Help protect children from gaming harms.

Take our survey

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

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

Complicated situation - help please!

19 replies

Meita · 04/06/2010 12:56

So here's the situation: DP is Swiss (German speaking), his parents speak little English, and tend to mispronounce especially names. I grew up in Switzerland as well but my mum is English, so I and my family are bilingual. We live near London now and for the foreseeable future, but might end up going back to Switzerland at some point, or somewhere completely different.

So we need to find names that work well both in (Swiss-)German and English, and possibly in French as well (my parents now live in French speaking Switzerland, and as DP and I both also speak French, we might end up in a French speaking country at some point).

But that's just one part of it. The other problem is that I can't pronounce the letter "r" correctly. In English I can gloss over it, but not in German, and not when I'm spelling something out. So the name(s) must NOT contain any "r".

And to continue, we would like a name that is not too popular, not in any top10 lists, but still "normal" enough that people won't stumble too much.

We have been finding girls' names much easier than boys. Sooooo many boys' names seem to contain "r"s. Oh, but with girls, we would really like it NOT to end on an "a".

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated!

Here are some we have been considering, just to give you an idea:

Boys:
Selvin/Selwyn
Elliot
Ianto
Nevio
Ëmile / Emilio
Nico (is hugely popular atm in Switzerland - so probably not)

Girls:
Enid
(Emily - but only before we realised it was number one in the US)
Elodie
Elisabeth

Any thoughts/suggestions?

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
JosephineClaire · 04/06/2010 13:03

What about Claire/Clara/Klara or Sophie/Sofie/Sofia?

And for boys, Leo, Thomas/Tomas, Hugo, Finn or Tobias/Toby?

JosephineClaire · 04/06/2010 13:05

Whoops, forgot about the R in Claire already - not feeling particularly sharp today!

kveta · 04/06/2010 13:05

Oh, Leo is a lovely boys name. Also Dominic? I have a swiss/english friend called Dominic, it's a nice name.

Enid is good, and I love Emily/Emilie. Who cares if it's no. 1 in a country you don't live in?

lidofabiro · 04/06/2010 13:09

My favourites from your list are Elliot for a boy, Elodie for a girl.

thumbwitch · 04/06/2010 13:16

Girls alternatives (I only really like Elodie of the ones you have)
Sonia} both of these would be with a 'j' normally in German, I guess
Anya }
Isabelle/Isabella
Claudia
Emilia

Boys alternatives
Max (probably too common)
Stefan
Dominic as someone said already

Elliot is the only passable one in your list, imo (sorry!) and I don't really like that either.

Meita · 04/06/2010 13:17

Thanks JC,
I do love Claire but it fails the "r" condition Sophie on the other hand could well make the shortlist.

DP has already vetoed Finn, I don't much like Tobias (Toby would be ok). Hugo is very popular in French speaking Switzerland but in Swiss German simply sounds VERY old-fashioned.
Thomas doesn't do it for me. Leo - perhaps Leonis and Leo for short? Something to think about.

So thanks

OP posts:
TrillianAstra · 04/06/2010 13:19

I know a German-English baby called Sofie (German spelling but same pronunciation as Sophie and all the English people who have seen it could work it out).

Meita · 04/06/2010 13:19

Oh, you ladies are fast!

Thanks everyone else too, some good suggestions there!

OP posts:
lidofabiro · 04/06/2010 15:25

Hugh
Miles
Stefan
Lewis
Liam
Nicholas
Otis
John/Johann
Matthias
William

Adela
Alison
A lice
Alicia
Della
Eloise
Emma
Emmeline
Galiena
Genevieve
Jocelyn
Lois
Louise
Zinnia

mathanxiety · 04/06/2010 15:25

From your list, I only like Nico and Elisabeth.

Suggestions:
Cosima
Anne
Adele
Sylvia/ Sylvie
Letitia
Zoe
Vanessa

Alex
David
Felix
Jonas
Leon
Matthias

Yummaymummay · 04/06/2010 18:59

Amelia
Augusta
Agatha
Alice
Bridget
Camilla
Camaelia
Cecily/Cecilia
Delphi
Ella
Eloise
Em ilia
Hebe
India
Isla
Laeticia
Olive/Olivia
Posy
Sophie
Tansy
Violet
Willa

Alfie
Edward
Felix
Finn
George
Milo
Otto
Sebastian
Thomas
Willa

bigbluebump · 04/06/2010 18:59

I like Nico from your boys list. How about Quentin - popular in French speaking countries but less so in Germany/UK.

I like Elisabeth and Elodie from your list. Also like Clara very much.

Yummaymummay · 04/06/2010 19:02

Oh and also:

Cosmo
Lily
Venetia

janeite · 04/06/2010 19:09

I like Enid, Emily and Elisabeth. Never seem Ianto before but rather like it and also like Emile.

cbmum · 04/06/2010 19:19

I'm an Elisabeth and love my name as it has lots of short versions that you can use. The only downside is in England having to always say it's Elisabeth with an S but obviously this isn't a problem in Europe.

RhubarbFool · 04/06/2010 19:35

I have been in your shoes - I live in Austria (dh is Austrian), and it was very important to me to have names that are prounounceable to both English- and German-speakers - and that sound the same (more or less) in both languages. Theo, for example, was off our list because it's prounced quite differently in German and it just seemed too much like having two different names to me.

We ended up with Noah (which you probably don't like bc too popular, but we actually haven't come across any here, although it's high up in the rankings), and Eliot (the spelling is a concession to dh). Eliot actually causes the Austrians some difficulty - we always have to repeat it, and really enunciate it - they always think it's Elias at first, and when they get it, they say "Eli-OT" with the emphasis on the second syllable.

My first choice would have been Lev (which is the Russian Leo) but dh vetoed it. Others on our list were Felix, Vincent, Asher, Ingo, Wolfgang (love!), Solomon, Ludwig, Lucian.

Girls names (never got to use any!) - Margot (my number 1), Matilda, Eva, Elsie, Daphne, Sylvie.

RhubarbFool · 04/06/2010 20:12

Sorry, just realised, Margot and Asher wouldn't work obviously because of the Rs.

Hedwig3 · 06/06/2010 22:06

Elliott

Enid
Elodie

theuninvitedguest · 07/06/2010 00:23

Surely HEIDI is the obvious girls' name!!

New posts on this thread. Refresh page