Strong, elegant girl name... in Portuguese please??

[mynameiselisaday]

DH is portuguese, and we seem to have somehow promised his mum that DD will have a portuguese name.

I'm ok with that, especially as the middle name will be my mum's, but would like a name that works in both Portuguese and English (spelling and pronunciation) and nothing too flouncy.

I've got a list of the officially recognised portuguese names (v different system they have over there!) but nothing/no-one to tell me which on the list are the Gertrude/Ethel and the Sharon/Tracy equivalents.

Can't ask MIL as she's stuck on us naming DD after her (step too far!).

What I really need is the Top 100 Girl Names in Portugal 2010...

Can anyone help please - I'm due in 2 weeks!

Top 10 names in Portugal 2008
www.babynamefacts.com/popularnames/countries.php?country=POR

and more here
www.baby2see.com/names/world_baby_names.html

I also found:
Carla
Ines
Ofelia
Nathalia
Nieves
Rosa

These are Portugese names according to this website.

I like:

Francisca ( Free )
Gabriela ( God is my strength )
Olivia ( Olive tree )
Lucia ( Bringer of light )
Amelia ( Hard working )
Catarina ( Pure )

I love Liliana

Maria
Inês
Constança
Madalena
Catarina

Thank you!

Very helpful.

Catarina is lovely, so are Liliana and Ines (though not sure how easily pronounced in UK unfortunately). Off to confer with DH...

Helena and Gabriella

I love Ines. Don't know why, so not what I would normally choose!

In fact I like all of those.

Anna

Beatriz is gorgeous imo. I love Ines too.

Mariana

Sofia
Gabriella
Anita

Hate to say it, but Liliana is a bit of an "equivalent to Tracy/Sharon", as you put it. All the others named so far are very elegant though. Good luck!

Patricia - though the pronunciation is different

I'm Portuguese and DH is English. We wanted a nice name that was easy to pronounce for both families.

We chose Sofia.

Her middle name is Gabriela as we liked that too.

Helena is lovely too but pronounced different.

Sofia translates to wisdom in Greek if I'm correct.

I worked with a load of portuguese and Brailians once so heres the list of female names

Rosalina
Vera
Katya
Maria
Ingrid (not very portuguese)

Katya would with a C instead of a K and an i instead of a y I think. Otherwise it's the Russian version. Not sure though.

Nelia

Eugenia (nn Jenny?)

My Portuguese SIL is Ines, which I adore, she's lovely too!

I also like the name of her niece, Mafalda.

Other family names:

Fatima
Sofia
Mariana
Benedetta (think that's how you spell it)

Thanks everyone - I was hoping there was somebody Portuguese or with Portuguese family out there.

SurprisEs, reallace - how would you pronounce Ines? Is my favourite, think it's absolutely gorgeous, but not sure how I'd say it, so seems a bit unfair to give a child a name she'll have to explain to people.

Also love Mariana, and Sofia, but unfortunately friends already have a DD Sofia, which I think rules it out.

I is pronounced as an 'e'.
N as normal
E should have one of these on top ^ if spelt correctly but I don't know how to explain it as I don't know pronunciation techniques, signs etc. But should be pronounced as though you were saying the word establish.
S as usual, kind of like the S in supper.

Probably not very helpful as I don't know how to explain pronunciations, LOL

It was on of my choices but DH couldn't pronounce it and it got on my nerves.

Thank you! Understand your explanation. Think the pronunciation issues would get on my nerves too - shame as it's so so pretty written down.

My DH's choice is Clara - what sort of name is that in Portugal please (popular/old lady cool etc)?

<a class="break-all" href="http://www.google.co.uk/url?q=www.theroyalarticles.com/articles/71/1/Ines-de-Castro-The-Queen-Who-Was-Crowned-After-Death/Page1.html&sa=U&ei=_t15TsayC6Gk0QXAsqivAQ&ved=0CCUQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNFYi0fE75VmcbuDbgb6ZFuzWxFJqw" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.google.co.uk/url?q=www.theroyalarticles.com/articles/71/1/Ines-de-Castro-The-Queen-Who-Was-Crowned-After-Death/Page1.html&sa=U&ei=_t15TsayC6Gk0QXAsqivAQ&ved=0CCUQFjAB&usg=AFQjCNFYi0fE75VmcbuDbgb6ZFuzWxFJqw
If you like the name Ines you should have a read at this love story (true) as it will bring meaning to the name and I'm sure DH will be wry touched that you looked into it so much.

Clara is a beautiful name. It's an old name but not one of an old lady if that makes sence.

Very similar to Claire.