Help to find name for Scottish-Italian baby

[Toscaitalia]

Need some help for this one as DP and I are struggling to come to an agreement on baby names.

The background is that I am Italian and DP is Scottish. We live in Scotland but are planning to move to Italy or Spain in the future (5years or so). We don't know the sex of the baby yet but I really want it to have an Italian name, DP wants it to have a Scottish name. Baby will have both of our surnames which are obviously Scottish and Italian.

Names I like for girls :
(Italian)
Francesca
Caterina
Elsa
Marina
Alessia
Milena

(scottish/gaelic) :
Malina
Evina
Saoirse

Girls names DP likes:
He literally hasn't given any because he's convinced it's a boy! He has however said he's not adverse to Francesca or Caterina

Boys names I like:
(Italian)
Alessio
Alessandro
Federico
Michele
Stefano
Elia
Elio
Nico

(scottish/Gaelic)
Conall
Torren

Boys names DP likes:
Michael
Harris
Alexander
Bruce

He quite liked Alessio and Alessandro but thought they would get called Alice for short in Scotland and didn't like that.

I've tried to be open to Scottish/Gaelic names that I like the sound of that I think will be pronounced ok in Italy by my family and friends. I don't care if spelling is tricky (I've spent a lifetime spelling my name, it's not a big deal for me).
The main thing I don't like is names that are Italian but often used by non-Italians, so I love the names Luca and Lucia but wouldn't use it because so many people who aren't Italian seem to use them in UK. I don't care how popular it is in Italy or how popular it is if it's a Scottish name.

Any suggestions of names that could work for us and would work in both countries?

Avoid milena/malena...very unfortunate medical term

Your other names are all lovely.
Livia is probably my favourite. Valentina, Marco and Nico too. Rory would be my favourite from the Scottish list.

If you want a trad Gaelic boys name that ends in a vowel how about Murdo? I actually came on to add a note of caution re Federico - we have Italian friends in the UK with a son with this name and honestly, I'm the only English person I know who doesn't call him Frederico 😳

Malina/Milena, just FYI, are both in my humble opinion far too close pronunciation-wise to the medical term for bloody 💩 ... melaena. Friend of a friend was called a similar name and I still to this day can’t keep a straight face when I hear it.

Haha, cross post @atracurious!

How about Benedetto. This easily becomes Ben and has the nice Scottish connotations of Ben Lomond etc.

Avoid milena/malena...very unfortunate medical term
I didn't know this, thanks!

I actually came on to add a note of caution re Federico - we have Italian friends in the UK with a son with this name and honestly, I'm the only English person I know who doesn't call him Frederico
This is also good to know!

If you want a trad Gaelic boys name that ends in a vowel how about Murdo?
Murdo is nice but I think my Italian family would find it hard to say the -ur part properly, or at least the way it would be said in Scotland so it would be tricky if we move over there.

I'm English and DH is Italian and we have a Michael. DH wanted Michele but at school he would have been called Michelle or Michaela so we went with the English version. It also makes it less confusing as FIL is Michele, there's already 4 Giuseppe's in the family!

My Welsh friend of Italian parents (both from Parma) is Alessandro. We've always called him Alex. You could call your little one Alec, the Scottish diminutive of Alexander/Alessandro. I have an Alec.

I adore the name Elio! Just love it!
Matteo is another one.
Andrea (since Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland)

I like Alessia and Milena for your girl's names.
The Italian girls up the road from me are called Zoe and Una.
My dear friend is called Audina.

Isadora
Tabitha
Lavinia
Cordelia
Chiara
Vita
Matilda
Elisa
Luisa
Tosca
Vivia
Agnes
Elena
Valeria
Monica
Alba
Lea
Eleonora
Alida/Adelina

Laura for a girl? Ends in a vowel.
Or Ella/Ellen

Would Cameron or Fergus be difficult to pronounce in Italy?

Laura is pronounced Lowra in Italian.

Murdo
Alec
Enzo
Luca

Francesca is perhaps a little dated, but was used very widely in the UK. Francesco for a boy wasn't though.

Aren't Saorse and Conall Irish rather than Scottish?

What about:

Allegra
Valentina
Federica
Graziana
Graziella
Alessandra
Sabina
Riccarda
Giulietta
Livia
Rosalba

Donato
Carlo
Giacomo
Lorenzo
Marco
Alastair

We have family in Scotland ( Italian) and ime the Scots can handle the pronunciation of Italian names really well . It's the other way round that could cause an issue!

Oh Allegra (mentioned above) is lovely.
Arabella too.

I think Elio is your best boy's name, OP. I really, really love it (I mentioned this before, I know).

I think Elio is your best boy's name, OP. I really, really love it (I mentioned this before, I know).

I love Elio! It's quite old fashioned but really close to my heart for personal reasons and is a family name so I've had this at the top of my baby name list for most of my life. I can't talk DP into it though unfortunately 😭.

Sholto (Scottish but would work in Italy)
I wouldn't choose a name that had a different meaning in Italian, especially if you are thinking of moving there - really confusing. Ditto Lio - don't change the spelling if you want Leo, just pronounce it the way you want - you won't be able to stop people pronouncing it their way anyway. Malina - just no!

Ditto Lio - don't change the spelling if you want Leo, just pronounce it the way you want - you won't be able to stop people pronouncing it their way anyway.
Lio would be the way I would want to spell it. To my mind it's more phonetically correct (based on how I sound words). The Leo in Leonardo is pronounced differently to Lio.

I wouldn't choose a name that had a different meaning in Italian
Do you mean sciolto? I hadn't thought of that. May be too close.

Yes, sholto is too close to sciolto. And Malina is too close to maialina!

And Malina is too close to maialina!
That wouldn't even have come into my head and no one that I have said the name to in my family or friends has thought of maialina when I've said Malina to them. You can add more sounds into any word or name to change them I don't really agree on that one but sciolto I can see your point.

I have a little Scottish-Mexican called Camilo :)

Well it was my ds11 who suggested maialina - sorry! I would avoid it due to the possibility of teasing.

We tried to get a name that worked with different pronunciations with French and Scottish families. We chose one that the ENTIRE WORLD knows^ thanks to a certain secret agent. And still^ we had weird pronunciations, even by Scots!🤔 I'd not worry too much about how people pronounce the name, unless there are negative meanings associated with it in either language/Spanish.

DDs name is one that has different variations - we learnt our lessons after the epic first round! 😂 Everybody says it their own language's way and she barely notices and we don't now either. It's actually kind of fun for making up nicknames as there are now at least 3x the options!

So with Murdo, for example, it will have a pronounced R in Italian, with almost an extra vowel added after. That can actually add to the charm, rather than detract from the name. There are some Scottish accents that would roll that R too, although not add the mini-vowel.

Good luck!

Murdo would sound more like Moorrrdo in Italian. And in English it sounds like murder.

I actually prefer the Italian pronunciation of Leo - would it be so bad if he was Leeo in England and Layo in Italy?