Baby names for a Dutch and English couple

[missoj]

Hello! Can anyone offer advice for baby boys and girls names that work well in the Netherlands/Holland as well as England? Many Thanks!

DCs friend is Annemieke (Dutch/British) which sounds lovely

Wilhelm?

Astrid

Pretty much any thing you like!

I know a little Marianne, of that heritage, and a Jan, the only dutch names I would avoid are G ones as we brits are hopeless at that sound. You might get raised eyebrows in the UK with luuk but you could anglicise it

Oh dh is dutch, I am English.

basic principles, avoid any names with g, th. be careful with J names as English will want to say it the English way (I loved Johanna - pronounced Yohanna, but we decided that everyone would say Joanna - English style which I don't like at all)

many names work in both, but pronuncuation vaires. Abigail is lovely in English, less so in Dutch (to be fair, it has a G, so was off the list anyway)

We got a Dutch baby names book, and I (English speaker) went through it and found ones I liked and could say, and then Dh looked at my list.

Jessica (with soft or hard J) Mattias, Miriam, Lisanne, Isak (pronounced either way) Joris (love that)

I loved Marijoliene, but knew that Brits would never say it.

Thank you for your inspiration so far! I really like Beatrix for a girl but the Dutchie partner says that's very not cool in Netherlands. Does anyone any opinions about that? Wondered if old school names were coming back into fashion like here in the UK?

Beatrix - yes dh vetoed that, not cool.

I really really wanted Amelia/Amalia - dh said it was only used for royals and sure enough 2 months after dd2 was born, it was the new royal baby's name!

We still see a lot of baby name announcements that go:

baby girl
names: Wilhemena Theodora
beroep naam: Lisa

The first two are usually grandmothers names, but she will always be known as Lisa.

I think it is also common to have things like:
Caroline Lousie - known as CaryLou.
But that may be old fashioned now.

It may be the church circles dh's family move in though. They do like family names to be honoured.

Yeah, we like Beatrix and Juliana but I know in NL that's the equivalent of calling your baby Margaret and Mary.

Not bad names but just a bit agèd.

Annemarie is nice for a girl
I love Thys (pronounced) Tyss for a boy

I like Jos for a boy. It does have the problem of different pronunciations, but I think both are nice, so it may not be a problem. No idea if it’s cool though

Lars
Isaak
Abel
Ruben

Arabella
Anouk
Noa
Maud

Saskia - no idea if considered old fashioned in the Netherlands.

Something like Thomas/Tomas or Sam - they seem to work in most countries

Tessa
Marguerite, despite the g...

Emil is pretty international

Do you want them to be pronounced the same in Dutch and English? That's probably the major restriction. Most old fashioned names are not fashionable in the Netherlands in the way they are in the U.K. Norah or Luca for a girl? Stan or Sem for a boy?

I know a Dutch family in England with a Johann and nobody seems to have trouble with the J pronunciation.

These are all from the Dutch top 100 in 2016...

Noah
Lucas
Finn
Max
Bram
Thomas
Adam
Ruben
James
Hugo
Jack
Oscar
Casper

Anna
Emma
Tess
Sophie
Eva
Olivia
Nina
Emily
Ella
Isabella
Rosa
Lana
Sofia
Lara
Kate

Tess and Xavier.

Just avoid Floor or Nine :)

We’re a mixed English/Dutch family as well and got our names by browsing the birth announcement cards websites. And we both often liked the Scandinavian names as they were neutral enough not to be too Dutch, not too English, but somewhere in the middle

I don't speak Dutch but would Annelisa or Freya work? And for a boy Anders or Max?

The Dutch / English couples I know have

Charlie
Elliot
James
Aaron
Anneke

Anne Marie
Suzanne
Fritz
William

Don't go for Anders, it means different in Dutch! Have been out of NL for a while admittedly (5 years), but don't think I've ever heard most of the names suggested here... And beroepnaam means job title, I think that pp meant roepnaam, which is the name you're known by :)

I know a Dutch family in England with a Johann and nobody seems to have trouble with the J pronunciation.

but that is because it is a boys name and we don't have an equivalent boys name, so you use the Dutch.
But Johanna has an English version so close, that most people will assume it is Joanna. (and I know of one who has had exactly this experience)

And beroepnaam means job title, I think that pp meant roepnaam, which is the name you're known by

sorry, yes, I am not the Dutch one in our marriage!

English names translate into Dutch much better than Dutch names into English cas so many Dutch people speak English well.
(except my FIL who took 10 years to master his dgs name. Dutch family name, but we used English pronunciation to distinguish him from Dutch relatives with the same name.)

I knew a Dutch man called Fidelis (pronounced Fee-DAY-liss) and thought it was a gorgeous name. Any good?