Well at least he didn't suggest Adolf

[zeegilly]

I'm German. DH is irish.
As surname will be very irish, we have agreed that DCs will get a German first name.
I was thinking a relatively simple German name or a name used in both German and English

DH has come home today after making his shortlist.
But he really thinks that 'the name' is in this list and wants me to put it to you lot.

Please please be honest

Girls

Hedwig
Ebba
Jutta
Ortrun
Elfriede

Boys

Jochim
Bertram
Dietrich
Dietfried
Ekkehard/Eckehard

Girl. Was very unusual and I was a bit at first, but it really grew on me.

Berenike I hope was a girl (related to Veronika - which he rejected)

Frida would have to be Friede or Frieda
Joachim would be Jochim

Gretchen/gretel - DH doesn't like.
Oskar I like, except it is our dogs name.
Sofie and names like that are too much like English equivalent apparantly (So no Claudia,Karls,Felix,Elisabeth etc)

Can't have any names that is Lena/would be shortened to something like Lena.

With the exception of Bertram I think that all of those would be hard names to carry in the UK unless you live in a very multicultural area. It does seem a little odd that your Irish dh is dictating which German names are up for consideration.
My dd's middle name is Frieda after her (half) German great-grandmother, surely there are lots of nicer German names that would be easier in the UK whilst still being obviously German?

Anneliese
Anika
Bjorn
Dieter
Gretchen
Johann

Looking through the lists of German names I see that lots are common with the UK (Old English is Germanic I think) or have variants in other European countries, so I can see the problem in finding something obviously German but not hard for the UK. I looked at www.behindthename.com/names/usage/german

What is your shortlist?

Both my dcs have Swedish names- as in very Swedish names, the kind that you just have to accept will have to have an alternative pronunciation/nickname in the UK. Some of the names on your list seem similar. So you have to decide whether that matters to you or not.

But your dh's list does sound very oldfashioned; much nicer names suggested by posters.

I'm afraid I don't like any of his suggestions either, all harsh and old.

So far of the ones mentioned I really like anneliese. Can you show him this thread, the mumsnet jury say no! Good point by nooka, yes, lots of words/names have common roots in the Angles vocabulary so fit in both German and English. Is he aware of this? He may be vetoing names that sound too English to him but they may well have very Germanic roots!

I hope the final decision will be a mutual compromise, remembering the child will have years of possible puzzled glances and misspellings ahead! Don't let him dictate over you please, after all it should be a joint happy choice!

I think I prefer Adolf to your DH's choices. Though obviously you can't use it for a boy. OTOH, Eva for a girl would be OK.

Another vote here for Anneliese for a girl. My cousin has a German son called Jasper, which I like. It might be best to ask your German family for suggestions - something that would both be easy for them but would work in the UK.

The German or half German families I know have children called Noah, Anna, Lukas, Oskar, Maximilian, Jakob. Too English-sounding?

I like Jochim and Bertram though prefer Joachim (but thats the Danish in my coming through I think)

Not massively keen on the girls names I think I prefer Jutta. What about Ines or Una two German names I always liked.

I think your DH is insisting on horrible clunky old names (I am 1/2 german), so you end up saying you don't want a german name after all!

Very olde worlde german name + very irish surname has potential to be a terrible mess.

How about Katja, Kurt, Dieter (a bit like his choice)? Kristian? Joerg? Steffi?

Oh and Adolf H was Austrian so it would be a bad choice anyway

I like Elfriede and Bertram, both very cool in a slightly strange and old-fasioned kind of way.

From my German friends there are:

Irina
Annelies
Antje

Fred
Marc (he is German, not sure if it is short for a more germanic name)
Stefan

Not sure if I have spelt them all correctly.

Sorry zeegilly but your DH sounds like a bit of a pain in the arse. So your baby gets his surname and his (very limited and frankly horrible) choice of first name without any leeway at all as to whether you really like it or not. I would put your foot down and put some of your own suggestions forward.

I love german names, but your dh's names are dreadful, apart from Elfreide.

What about:
Adelheid
Wolfgang
Lieselotte
Bram
Otto/line
Axel
Rudolph (shortened to Rudy)

Gustaaf

Andries
Mathijs
Nele for a girl

op that list does not have any nice names in it! some of the other posters suggestions are nice though...

Pieter

I did actually know a little boy with german parents who was called Adolf. They called him Dolfin tho.

I also love Elfriede and Bertram, Vess.

Also love Frieda.

How about
Cosima
Dagmar
Sigrid (Siri for short)

Anton
Konrad
Axel
Clemens
as suggested, all lovely imo. And Killian is fab.

They are very gutteral.

Do you think he'll object if the child ends up being called by an anglicized nickname (and actively try and stop that name being used?) - bearing in mind schoolkids will find any old excuse for a nickname, it will be hard to get the genie back into the bottle once a nickname has stuck.

E.g. I know of a Sigrid who is known as Siggy, pronounced Ziggy. Is that the kind of thing he's likely to have a problem with?

Other German people I've known:
Jens
Andreas
Rudolf known as Rolf

Claudia
Saskia
Manuela

Those are all the ones I can think of right now...

Ebba is lovely for a girl.

I teach primary in Germany and I have to say lots of the names I see are awful very old fashioned to English ears.

I'm watching this thread with interest though as German DP and I are ttc dc1....

We have, among others:

Girls
Lisann
Klara
Emilie
Ela
Katharina
Estel
Charlotte
Anna
Martha
Greta
Liesel
Isolde

Boys
Vincent
Leonard
Max
Laurence
Jakob
Valentin
Andreas
Kristian
Markus
Uwe
Wolfgang
Alexander
Sebastien

The only small German boy I know is called Liam ( unhelpful)