Italian girls names that aren't Francesca

[thelittlepeanut]

Just that really, suggestions welcome! Thanks in advance

In our family, we have

Giovanna
Maria
Ada
Antonella
Carmela
Matilde
Rosanna
Valentina

Egidia
Audina
Lucrezia
Gioia
Artemisia
Margherita
Giulia
Ursula
Paolina
Patrizia
Gabriela
Violetta
Eliana/Iliana
Cara
Giovanna
Adriana
Marianna
Giordana
Ilaria
Allegra
Arabella

Aurora
Giada
Carina (means kind)
Aurelia
Aria
Giuliana
Ginevra
Rosanna
Serafina

Teresa, no 'h', pronounced "Ter-ray-zer" or "Ter-rez-er"
Claudia
Maria
Mariela
Cecilia

Graziela.

Anna
Sofia
Cara
Emilia
Cristina
Liliana
Carlotta

Vita
Vittoria
Alice (pron a-lee-chay)
Beatrice (bay-a-tree-chay)
Carmela

From personal experience I would not give a child a ‘Giu’ name if they are to live in the UK (Giulia, Giulietta etc) as both the spelling and the pronunciation will be absolutely mangled.

laura
donatella
iulia
carolina

I love Valentina, but will it get shortened to Val or Tina ?

One of the Valentinas I know is shortened to Vale, pronounced Vall - eh. The other is Tina. Neither likes the other nickname. Most of them seem to have a shortening, e.g. Camila is Cami, Cecilia is Ceci (ch sound for both Cs). I like Aura, but I'm not sure how common it is, plus only with the Italian pronunciation

In Italy it would be shortened to Vale (Valey)
Cristina sometimes gets shortened to Tina.

"From personal experience I would not give a child a ‘Giu’ name if they are to live in the UK (Giulia, Giulietta etc) as both the spelling and the pronunciation will be absolutely mangled."

Definitely agree with this, DH is a Giuseppe and no-one gets some interesting pronunciations!

What about-

Loredana
Rafaela
Irene (pronounced Ih ray neh)
Anna
Lucia (Loo chee ah)
Natalia
Angela
Maria

Oops ignore the no-one!

All these are gorgeous

I would say it depends if both you and partner are English, or if one of you is Italian because the vowel pronunciation of names can be very different! My favourites that work in both English and Italian are:

Elena
Alessia
Alessandra
Anna
Sofia
Elisa/Annalisa

I would agree with some others that said to avoid names with 'ch' or 'giu' if it's growing up in the UK as it will be mispronounced forever more!! Haha

Michelina

Gianna

Valentina is my favourite!

Definitely agree with the comment about the UK, but in a different way- some of the names above aren't Italian, they just sound like they might be vaguely. Others are nicknames and would not go on an Italian birth certificate. Still others are names that really are only used for 95 year old nuns who were named after their grandmothers!

So, essentially, would NOT work in Italy, or with an Italian family,

If you aren't in Italy and have no actual connections, then they're all fine really!

Lucia, Allegra, Chiara, Noemi, Illaria,
Letizia, Caterina, Ludovica, Adelina

Very early days but Alessandra is a favourite of mine for a girl 💜
We have an irish surname and live in Scotland but love this as a variation of Alexandra x