What do you think of these Italian boys' names ?

[spaghettina]

Recently found out we're having a boy, now trying to find an Italian name which will sound fine to English speakers too - we live in Italy but I'm from the UK so want something that's not unpronounceable or ridiculous in English.
I don't want to use English name as first name, as we live in Italy and it would get mispronounced on a daily basis.

Obvious choices like Luca, Marco and Matteo (all easy to pronounce) have been vetoed by DH.
Also he would like to call the baby after his father (baby's grandfather) as that is the local tradition here and they are a pretty trad family - one name on the following list is FIL's name but I am not sure I agree with that idea...so am trying to come up with some good alternatives.

So I'm curious to know what people make of these?

Jacopo (J pronounced as a Y so "YA-copoh)
Edoardo
Raffaele (Raff-ah-EH-leh)
Ettore (ETT-oreh)
Niccolo'
Ugo

Bruno

Thanks in advance!

For proper oldfashioned, how about Ambrogio?

Or for an interesting modern twist- Imbroglio........

I don't dislike Raffaele, only thing for me is that it sounds as if it has Ella on the end & is a girl's name.

That's probably the way I say it though & if you're staying in Italy then that's not a problem!

I wouldn't discount it solely for being Fil's name if you like it.

I like Bruno.

Also Carmine, Dante,Guido,Sergio.

Could Ugo become Hugo?
Eduardo and Bruno translate well.
Niccolo has a dated feel though.
I think Jacopo and Ettore will be mispronounced a lot. I also don't like the 'po' of Jacopo, which I presume doesn't apply in Italian.

I think if you want a name that will pronounced properly I would go with Bruno.
My family is italian, we live in England I have a Luca and a Rocco.
My name is very italian think female Versace and I get problems with it all the time. I loved Bruno but it didn't go with our surname.
Other names from our list were

Antonio
Santino
Vito
Nico
Vincenzo

I loved Vincenzo but dp didn't. I would have loved a little Vinny.

I wouldn't rule out Raffaele of you like it.. If he ends up living in the UK he will just get called Raff or similar which in nice imo.

Ugo is awful . Raffaele the best.

Can I just chip in with an anecdote? In dp's family they had the same tradition- oldest boy child had grandfather's name. My fil rebelled and didn't give DP the name- and was sad about it for ages. His eldest child (my Dp, who should have had The Name) with my full support chose the name for his first son- and it really felt as if something broken had been mended.

Obviously if it had be a horrible name I wouldn't have agreed. But it's name I really like, and it did such a lot of good in the extended, older family to use it, that it still makes me happy that we did, 14 years later. And Ds has always loved the story of his name.

Alfio
Dante
Dario
Flávio

Dh is Italian and both boys have names that work in both countries. Ds2 has been saddled with Italo as his middle name after DH's grandad.

Riccardo
Francesco
GianLuca
Maurizio
Pietro
Davide
Carlo
Lorenzo
Arlo
Salvatore
Vincenzo

My favourite three are Orlando, Leonardo, Massimo

I think Jacopo is too difficult for non-Italians. But I really like it.

Jacapo and Raffaele. Also Allesandro , Samuele Roberto

Definitely Raffaele. It's lovely, and I suspect your FIL will feel hurt if you use any other name.

I suspect he might too... He even said once, a couple of years ago, that it would be nice if we called any future son of ours after him .

Thought that was a bit cheeky tbh, after all the surname is already from his side.
I just feel that since DD already has my MIL's name, which coincidentally happens to be my favourite name anyway, (I that inadvertently set a precedent of sticking to tradition I guess!) it would be a bit much to have both DCs named after DH's parents.

But can see that It might not be worth "rebelling" and disappointing the ILs...

Could you use it as a mn? Or use a variant?

I like Raffaele. We have one (well, French version) in our family and he gets called Raffi. Also like Edoardo. Love Bruno, but sadly Sacha Baron Cohen has ruined it for me.

ha, yes I'm actually surprised more people haven't mentioned that Bruno!

...or the one from Fame (showing my age here...)

I like Salvatore but Raffaele is lovely too. Could he be called Rafe (rhyming with safe) as a nn

I like Eduardo (with a U)

Raffaele is lovely.

I also know a

Daniele
Tomaso
Sebastiano
Simone
Gabriele

I know an Ettore, and almost without fail his name is pronounced (by English people) e-TOR-ay

Why don't you call him Raffaele [name of choice here] and always use the middle name, to "avoid confusion".

Or, could you use an Italian version of your father's name?

Using MIL's name was setting a precedent, which will be hard to avoid following. But what's done is done.

What saint's day was your FIL born on? Might be a good way to get round it. Also home parish, patron saint of village/ job.

Raffaele is gorgeous though.

Francesco will always go down well with tally inlaws too.

CSLewis Lol at Et-TOR-ray- that's the problem with Ettore and similar! Shame! Works the other way too - loads of English names that just won't work in Italy.

SanityClause Good suggestion about using the middle name, possibly...My (late) father's name in Italian is one of the ones on the list, but unfortunately one that's been deemed unpronounceable. Never mind...

Annunziata I think the saint's day is something that's even more of a mouthful, FIL has it already as one of his middle names. And let's not even go there with the patron saint of their city...CATALDO!! Will look into the patron saint of their family profession though...never though of that.

Now the only name DH seems to like, off my list, is Edoardo. Which also corresponds to the saint of my due date, it seems. However I fully expect him to resist all attempts to pick anything other than Raffaele, so maybe I have to come to terms with that, after all it's quite a nice name and the nicknames are acceptable, plus I'm pleased to see that many of you think it's understandable to an English "audience" :)

Raffaele he can be Raffa. Very cute IMO. I know a Raffa but he's Raffaelo.

I also like Diego, never gets mispronounced. Have met several Italian Diegos.