Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

Baby names

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

German names

48 replies

zumm · 03/02/2012 21:19

Hello, I'm looking for a German-origin names (m or f) to use for my next kid (German PILs), and pref. a 1 or 2 syllable name! Anyone got any good ideas? Danke sehr :)

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
Janoschi · 07/02/2012 23:56

Silke (Zill-kuh)
Willike (Vill-uh-kuh)
Dagmar
Tine (Tee-nuh)
Heida

Karl
Uwe (Oo-vuh)
Uli
Mattias
Juergen (Yer-gen)
Volkmar
Emil

CaipirinhasAllRound · 10/02/2012 12:36

Axel, Otto, Volker, Klaus, Birgit and Greta

Shanghaidiva · 10/02/2012 12:43

from my son's class when we were living in Germany:

Alexander
Cristian
Mathias
Felix
Moritz
Oliver (very popular)
Paul
Timo
Philip

Lena (very popular)
Mia
Anna
Jessica
Thea

Tanktop · 10/02/2012 12:46

I love Bettina for a girl and Klaus for a boy...

Longdistance · 10/02/2012 12:48

I'd of said Clara/Klara Wink

wonderwooman · 10/02/2012 12:54

Connie, Mia, Beate (Bay-arte), Pia, Renate, Sabine, Sascha, Sonja, Katarina, Gudrun, Maria

Klaus, Benni, Rudi, Constantin, Josef, Hans, Gregor, Justus, Heinrich, Max, Julius

zumm · 10/02/2012 12:55

Oooh, some great names here. Anna and Katrin are both very easy names, as you say. What about Marianna/Marielle - would either of these work/how might they be perceived in Germany (question to the German posters!).

OP posts:
zumm · 10/02/2012 12:56

Second question to the German posters - re. the name Jacob, how do you perceive the name Jake? Positively, neg, or neutral?

OP posts:
CousinCairngormMcWomble · 10/02/2012 13:19

Liesl
Anneliese
Hannelore

zumm · 10/02/2012 13:23

Annaliese - now that's good! Cheers for reminder, Cous

OP posts:
MyMamaToldMe · 10/02/2012 13:26

Juilane is pretty

Thaleia · 10/02/2012 17:39

Some of the names mentioned are really old fashioned: Ilse/Ilsa, Etta
Gretchen, Burkhard, Wolfgang, Dieter ....

Be aware that some popular "English" names are also a no-no like Arthur and Walter.

Avoid names which end with an "e" as the English will pronounce it "a" or not at all: Anke, Sabine, Anke ...

Under no circumstances, call him Kevin.

I think if you'd like at biblical names: Paul, Simon, David, Martin, Noah, Marie, Eva, Sarah ... you've got "the best of both", there both recognisable + pronounceable.

Or you jump the German band wagon and choose a English name: Emily, Henri, Louis, etc..

Thaleia · 10/02/2012 17:39

sorry, Anke, Sabine, AnNE

zumm · 10/02/2012 18:48

Thaleia - the Kevin thing works over here too ;)
But what is the issue with Arthur? As for Walter, it is so unfashionable over here, it's almost fashionable - aside from the nickname 'Wally' = 1980s childish word for an idiot...

OP posts:
mockingjay · 11/02/2012 04:12

Eva, Sybille, Katarina, Helen, Veronika, Michaela, Pamela, Andrea, Stephanie, Babara, Nadine, Silvia, Simone, Angela

Stefan, Florian, Christof, Johannes, Harald, Fabian, Tobias

RockinD · 11/02/2012 18:13

Could you use your PIL's names, or adaptions of them, as middle names?

D

DarrowbyEightFive · 11/02/2012 18:58

I do think Arthur (pronounced Ar-toor) is having something of a comeback among the Berliner 'cool' parents - I know of several whose parents are a bit lentil-weavery Green voters.

Some of these names are just AWFUL. Every Manfred, Wolfgang, Burkhard, Horst, Klaus I have ever come across has been incredibly traditional, slightly overweight and sausagy, and really rather arrogant. Apologies to anyone of that name around - it's always possible you're the exception!

"Under no circumstances, call him Kevin." I don't know if you know the Berlin cabaret act Pigor und Eichhorn, but they have a song about the day someone called Kevin becomes Kanzler (ie when Germany finally breaks down the Bildungsbürgertum barrier).

Sabine and Anke are thinner, but rather serious social worker/administrator types. I used to teach at the Volkshochschule/University and you could guarantee that half the women would be called one of those two, or Katrin/Karin/Katja etc

tammytoby's list is pretty much 90% of any nursery/primary school class list these days. Afraid my DC's names are in there too. We purposefully chose names which are recognised in both cultures, but nevertheless there are minimal differences in pronunciation between the two languages and I can hear if my children are saying their names in English or German. But bilingual children can cope with that kind of thing so easily.

I'm pretty sure there's another German girls' names thread from about a year ago somewhere in the archive.

DarrowbyEightFive · 11/02/2012 19:04

If you want to go for a 'posh' German name, the 'elite' seem to like names with x. Maximilian, Alexa, Alexander, Maxima, then Constantin (nn CoCo), Emil, Bruno, Theodor, Justus, Julius, Felicitas, Mathilde, Anastasia are all names of kids under 10 in local posh (rather than rich) families.

Janoschi · 11/02/2012 19:53

Yes, I kicked off a German names thread about a year ago for my half-German DD. We ended up with Robin :)

The German kiddies I know are:

Vincent
Fabian
Valentin
Bruno

Annika
Freja
Freda
Nadia

The previous generation are:

Franz
Mattias
Dirk
Andreas
Markus
Theodor
Jan
Thomas
Axel
Otto
Volkmar

Julia
Johanna
Meike / Maike
Rosa
Kristina
Andrea
Silke
Esther
Angela
Janina

Earlier one again (GP generation)

Karl
Reinhardt
Fritz
Werner
Manfred

Doerte
Rita
Waltraut (!!)
Lore

notinmypocket · 11/02/2012 20:27

Some names I remember from 'back home' and I think still work:

Maren / Manon / Friederike / Iris / Mirja / Bianca / Michaela / Daniela / Annalena / Alexandra / Lara

Alexander / Fabian / Oliver / Christian / Stefan / Benno

Psammead · 12/02/2012 11:04

Names of small children I know (In Germany)

Samuel
Timo
Tim
Kai
Luca
Lucien
Jonah
Jakob
David
Cedrik
Joshua
Philip

Lina
Lena
Mayra
Lucia
Lucy
Amrei
Rosalie
Frida
Florentine
Sara
Isabel
Selina
Zoe
Malin
Antonia
Stella

Thaleia · 13/02/2012 12:21

sorry, Michaela doesn't work at all in English, sounds horrible!

DarrowbyEightFive: I'm from the other end of Germany and Walter & Arthur is very much (still) the chosen name for certain immigrants. That's not necessarily a bad thing - one can have cross-over names as much as they like!!! - but if a child here is called e.g. Nadja, chances are high, that it is really of Russian origin. So really depends if you mind or not. On the other hand, I know a Jason and his mum insists and corrects everybody who's not saying it ze German way. Awful.

And no, don't know the song but will YouTube it in a minute but have a look here too chantalismus.tumblr.com/ - not everything is funny but you should get the gist of what is ;o.

We're also looking for a boys name which works in both languages but still need to find a middle ground between traditional and modern first. We liked Kai but found that it's a chavy name in both languages - not as bad as Kevin or Chantal though. So the search continues ....

Italiangreyhound · 13/02/2012 20:57

Like Leah and Leonie / Leoni and really like Elias.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page