Scandinavian names - help!

[malterserslover]

We are half British/half scandinavian family expecting 1st DC and struggling with potential names. We agree that we want a name that is pronounced relatively similarly in both places and does not seem too weird for either culture. So far we have come up with the following but not sure we LOVE any of them:

Girl:
Sienna
Matilda
Alissa
Sophia

Boy:
Elias
Sebastian

Anyone here who is familiar with scandinavia and could throw in some suggestions?? :-)

Oh forgot Astrid from the girls' list!

Elias and Sebastian aren't very scandinavian.

My suggestions:
Arne
Thor
Ragnar
Anders

Hi there

How about Isak, Oskar, Per, Lukas, Ulf, Mattias

or for a girl

My, Lotte, Anna, Saga, Helena, Kajsa

Linus, Lars, Gustav?

i LOVE Astrid btw

Erik, Niels, Thorsten, Jens,Tobias, Karsten.

Erika, Rikke (Riikke if you're Finish), Line (doesn't work so well outside the Nordic region), Ida, Lærke, Signe, Silke, Lea

Some of them do not work that well outside Nordic languages.

Eric or Erik
Anders
Lars
Emil
Frederick
Jon

Astrid
Monica
Maria

Ingrid
Sara

Why not flick through the IKEA catalogue for inspiration?

Svana?

Leif is a another boys name

Random a in there

Magnus

Josey
Katinka

We have an Oliver and I'm Anna...

Alice (believe it was no 1 in Sweden last year and also popular here).
Kirsten
Elsa
Anna
Marta

William
Theo
Alexander

Julia , Aleksandra (Scandinavian spelling , dd 3 rd name )

I think it is really hard ot find names which sound the same in both languages. Our ds is called Elvin which is prounounced pretty much the same in Swedish and English but it is not really a popular name in the UK (although we once met a guy called Elvin in the UK).

Lots of the suggestions sound very different in Swedish to how they sound in English (I would imagine Danish and Norwegian had similar pronuciations)

The ones I can think of are

Markus
Mona
Agnes

We are just going to go for either a very Swedish name or very English name for dc2 and just teach people how to say it.

Peter
Ulrik (OK, not very British but easy to pronounce)

Frey(j)a
Cecilie/a

I really like Soren, but for all I know it could be the Scandinavian equivalent of Keith or Derek.

Thank you for all your suggestions - it is really hard to find names that sound similar in both places and ideally would be names that people have heard before. Hence our boys list - they are not scandinavian names but they are not unknown names there either, plus they would be pronounced pretty similarly as in UK. Only problem, DH don't like either!

I might seriously pick up the IKEA catalogue for inspiration.......

I don't have any experience with Scandinavia.

But I have noticed living abroad that even when children have names that are also used in English, they often have a slightly "unfashionable" feel to an English ear - I know several little ones called things like David, Mark, Nicolas, Simon, Paul - classic boys names, but you don't really hear them so much in Britain for babies.

Do you actually want a Scandinavian name, or something so international it could come from either and both?

I would go with simple names like Thomas and Peter and Anna and Sophie myself.

Serena

OH works for Scandinavian companies, these are the names of some of his colleagues and their children:

Kristoffer
Tom
Stian
Henrik
Jon
Espen
Jarle

Beate
Marit
Helene
Nina
Kjersti
Ingunn

I also know a Bodil, Astrid and Siv (f)

I live in Sweden. In DSs class there's a Pontus, Felix and Leo (the only non-middle eastern boys names) I work with John, Kalle, Magnus, Olof, and David.

I love Astrid, but wouldn't say it sounds the same in Sweden as UK. I have an Älfi Saga. I really like Åsa and Åse, but I'm not sure how the UK deals with the Swedish characters- DDs Australian pasport says Aelfi. I work with a couple of Lina's. If going scandic I'd use a F rather than ph for Sofia, or just Sofi. From your list, Matilda is the most common round us.

How does Astrid sound in Sweden?

Lars any good? I know it's not an English name, but pronunciation is easy.

How is Malin pronounced?

I love Scandinavian names, feel in a former life I was wearing a fabulous jumper and a ruddy complexion.