Names that work in English and German (and don't sound too German!)

[CupOfBrownJoy]

I'm English, raised in Wales, DP is German. We live in Germany.

Surname is short, one syllable beginning with R.

I'm looking for longish girls names, 3 or 4 syllables. So far we can agree on Cecilia or Isolde. I like Beatrice and Amandine but DP isn't keen. Genevieve is a possibility but its a mouthful in German!

Middle name would be Anna, Sophia or (probably) Theresa after family.

Boys I'm finding impossible. I love Benjamin, DP hates it. He loves Fritz

We can agree on Welsh boys names eg Iolo, Ieuan, Iestyn, which are all pronounceable in German but not from the spelling, iyswim.

I'm stuck! I would really appreciate

1. input on names we have
2. further suggestions
3. opinions on whether giving a boy in Germany a Welsh name is downright cruel?

TIA

International German families I know have children called :

• Raphael, Alexander, Felix, Lewys, Adrien, Martin
• Lucia, Victoria, Anne-Marie (pn Annamaria), Andrea

IME Germans for the most part are quite with it and can handle a name like Jack without turning it into Yack. No one at all calls jeans "yeans" anymore do they? Th I would avoid though. I don't think they find it an aesthetically pleasing sound.

I know an adult Owen with english mother/german father who grew up in germany. My personal choice would be Bruno

Lena, pronounced Len-a, not Leena.

German families I know (currently living in the UK) have children named
Isabel
Antonia
Emily
Raphael
Sebastian
Quentin
Oskar

"IME Germans for the most part are quite with it and can handle a name like Jack without turning it into Yack. No one at all calls jeans "yeans" anymore do they?"

I think it depends - people at my DDs' international school can cope with most English names, but less cosmopolitan people still find it inconceivable that 'j' is not pronounced as 'y'. I once had some workmen round at my flat and one called out to the other 'hey, du, ya-mess'. Turned out that the other guy was an Englishman called James - he said he'd given up trying to educate his workmates and just put up with the ya-mess. I also know an English-German girl called Rachael who frequently gets called Rak-hi-el by strangers.

tammy - a German family called their DS Quentin - which would be prnounced Kfenteen in German? - cruel indeed.

Hannelore for a girl.

Fritz... erm... no. How about Dieter? I really like Dieter.

Sadly dh is about as exotic as socks with sandals so I will just have to give you my fave German names and hope someone gets to use them

Katrin is a good Welsh name that would work in German. I also like Seren but not sure how well it would work in German. I'm sure it's a verb for something...

When my son was at Kindergarten, Jack was pronounced so it sounded like Jeck rather than Yack.

My favourite names when ds was in Kindergarten were Ingride, Ava, Magdalene, Oskar, Lilia, Emily, Katya, Maya.

My other son is called Harry which isn't a German name so people used to ask us if he was named after Harry Potter or Prince Harry which isn't the worst but shows how internationally well known he is. (When they found it he's actually Harrison on paper, I used to get the Harrison Ford question. 8-))

Louise/Louisa
Melinda
Elisabeth
Pia (pee-ah)
Marie
Larissa

Nikolas
Benjamin
Nils (neelz)
Justus (yoostooz, there is a very famous child-ook character by that name)

dieter is really old fashioned (my father in law is called dieter). not a bad name, but many germans associate it with old men with beer belly and bald head :o

Erm, Katie, both Hannelore and Dieter belong to the Wolfgang/Hildegard school of 'names for traditional 60 year olds rather than sweet little babies'

Associations: Hannelore - Kohl (not great, she killed herself)
Dieter - Bohlen: foul arrogant ex-pop singer in the Simon Cowell style. Yuk.

Ah my association is Home and Away in it's prime

Maybe due a revival?

I still like Hannelore. So ner!

"tammy - a German family called their DS Quentin - which would be prnounced Kfenteen in German? - cruel indeed"

No, in German it is pronounced Kwentin, very similar to English, with the emphasis on the first syllable. I think it sound great in both languages!

(It would only be different in French, more like - Kon-tan)

I'm German, living in the UK currently. These are quite popular names in Germany at the moment:

Mia
Hannah
Lena
Lea
Emma
Anna
Leonie
Lilli
Emilie
Lina
Laura
Marie
Sarah
Sophia
Lara
Sophie
Maja
Amelie
Luisa
Johanna
Antonia
Emilia
Nele
Klara
Leni
Alina

Leon
Lucas / Lukas
Ben
Finn / Fynn
Jonas
Paul
Luis / Louis
Maximilian
Luca / Luka
Felix
Tim / Timm
Elias
Max
Noah
Philip / Philipp
Niclas / Niklas
Julian
Moritz
Jan
Konstantin
David
Fabian
Alexander
Simon
Yannik
Tom
Niko
Jakob
Erik
Quentin
Linus
Florian

I love James being pronounced Yah-mes But yes, it can happen

Wow thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

I've got lots more to add to our list.

I'm still finding the boys names more of a struggle. According to DP, Teodore is old fashioned, Constantine is too trendy, and Ingo (which I love) is "extremely crap". Hmmmmm

Its odd/interesting how I come at German names simply by the look or sound of them - I don't have any preconceptions about the sort of person who will have that name at all, because I'm not German. DP is the one who will say its old fashioned, or belongs to someone with a beer belly or whatever!!

I think you can safely run all suggestions past me and if I like it you will find it is old-fashioned and belongs to an unattractive pensioner

my dd had a German friend called Ansgar and he was a lovely boy. Otherwise the boys seem to have had run of the mill names like Nicolas, Tobias, Marcus, Vincent, also Vinzenz, David, Konstantin, Lukas, Mathias, Maximilian, Sebastian, Tassilo, Alexander and Felix. Also Tilmann and Bennett which I find more unusual.

Maybe you need to edge your dh away from the vetoing and into making some suggestions.

I know a German boy called Florian.

Our friends (English and German) have just called their daughter Emily which they say works well for them both - and is lovely!

Fritz is a great name!

In German, Fritz is very uncool. Like Brian or Nigel or something.

I cannot understand why DP likes Fritz at all! It just reminds me of Josef Fritzl...

Its short for Frederik though, which I like, and the nn Freddie, but it doesn't really go with our surname....