option? My eldest went to school with a Darius, which I quite liked and might work.

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FünfundvierzigLuftballons · 28/01/2024 19:27

PastTheGin · 28/01/2024 19:13

I don’t get the love for Otto. It always makes me think of Ernst Jandl’s poem “Ottos Mops”.

I like Otto but can’t get past only thinking of Otto waalkes (comic). Do a Google image search and you’ll see why 😂

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Perhapsanorhertimewouldbebetter · 28/01/2024 19:17

PastTheGin · 28/01/2024 19:13

I don’t get the love for Otto. It always makes me think of Ernst Jandl’s poem “Ottos Mops”.

I do love Otto although I also do think of Otto Frank.

Perhapsanorhertimewouldbebetter · 28/01/2024 19:16

Perhapsanorhertimewouldbebetter · 28/01/2024 19:15

I meant more the names which are spelled the same but spoken differently....
David - Dayvid versus Dahvid
Jonas - Joenass versus Yonas
Robert - Rawbert versus Rohbert
Benjamin - Benjamin versus Benyamiin
Maybe I've not explained very well....

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PS As a Scottish person I have no issue with ch or sch but my 'sehr' and 'sehe' sound far too similar!

nameXname · 28/01/2024 19:15

Lothar. I know it has an 'h' that is not sounded, but so does Thomas, for example. Otherwise, it's very easy for the UK.

I quite like Frantz.

DuchessOfSausage · 28/01/2024 19:15

Jens that’ll just be wrong all the time
I thought it was pronounced Yens. Jensen is popular though and gets shortened to Jens with a J sound.

Jonah etc will sound different.
Tobias will be Tob-ee-as/Tob-eye-as

Perhapsanorhertimewouldbebetter · 28/01/2024 19:15

BassoContinuo · 28/01/2024 18:36

And I think there are a couple of sounds that some English speakers can’t get - from memory I think the German ch sound can be difficult; possibly some of the vowels with umlauts as well

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I meant more the names which are spelled the same but spoken differently....
David - Dayvid versus Dahvid
Jonas - Joenass versus Yonas
Robert - Rawbert versus Rohbert
Benjamin - Benjamin versus Benyamiin
Maybe I've not explained very well....

PastTheGin · 28/01/2024 19:13

I don’t get the love for Otto. It always makes me think of Ernst Jandl’s poem “Ottos Mops”.

XelaM · 28/01/2024 19:13

Thomas is also an international name

Perhapsanorhertimewouldbebetter · 28/01/2024 19:10

FünfundvierzigLuftballons · 28/01/2024 19:03

A lot of these are lovely but we live in uk atm and I know they will 100% be mispronounced. Doesn’t matter with eg max as has both English and German pronunciation but weird with eg Jens that’ll just be wrong all the time. Already has a German surname that is the bane of our life here as no one can pronounce or spell it so want to spare him from having same issue with first name.

Tom
Ben
Max
Leo
Noah
Oscar
Daniel

These would probably be my first choices if he has a German surname but you want a less German sounding first name that neither UK or German folk wouldn't find unusual/hard to say.
I'm a bit biased as I love the German language.

NameChange30 · 28/01/2024 19:10

FünfundvierzigLuftballons · 28/01/2024 18:53

I would say very purely based on the fact that it’s my relatives name 😂

PastTheGin · 28/01/2024 19:10

A few names from friends who have to make names work in several languages:
Emil
Lukas
Rafael
Tim
Nick
John
Ben
Max
Will (for Wilhelm)
Alex
Markus

I would stay away from Dieter and Karl-Heinz 🤣

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FünfundvierzigLuftballons · 28/01/2024 19:03

A lot of these are lovely but we live in uk atm and I know they will 100% be mispronounced. Doesn’t matter with eg max as has both English and German pronunciation but weird with eg Jens that’ll just be wrong all the time. Already has a German surname that is the bane of our life here as no one can pronounce or spell it so want to spare him from having same issue with first name.

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