Mismatched sibset

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DH and I have been trying for the past few months and discussing names. I am Mexican and he's British and we live in the UK.

I really like Spanish names for girls but don't like any of the boys names. DH also feels the same but we are worried we might end up with a completely mismatched sibset.

Would it be awful to have a daughter named Martina and then a boy named Lewis for example?

Our list is something like this:

Carlota
Aitana
Ximena
Renata
Harriet
Fiona
Eilidh
Elspeth

Rory
Jamie
Blair
Harry
Lewis
Colin

It wouldn’t be awful no. Choose the names you love who cares what other people think they are your children.

I love Carlota, and if you wanted to make them more similar, maybe Louis instead of Lewis? Lots of names have variants that can be styled accordingly. Carlota could become Carlotta, maybe Lottie, etc.

It's fine imo. But maybe something between the two?

With dd, we chose a name which is of German origin, but is very well known in England and across the world really. With ds, we used an Irish name, which again was well known in England, but with a shortening which is also frequently used in a number of languages.

If you have family from both sides or who speak Spanish or other languages, you'll probably have to consider that when you pick a name.

Things like Miriam, Maria, Emma, Anna, Gus, Sebastian, Nicolas etc work in both languages (I think, but I'm not a Spanish speaker)!

No it’s just reflecting your joint heritage. All good!

it’s completely fine!! in fact, I actually think a mix of names is much more interesting

my three younger DC have quite unusual names but my elder two have fairly traditional ones

It wouldn't be my preference - only because I like the idea of trying to be "fair" to siblings to help avoid any potential jealousy or animosity, so picking a name that is fairly uncommon in the UK for one and a popular one for the other would seem a little odd to me personally.

Like a pp said, I'd try to find a middle ground with more popular Hispanic names (or give them both unusual first names and more common middle names/ or vice versa!)

I think it works. Much better to have differences than be too samely. I think also in the UK with girls names there’s a wider pool of names with influences from other European countries but less so with boys names. So I know Brits called Lucia but don’t know any equivalent boys with such names.

Also with some Spanish names like Martina I wouldn’t guess straight away that a parent was from a Spanish speaking country as I’ve met Brits with that name, and wouldn’t see a clash with the names, but would with names like Carlota.

I think it’s fine. Just don’t go for Harriet & Harry!

My dh and I are from different cultures and I have to say that I wouldn't do this. Being mixed race can be tricky as it is with regard to your sense of belonging. The one place you know you definitely do belong is your own nuclear family.

It's sometimes astonishing the times that people will mention things about your child when you are white and the child isn't. People seem to think they can ask all sorts. You could be inadvertently putting them in a position where they have to justify themselves.

The only time I’ve ever thought about it was a family with 3 kids I once knew who had two very traditional boys names and an insanely out there girls name.

I wouldn’t bat an eyelid at yours.

We have an Irish name and an Italian name because we liked them. We are neither!

I genuinely don't think anyone would bat an eyelid. It's only on MN I've seen where so much importance seems to be attached to having sibling names that 'go' with each other, never heard it mentioned in real life.

PS love the names Renata, Rory and Blair (although prefer Blair for a girl).

Thank you everyone for the great feedback!

Shrewyou I am sorry if you or your children have experienced this. People feel very entitled sometimes.

It's not the same and I can't say I fully understand it but my family and I experience something similar to this (maybe?), constantly having to justify we are Mexican. We are of Irish and Spanish ancestry (100-200 years back) so I have very fair skin and blue eyes. I get the "you don't look Mexican" or "you are too white to be Mexican, now where are you really from?" and I have more than once wished I looked different and maybe I wouldn't have to explain myself all the time.

I agree - it doesn’t matter at all but if you want them to be more similar you could always pick the European/Latin spellings rather than English spellings.