Opinions please

[WanWan]

Hi, my wife is due to give birth in 2 weeks, she is Japanese & we both live in the UK. We have chosen a name for a boy (Makoto or Mak for short) but are struggling with girls names. We want it to be something that works as well as possible in the 2 languages. We will predominately live in UK but will possibly spend a few years in Japan at some point & my wife's family are all there still. Our shortlist of girls names are;

Yuna
Yumi
Naomi
Hana
Airi (pronounced Irie)
Erin
Maya
Mia
Mika (pronounced Meka)

Hana

Otherwise, I like Mia (very popular though!) and Mika. I did some work at my old primary school a couple of years back and there was a girl in Year 2 named Mika (I'm not sure if it was this spelling, but the pronunciation was the same) and I remember thinking it was such a lovely name.

Oh, and I like Naomi a lot. You don't hear that often anymore!

Never heard Airi before but it's really lovely. You might get some 'air-y' but a quick explanation should fix that.

Naomi is fab too. Would it work in Japan?

With Hana you risk frequent misspelling as 'Hannah'. It's nice though.

I think Mika is lovely!

I really like Hana (I love the meaning in Japanese and prefer this spelling).

Yuna and Airi are lovely too.

I love Mika, definitely my favourite! I only know one other Mika, she is South African but lives in England.

I also like Maya, Mia, Erin and Hana (but you will probably get problems with spelling for Hana, Hanna, Hannah)

Mika is my favourite from your list

I like Hana and Mika too

Mia... My 2nd choice would be Erin they're both lovely!

Erin would be my choice.

Naomi and Mia are my favourites. Both lovely. Think I like Mia best though.

Erin is a bit of an American name imo.

Hana, Yuna, Naomi and Mika would be my picks. I'd lean more towards Yuna/Naomi/Mika as then you won't have the hassle of people spelling the name Hannah.

I think they all sound nice names

Naomi we ruled out because some people said Nayomi and others Nyomi

Hana - I know one spelt this way

Mika -I know a Mika too

Yuna and Yumi I haven't come across before but I like Yuna best out of the 2 I think, I would worry Yumi could be said youme or yummy.

Airi looks very pretty but I would never have known it was said Irie and would probably have said eyeree

I like Maya, Mia and Erin but there seem so many around at the moment under the age of 10 that I would avoid them myself.

1st choice: Mika
2nd choice: Airi.

Natsuko (Nat)?

I know a half Japanese Hana and she's never had any problems with people spelling her name correctly. It's distinctive, easy to remember, lovely Japanese meaning and works in both languages.

A friend married a Japanese girl called Keiko, I thought it was a lovely name. Of yours I'd probably go Mika.

manlurking Keiko is sweet, but it has always reminded me of the orca from Free Willy, which is a pretty sad association. Obviously most people won't make that connection though!

I like Hana the best.

Other names I like/Japanese women I know - Tomoko, Chiaki, Ayaka, Shoko, Hikaru, Miho, Saki, Serika, Eriko

Mika is my number one choice, it's lovely.

Thanks for all of your input. Some other nice suggestions to think of as well. Seems Mika and Hana are most popular on here