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Old fashioned German boys' names?

96 replies

CantThinkOfANC · 25/11/2013 22:34

DP and I have decided TTC in a few months and are having a good-natured bicker about what to call our DC. He is German, I am English and we live in the UK. For the time being (at least ten years) we will stay here.

His favourite name, Finn, was taken by his best friends back home six years ago. He would like very old, Germanic names that no one has heard of and I am stumped. Either they are ridiculous (Adalhard anyone?) or 'too modern', e.g. Max (although I know it's an old name but it's popular now).

He doesn't want: modern, popular, anything that his uncles/close male relatives were called.

I like (and he has vetoed): Karl, Max, Edward, Edmund, Oskar, Georg.

I am beginning to wonder if anything fits the bill? It's all highly theoretical, but good fun :)

Girl's name is sorted as my favourite for many, many years is Dorothea and I won't be budged/he's given in.

I've seen some excellent suggestions on here before - any ideas please? My prime motivation is that I suspect he is actually serious and I'd like to find some names that won't lead to our child(ren) getting bullied the second they go to school! I also have a name no one can spell and it's dead annoying. Don't want to lumber my kids with the same.

OP posts:
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vinyard68 · 25/11/2013 22:52

This reply has been deleted

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soontobeslendergirl · 25/11/2013 22:54

Berthold (Bertie)
Leopold (Leo)
Reiner
Siegfried (freddy)
Oswin (Ozzy)
Luther
Hugo

Verycold · 25/11/2013 22:54

Tobias
Sebastian
Friedrich
Johannes
Henning

CantThinkOfANC · 25/11/2013 22:58

I like Alexander but he does have a dodgy friend called Alex think it's too popular. I like Tobias and Sebastian (Seb / Basti) very much but they have also been vetoed.

Anything that is in the top 100 is out. And he's also basing it on what he remembers of Germany rather than experiences here with children's names (our friends are mostly non-English and have named their children accordingly so he can't really judge what's popular/known here).

OP posts:
Shente · 25/11/2013 22:58

Thorolf, Thorston, Johannes, Josef, Malte, Matthias, Stefan

or how about something the same in both languages? Peter, Jonathan, Sebastian

Good luck!

CantThinkOfANC · 25/11/2013 22:59

I think Luther and Oswin are more where he's headed but I hate Oswin and am not sold on Luther either...

OP posts:
Verycold · 25/11/2013 23:01

Luther is not a German first name

Benedikt
Valentin?

CantThinkOfANC · 25/11/2013 23:01

Thanks Shente. I will have a punt on Josef and Peter. Matthias was also vetoed!

OP posts:
sandfrog · 25/11/2013 23:01

Leon
Hugo
Fabian
Vincent
Julian
Arnold
Elias
Christian
Samuel
Theodor
Sebastian
Wolfram
Dominik
Emil
Jonathan
Richard
Philipp
Alexander
Marius
Thomas
Otto
Lucas
Noah
Daniel
Gregor
Peter
Tobias
Felix
Stefan
Matthias

Verycold · 25/11/2013 23:01

Lars
Lasse

Verycold · 25/11/2013 23:03

Kilian
Magnus

soontobeslendergirl · 25/11/2013 23:04

Luther is not a German first name

I just found it on a German baby name site.

TheNunsOfGavarone · 25/11/2013 23:06

Wolfgang
Claus
Anton
Axel (possibly more Danish though)
Johann
Franz

Lots of lovely names, I'm quite envious of you for having this decision to make!

mamaduckbone · 25/11/2013 23:10

Apparently Josef is a very old mannish in Germany, as my German speaking niece was horrified that we chose it ( with English spelling ) for ds2!

Opheliabumps · 25/11/2013 23:14

Same make up here, German DH, UK me. We went with Philip. Have to say, it's a sod of a name, can't get anything with his name on (pens, toy lorries, plates, cups etc), unlike his more commonly named sister.

Philip
Johannes/Johann
Willhelm
Otto
Sven
Jan
Christof
Heinrich
Jens
Harald
Leonhard

CantThinkOfANC · 25/11/2013 23:15

Apparently Josef is a very old mannish in Germany

His precise words were, "No one who is still alive, yes those names are old but the people are still alive." Which I took to mean the previous generation - in his case that's Karl, which I love and is 'too modern'.

His aunts and mother are all named fantastic Hildegard-style names (e.g. Irmhild) so I can see where he gets it from...

Thank you for all your suggestions. I am compiling a list of the best ones to spring on him at an appropriate moment.

OP posts:
TheNunsOfGavarone · 25/11/2013 23:19

Hildebrand - but I doubt your DS would like being nicknamed Hilda!

Otto is great Ophelia

ancientbuchanan · 25/11/2013 23:22

Ruprecht/ Rupert
Albrecht/Albert
Franz/ Frank/ Francis
Wilhelm
Richard
Gottfried
Franz-Xaver
Heinrich
Sylvester
Herman

DH suggests Wotan but not in all seriousness.. and don't go for Tristan, Parsifal, as some of my cousins did.

If he starts to irritate you, try Willibald ( BTW, predictive text offered Milliband as opposed to Willibald)

Itsallabout · 25/11/2013 23:22

Wolfgang
Gunther
Tilmann
Heiko
Detlef
Christian
Wilfried
Mattias
Frederik
Heinrich
Constantin
Hans
Florian
Klaus
Nils
Lars
Linus
Felix

garlictrivia · 25/11/2013 23:27

Oh, I like Wolfram!

Do any of these hit DH's button, OP?

BoreOfWhabylon · 25/11/2013 23:27

Wolf / Wulf

TheNunsOfGavarone · 25/11/2013 23:28

Willibald Grin

Caip · 25/11/2013 23:30

Volker
Jens
Joerg
Axel

TheNunsOfGavarone · 25/11/2013 23:30

Ulrich?

ancientbuchanan · 25/11/2013 23:31

Roland
Gunther
Adam
Dietrich