I actually think we may never, ever find another baby name which fits our criteria. What are yours?

[Psammead]

I am British. DH is German. We live in Germany but spend a lot of time in the UK.

The name must be pronounced very similarly in both languages, if not the same. This means no 'th' sound, no 'j', no 'e' at the end. R can also be a problem.

The name must also be spelt in a logical way that comes naturally to both languages. C and K can be problem letters here. As can Z and S, and sometimes C and Z.

The name cannot be too modern or too old-fashioned in either country. Fashions in the two countries do not correlate with each other.

It should not be too biblical, too nerdy, should not be the name of people we know, or people we disliked at some point in our lives. It can't be too long, start with an M, or have any negative cultural associations.

It would be nice to have a nice nickname potential, and a not utterly hideous meaning.

Oh and it can't be French. Or too British or too German.

I think the next one will be named Bob. Regardless of sex.

Tell me about your criteria!

Kaspar

we did our names alphabetical, I am C DH is A, DS is B and DD is D....ha ha worked for us....good luck

We have to have a name which is

• not any former boy/girlfriend
• not anyone we wanted to go out with but didn't
• not any family member (up to and including second cousins)
• not anyone my mother-in-law has taught
• not any names my sister-in-law (a social worker) thinks are 'trouble'
• not any names associated with Conservative or Liberal Democrat politicians (we are a "coalition" household, with associated tensions)
• not any names which will result in their being beaten up in a comprehensive school playground
• not any names which appear in the "top ten list of names"
• not any names DH defines as 'posh'

... Any ideas?

Lukas/Lucas
Leon
Finn/Fynn
Jonas
Luis/Louis
Archie
Bruno
Otto
Leon
Felix

Hanna/Hannah
Emily/Emillie
Ada
Amalie
Ava
Mathilda
Millie
Mia
Lili - Lily -Lilli
Sofie
Alina

Mine are:-

Not starting with either A, C, J, L, T, V
Not common (i.e. just a couple of children per year called it)
Pref. Greek or other Ancient language or Welsh
or
Virtue name
or
Feminist learnings
or
All of the above

DC4 if a boy will be Eric Steven if a girl Eris ???? as we haven't worked out the middle name yet. DH would like it to start with a T though (first names would be L,A,C,E [in order] and middle L,I,S,T [it appeals to his ASD side]

Mine are:

• Must be unusual enough that there aren't 3 in a class but well known enough that people have heard of it and no how to pronounce.
• I like them to be traditional english names - they can be derived from english names.
• I like them to be reasonably funky and cool - without being weird.

-And not to be in any way similar to mine and my husbands names.

• We ended up with Matilda Cecelia, Archie Felix and baby no.3 will be called Rosie India (with help from mumsnetters for this one).

To be honest though i had names that i have like since childhood, i chose the first names, and he has more say when it came to the second names. For example he wanted Matilda's second name to be Cecelia, because it is the name of the patron saint of music, and his father who past away before Matilda was born was a musician.

frankies69 - that's how it in my family!
i'm A, little sis is and big sis is C.
surname is D too!

my own family, we're vowels - i'm A, dh is I and dd is E. and our middle names flow too - mine's H, dh's is j and dd's is K

Sorry I was crap at replying! Thank you for your suggestions and stories.

Belgo - I just do not want my child to be called a name that I do not call him or her. It would be weird. Maybe it's just a personal thing.

A few people have said Leo and I think that is a great option!

My Anglo/German couple friends have a Cecelia and an Otto.

Haha, that sounds like a nightmare - I thought we were picky!!

Ours are:

Needs to not end in a "k" sound
2 syllables
For girls, need to have a traditional longer name which we are able to shorten to a 2 syllable name ending in "a" or "ie"
For boys, want something less traditional and more cool with 2 syllables
Scottish theme
Can't be a family name (saving that for middle name)
Can't be in top 10 fr previous year
Also like French-type names as we spend a lot of time there

Not asking a lot are we...?

Ours are:

Must be French, but pronounceable in English - though this is because the French are not so good at pronouncing English names.
Must be a Saint's name
Can't be a relative's name - DH has 36 cousins, many with children; I spend a lot of time cross-referencing against the family calendar.
Not a popular name, definitely not top 20, ideally not top 100
No "unfortunate" shortenings - just ruled out my current favourite because of this :(

Not bothered about whether it sounds the same in both languages. DS's name is slightly different and he responds to either, and it doesn't bother us. Except when (and I think Belgo was getting at this) French people try to say it the English way and English people try to say it the French way, normally to try to show off (yes, I'm looking at you, mother).

There is nothing more embarrassing than being stood next to my mother whilst she calls "X(mispronounced), viens ici (mispronounced)" at soft play whilst looking smugly around to check that everyone has clocked her bilingual GS - no, they've clocked the smug, RP-accented woman doing loud grand-parenting and think you're a twat, hth.

Sorry apparently I needed to vent that, can you tell it happened just this morning, yet again...

Ours were:

No top 50 names (reasonably common surname)
Nothing beginning with S for DS2 (DS1 is Shaun and we didn't want the two of them alliterating together)
Something that is easy to spell for DS2 - you'd be amazed how many people use the wrong spelling of Shaun after four years, I'm talking relatives, not people at school ect!!
No name the same as anyone famous (ie: if our surname was Jones we wouldn't have called DS2 Tom)
Something which would suit a baby, a teen, a young adult and an older adult
no names belonging to living family members
Nothing considered 'out there' by DH
Preferably something with an interesting meaning/story behind it
Nothing seasonal (DS2 is a December baby)

DS2 ended up as Jason!!

Jason is a fab name! Love it.

Nicholas. My friend in Berlin (both she and her DH are German, both fluent in English) chose this name. Works for both cultures and languages.

we are a german/british household too so had similar criteria! we ended up googling the office of national statistics in the uk for top ten baby names of last hundred yrs, writing down a possible list, then doing the same with the german list equivalents.
...but then we picked edith anyway despite the "th" because we liked the name :)
our boy name was Conrad
how about Anna? not as germanic as is used to be.
good luck!

www.ons.gov.uk/ons/guide-method/understanding-ons-statistics/interactive-content/interactive-content.html
it is near the bottom of this webpage, a great interactive chart of top 100 uk baby names

Not sure if you've had the baby yet but these two sound almost the same in either language;

Lena for a girl (lae-nuh German)

Barnaby for a boy (almost the same) but the bee sound at end is a sharper ee sound and the barn is a longer sound than in UK.

Heidi
Anna
Andrea
Greta

Thomas

Why not compromise and have an American name, say Erin

Good luck!

I guess Eva isn't popular in Germany... And Boris would make people snigger here. Boy, this is tough isn't it!

Lena for a girl? Ada, Adelaide, Alexandra, Caroline, Clara.

Kasper for a boy? Casper was my boy's name till I found out was having a girl.

This has some that might work: www.behindthename.com/names/usage/german

May I join the club? I am currently pregnant with DC2 who is likely to remain "Flipper" if DH and I do not drop one of our criteria.

We also need a name that works both in English (DH) and in French (me) and we would like our children's name to reflect their mixed origins (English, French, but also Polish, Scottish and Ukrainian). Even if I'd stop the list here, we would already be stuck.

The name cannot begin with a Z and cannot end with the following sounds: "er", "es"; "as", "ee", "th", "ze", "za". In fact the "th" sound must be avoided in general (not a very French friendly sound at all).

Last, we want a name which is both "artsy" and classy. Trust me, there are not a lot of them.

TBH DS1's name does not fit all the criteria, I let DH have the Scottish name he wanted. But now, it is MY TURN and I want a French name for my "baby frog". I guess that if we ever have a DC3 he/she will be the Eastern European one! :o

magdalena I would post as a separate post or people may get confused and take over giving your names rather than OPs. That said, have you thought of:

Girls
Elise (zzz sound)
Ophelie
Katya
Lucie
Nathalie/Nathalia

Boys
Thomas (obv. said tom- a)
Luc
Christophe
Fabien
Sebastien

Claus ?

loopydoo Oh, thanks for your suggestions (we already have considered them but they do not work for one reason or another), but I was just sharing my long list of criteria.

OP: They might be a little biblical but what about Gabriel, Tobias and Raphael?
My DS1's name Alec should also work. Good luck!

oh whoops - I see magdelene.

I love this thread!
Erika, Anna, Kristia, Katia/Katja would all get my vote.

Clearly you have to have a DD, mind. I hope you manage it