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!

Jan is a perfectly fine name for a boy! Jan with a J is a name for 60 year old women, not babies, so /Yan/ won’t be in a class with girl /Jans/.

Greg
Ray
Matty
Eli
Frank

@ObviousNameChage

I work in a school that has a huge mix of children from all over the continents. If we're ever in doubt we ask the child to model the name. Just go for a name you really want and love, rather than last resorts . People will adapt to it.

All your names are fine. Easy , generic spelling and nice as well. I'm particular to Zoe, as it's the name of a really kick ass character in a book series I love.

Can I also suggest Andrew (Drew or Andi nn ) and Samuel (sam/sammy) even if they're longer? Maybe Emma , Clara , Lily for a girl.

I'd say if you really love all those names, keep them all and see what your heart says once the baby is born.

Thank you so much! Yes, provided that we don't know exactly where we will live in a 10-tear time, it's probably good to follow our hearts for now. I am a big fan of Zoe, too. Its Russian variant is a bit dated, and not really widespread nowadays (some people may raise their eyebrows), but I think I can live with this.

Zoe is a lovely name with no negative connections. Elias is also lovely. People will assume Liv is short for Olivia. Jan makes me think of ‘Janet’ and is a girl’s name over here.

Ian is very common in the older generation but is seen as quite ‘uncool’.

Kai is chavvy.

What about a name like Lucy, Kate, Emma?

For a boy Max, Fred, Nick, Ben?

Ian sounds quite dated in England, I don't know any under 40.

Liv is incredibly popular (as a nickname for Olivia/Livia) but it's lovely.
Zoe, Jan and Elias are all great names.

I agree Ian and Jan have totally different sounds, ee-un and yan. I have only ever met one Ian born after about 1970 and my mind boggled so much that it’s still one of my go to example when talking about odd baby names with people!

Jan will be assumed female and assumed J. So you will do a lot of correcting here.

Anna or Clara for a girl.

Ivo or Thomas/Tom for a boy.

Bea

Lara
Saskia
Seren
Sasha
Galina

Yanis
Theo

How would you pronounce Ida, OP? I think it's lovely both the ways I know it - EYE-da or EE-da, just curious.

I love Elias but also Ilya is fab.

If it helps, some children I know who have parents of different nationalities and live in a 3rd country include:
Nico
Ivo
Tomas
Mika
Bianca
Sofia
Elsa
Agnes

I really disagree that Jan will be misread as 'jan' by a teacher or anyone else regularly dealing with children. Context is all. Janet has not been given to more than 23 girls in any year since 1995 and in 2019 there were a grand total of 9 baby Janets. In the same year there were 165 baby boys named Jan, making it equally as popular as Kacper and Elis (the Welsh spelling). It is currently a more popular name for boys in E&W than Timothy, Paul, Simon, Philip...

@ZoyaTheDestroyer

I really disagree that Jan will be misread as 'jan' by a teacher or anyone else regularly dealing with children. Context is all. Janet has not been given to more than 23 girls in any year since 1995 and in 2019 there were a grand total of 9 baby Janets. In the same year there were 165 baby boys named Jan, making it equally as popular as Kacper and Elis (the Welsh spelling). It is currently a more popular name for boys in E&W than Timothy, Paul, Simon, Philip...

Kids grow up, it isn't just about school. Obviously it can be a male or female name, I have one of those and it can be a pain. I've been seated in the wrong place, seating plan with man/woman/man/woman along the table except I was sitting woman/woman/woman. Didn't actually matter but caused comment, person who did the plan who didn't know me got embarrassed. I got embarrassed because of the fuss.

@Bimblybomeyelash

Jan is a perfectly fine name for a boy! Jan with a J is a name for 60 year old women, not babies, so /Yan/ won’t be in a class with girl /Jans/.

I'd have said that about names like Elsie or Archie a few years ago but they are popular now. When my first son was born a woman was hysterical and her husband was asked to leave because he told her he'd been and registered the baby as Alfie , after his grandfather. Little did she know he wasn't getting an oldfashioned name, he was a trend setter.

Didn't rtft but I had a similar concern when naming mine (except the length) so here are a few ideas :

Boys : Max (I prefer Maximilian but Max works too), Leo, Arthur, Anton, Felix, Axel

Girls : Sasha (I had two boys so girl names aren't my forte)

About your picks : not sure about Liv as a full name ? Sounds more like a nickname and people would probably assume her full name is Olivia. Zoe sounds fine.

Jan will probably be assumed to be a girl in the UK. Elias is a nice name but though short in writing, it does have 3 syllables so maybe not as short-sounding as you'd have liked ?
Mathias is a similar feel though, as is Lukas (I love that name).

So no unisex names ever, @ancientgran?

I’ve never heard of Liv as an actual name. I didn’t realise Zoe worked so well internationally, but that seems a good choice.

Jan - actually I’ve met quite a few Jans (and Jana) but all have been Eastern European. I automatically say Jan/ Jana as Yan / Yana but it’s obviously very much not a British name. I imagine it might be similar to how a British name like Arthur or Beth is seen outside of English speaking countries - most people who have any English language experience or have worked any time internationally will know how we pronounce “th” and will likely say the names mostly correctly, but there will be people that also don’t know.

Lukas / Lucas above is a good call.

How about Gregor?
I've met a Stanislas from Lithuania, always known as 'Stan'. That seems pretty international.
Tobias works in English and German (different pronunciations, but, as you say, children adapt wonderfully well), but I don't know what it would be Russian.
Nikolaus/Nikolai?
Markus?
Yann is a name well-known in France (and Cornwall) - it's Breton. There's a much respected modern opera-singer with the name (Yann Beuron). People in the UK would very easily accept it.
Pavel/Paul

Zoe is very nice.
Irina/Irena might also work but I expect it's rather old-fashioned. Though it has a lovely meaning: 'peace'.
Alina
Flora
Susanna (very pretty)
Julia runs into the 'J' problem, but, as others have said, people will learn. Otherwise, it's international.
Olga/Helga (probably even more old fashioned, but quite striking).
Versions of Margaret: Margarethe, Margarita etc etc .
Franciska - decades ago, I went to school with someone with that name. It was no problem at all.
I think if people recognise the 'basic' name, they will very quickly adapt to variations.

@Marty13

Didn't rtft but I had a similar concern when naming mine (except the length) so here are a few ideas :

Boys : Max (I prefer Maximilian but Max works too), Leo, Arthur, Anton, Felix, Axel

Girls : Sasha (I had two boys so girl names aren't my forte)

About your picks : not sure about Liv as a full name ? Sounds more like a nickname and people would probably assume her full name is Olivia. Zoe sounds fine.

Jan will probably be assumed to be a girl in the UK. Elias is a nice name but though short in writing, it does have 3 syllables so maybe not as short-sounding as you'd have liked ?
Mathias is a similar feel though, as is Lukas (I love that name).

Thank you for the boys' names. Unfortunately, or fortunately :), two of these are already owned by my husband and my elder son, and Felix was a cat of my close friend who lived to a really old age, so I only associate this name with this beautiful pet :) and other names... Just not sure. Still love Elias the most, although there have been a lot of great suggestions (and I did read a lot of name lists, too). I am just not too happy that Elias is getting really popular in Germany, but I guess that's ok, unless we find another name that clicks. And yes, agree with Jan, especially after reading all the comments here. I also noticed that I myself sometimes misread it as a short form of Janet, although it was me who put the question 😂 And Liv I just love exactly as a full name, it's Scandinavian in origin, where it's used as a full name. But still jumping between Liv and Zoe every day. The issue with Sasha is that German /sh/ is spelled as /sch/, so having Sasha spelled this way wouldn't be a good fit. Also, in Russia it's a nickname for Alexander/Alexandra and I have at least 3 close friends named this way, algough I really like the sound of it. Thank you!

Thank you so much for all the answers! ♥️ Just cannot reply everyone's message.
After reading positive feedback about Zoe and Liv, I am still very fond of these two names. The issue of Liv sounding "short" doesn't bother us much, as we both love short names,and there are 3 close relatives in the family whose full names are short forms of longer ones. I am just still a bit concerned to meet too many "Liv's"/Olivias as this is a popular name.
Our third choice was Julia (someone mentioned it, too), and it's fine that it is pronounced slightly differently in different languages. Our elder son's example has shown that its not a problem, and he responds to different variations when switching languages (and me too, with my name).
After reading the comments, I think I am giving up on Jan, as many of you confirmed my feelings, and I myself get confused when seeing the name written by myself.
Still love "Elias" a lot, and unfortunately none of suggested variants got my affection, although they are all beautiful. Just don't roll in my mouth, or we have already close variants, or personal associations with some of them. It's actually good, as it confirmed our choice :)
There are still a few months to go, maybe there will be a second one that will work.
Thanks again!!!

Hey OP if you love Elias go for it !

I called my youngest Mathias thinking that it was, if not unusual, at least not that common. Then I moved to Latin America where half of the last generation got called Matias (the local equivalent). I was a bit miffed but eh, what can you do. If you love the sound of the name that's really more important than how (un)popular the name is.

I think Elias is a great name. My second son's middle name is Ilya. Я жила несколько лет в России, поэтому хотела что, у моих сыновей были русские имена. Sorry if any of that was grammatically incorrect, it's been a while :)

I have a Theodor! (My father was Silesian German. My father in law was Russian!). My great grandfather was Elias and we have uncle Ilya in the family.
My Theodor is 19 now.
My other son is Alec.
Other names I'd think about are Hugo, Anton, Andrei, Emil, Victor, Nils, Otto.

I am just not too happy that Elias is getting really popular in Germany

My Czech roots (my grandmother was Czech) go back more than 500 years. We have A LOT of 'Elias' in the family tree. I think Elias has been popular across Germany for a while.

Plenty of ppl called Iain is Scotland and Wales have an equivalent. I've never heard any issues.

What about Euan or Callum for a boy.

Iona or Eilidh for a girl.

If you like Zoe and Liv, what about Zev for a boy?

Hi @BigHedgehog, I haven’t rtft but how about Daniel for a boy which I think works in all three places? Or Timofey / Timothy?