Short name for a trilingual kid

[BigHedgehog]

Dear mums, it's the first time I am writing here, but I read this forum quite a lot before :)
We are getting a second baby soon, and we won't know the gender until birth, so I am preparing two sets of names.
We would like a short first name (3-5 letters maximum), but to make it more complicated, it should sound well and have no negative associations in 3 languages.
I am Russian, my husband is German and we have lived in England for the past 7 years and are planning to stay for at least a few more. We have filtered out quite a few names based on our knowledge of German and Russian culture, however I would be grateful for advice from native British mums. For example, after having read through some threads here, I realised that Kai and Ian are not widely accepted in the UK.
Ok, to cut it short, we came up with the following names and I would like to hear your opinions or suggestions.
Important: it's not really about personal opinions on the name itself - we all have our tastes. It's more about cultural acceptance and country associations I may not be aware of. Also, the name may sound exotic in one of the languages, but still sound pleasant. Thank you!

For girls, we are thinking about Liv (as a full name) or Zoe.
The middle name will be Anastasia (connected to a family situation)
I am not up for Olivia, but my concern is that there are many baby Olivias nowadays whose names are probably shortened to Liv?

For boys, we are considering Elias or Jan. Middle name is still to be chosen. Maybe Theodor.
I am not sure if Jan will always be pronunciation correctly (/Yan/), and Elias seems to be getting too popular in Germany (my concern), but not so in the UK.

Whay do you think about these 4: Liv - Zoe, Elias - Jan? Any other suggestions?
Please be mindful with "I like / I don't like" as you may hurt someone's feelings. Again, it's more about general cultural acceptance.

Many thanks!

I think Elias and Zoe work best. Without knowing, I’d assume Jan was short for Janet although I like Jan (Yan).

Liv will always sound short for another name. A bit like calling a girl ‘Em’. Also, as a previous poster said, Liv/Live - the noun element could prove tricky.

I don’t think you need to compromise on your baby’s name. E.g. you say you like Ilya. My DD is at school with one. And tbh wherever you live, you will find unusual names - we’re not all called Peter and Jane these days

Of the names you suggest.
Zoe is nice
Liv is pretty and makes me think of Liv Tyler
Elias is lovely but I prefer Ilya
Jan doesn’t really work in English as we will generally sound out the J - but if you love it, go with it
Ian - I don’t personally like but it’s a fine name
Kai - it’s pretty common these days - I think we know 3

I agree Jan will be pronounce with a j and mistaken for a female name short for Janet. You could spell it Yann to get around this? Elias is nice and quite uncommon, I don’t think I’ve met one although I do know someone with it as a surname.

Liv is not given as a full name in this country, that would be very unusual and kind of strange as a pp says it sounds like live. Zoe is definitely a better choice.

If I saw Jan on a class list I would be more shocked if it were a girl nowadays!

( Unless it's a class aged 40+.)

Plus Jan is ime always short for Janet or Janette.

I think Ilya is fab, and easy to pronounce in English.

Go for a name you love, people will work it out.
If you go for Jan, they will get it quickly.
Kids in my kids schools have all sorts of names from all over the world, and everyone just learns their name and that's it.

Lina/Nina/Tina all work as international names for girls.
Sacha works for both boys and girls.
Ian is acceptable but very old-fashioned.

I've got a Kai (and a Zoe actually) and although on MN it has a bad reputation, no one outside of here has ever said anything, maybe they think it but who knows and it works in a lot of languages. I liked the meaning and that it was nice and short. And he's lovely, so I think it's a great name.

I think that in the UK, someone seeing Jan written down and not knowing the sex of the person concerned would assume it's a female and the initial J is pronounced the same as J in Jane or John.

But once told it's a boy's name and the "J" is pronounced "Y" then I don't think anyone would have any problems with it. They'd either not think about it or assume East European heritage.

I went to secondary school with a boy called Jan, pronounced Y. That was way back in the 80s when the range of names you came across was much smaller than it is now and virtually everyone I met had a conventional British name. Most people were surprised at first but then didn't think any more about it.

Liv doesn’t really work in the U.K - it sounds odd as a full name. Zoe is great.
Elias is good. Jan is fine - yes, people might assume female on seeing written, but it’s a well known continental male name pronounced as Yan. It wouldn’t raise an eyebrow where I am.

Katya?
Gregor?
Konstantin? Or is that too long?

A few people have suggested it already but the first name that came into my head when I read the original post was Max.

How about Mika as well?

I know a 20 year old Ian, he lives in Scotland.

I would always assume that Liv is short for Olivia. I like Zoe, my DS aged 23 has a couple of friends called Zoe. Would Tara work as a girls name?

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Tomas / Thomas as that works in most European languages. A PP suggested Leo which is a lovely name but I know quite a few small Leo's so maybe it's too popular for you.

On Iain / Ian I know a few younger ones too.
I wouldn't discount it. It will probably be coming back in fashion in about 5 years!

If you like Liv, what about Lev for a boy? Quite cool.

Peter?
A classic but not many around these days.
Philip might be another option.

For girls I was going to suggest Anna but I see you are already there. What about Maria or Thea?

Tash
Max

@newstart1234

I’d assume Jan was a woman - either Janet or Jane.

If I knew the parents were German/Russian I would actually assume Jan (pronounced Yan) was a boy.

Joe? Josef?

Leo? Leopold? Leonard? Lennard?

Vin? Vincent? Vincenzo?

Tom? Tomasz? Tomas?

Roo/Rudi? Rudolpho? Rudyard? Rudolf?

Oto?

Yan? Yanus? Yanny? (Aware this is phonetic, could also work with J)

Jake/Jak? Jakob?

Eli? Elias? Elon?

Chloe? Cleo?

I know a little boy called Kuba and he's Jakob and he's genuinely the coolest person I've ever met.

@Lanique

Although I've always spelt Zoe with the umlaut - Zoë

I had a Zoe in my class years ago who spelled her name with the accent. I was putting it over the e until her mum told me that the "umlaut" went over the o. I had to really bite my tongue.

You get an umlaut over the o in some German words (eg schon) to change the pronunciation (and sometimes the meaning) of words.

But the same mark in Zoe should go over the e and isn't an umlaut; it's a diaeresis and shows that 2 adjacent vowels should be pronounced separately.

Rant over. Glad to have finally got that out of my system. Sorry for the derail.

I like Jan. There was a boy at my school called Jan in 90s/00s and occasionally teachers would pronounce it with a hard ‘j’ at first but everyone here knows that jan with a soft ‘j’ is a boys name and not super unusual.
I’ve never met any females Jan’s under 50.

Michael works well in English, German and Russian?

Ditto Max?
Thomas (Tom)?
Alexander (Alex) ditto?

Catherine/Kate
Anna
Alexandra
Maria
Anastasia/Natasha
Julia

How about Nadia? Or if you like Liv, maybe Liza?

I like the Theo suggestion too, for either a boy or a girl.

Kit / Kitty could work too.