Bilingual names

[DXBMermaid]

I'm Dutch and DH is English/South African. We are expecting our second baby (a boy) and are struggling to find a name that works in both languages and that we like.

For instance the name Jonathan in English is fine. In Dutch is sounds more like Yo-nà -tan. Harry, which is perfectly acceptable in English in Dutch sounds like that dodgy guy who comes to fix your plumbing off the books.

We both like Theodore, but only in English. I love Quentin and Lucas in both languages but DH hates those names. Our daughter is called Alexandra, which we love and the difference in pronounciation are minimal.

Please help as I'm afraid we'll never find a name for this poor child!

Peter?
Frederick?
Sebastian?

Does it really matter if the pronunciation is different? My dh is flemish and my children's names are pronounced differently in flemish or english.

My kids names are horrible in German! But the kids will correct people who pronounce their name 'wrong'. We were also quite strict on correcting people so when we introduced X some people would say 'oh you mean 'Y' and we would just say that we are pronouncing it X

Otherwise,
Arlo or Arno?

Benjamin?

Hmm... something with no ambiguous vowel sounds like... Marcus/Lucas?

My Dutch friend has a son Max which works well in English and Dutch.

I work in a Dutch company. Some of the easier international male names could be: Willem, Jasper, Mark, Steven/ Stephen, Karl. Maximillian is very common for younger kids here (Austria).

Thanks for the replies.

Max/Maximillian would be a little to Royal for my liking as the Dutch King and Queen are (Willem)Alexander and Maxima.

Initially I thought a difference in pronunciation wouldn't matter as I would only use the English version, but with DD strangely enough I change the way I say her name depending on what language I speak to her. Also a lot of times when I hear Dutch people butchering English names it really sets my teeth on edge.

Haven't seen any names I really like in the suggestions... Sorry to be such a pain!

We knew bi-lingual boys English/Dutch, they were Ben and Paul.

Johann

Our dc have names with the same spelling but different pronuntiation in both languages. They learn that both of them are fine and respond to both.
I dont know any dutch names sorry.

The bilingual Dutch/English boys we know are Oliver & Nicholas,, no idea what the names sound like in Dutch though.

Andreas / Andre
Abel
Matthias
Bram / Abraham
Jacob
Aldo
Michael/Mikael
Cyrus
Thomas
Louis
Albert
Robert
Martin
Alfred
Clement
Philip
Isaac
Hugo
Bernard
Anton
Henrik
Eric
Laurence
Jan
Arnold
Christian
Mark/Marc/Marco
Gus
Gerard
Evert

No idea about similarity of pronunciation, but all nice names I believe are used in some variation in both languages! Hope it helps

Wow that's a lot of names to consider. I think I need to take some time to look at them and really try them out, otherwise I am just going to end up disliking them all. Thank you for taking the time to post that list.

Mathias or Mattis seem v popular here (French/bilingual country) Absolutely love those names.

Anders

Also have a Dutch uncle Willem. Love that name too.

I know a bilingual (Dutch/English) little boy called Henk. Really like it/suits him etc.

Hanno

only mixed SA boys I know are called Reece and Euan. Seem to work fine but might not be your taste.

Ds is Anglo-Dutch. His name is Gus, middle name Antonius.

Leo?

Felix
Christian/ Kristian
Thomas/ Tomas
Eric

So many names, but not one so far that I really like. Anders is a scandi name as in Dutch it means different so maybe not the greatest name for a little boy.

I've noticed I can't step away from the two names I like. Any tips on how to sway my Dh so far all he's suggested is names such a Thor, Conan and Zorro

I know a Thor here in Belgium.