This or that! Our final two names

[CatGos]

After thinking long and hard about names that work in both Spanish and English without someone butchering pronunciation we've finally picked out two names for baby boy! Now we can't decide between them!

Álvaro or Emilio! We love both and just can't pick!

Álvaro. One of the greatest names there are, but both are beautiful.

Not sure how much time (if any) baby will spend in Spain but Emilio is quite an old fashioned name there.

If Latin / South America, then ignore my comment of course! Emilio is a bit more international on the other hand.

How do you pronounce Álvaro? I think it’s still open to mispronounciation.

I’d go with Emilio as there’s less risk of pronunciation butchering - and if you’re on the UK it’s a lot easier to type on a standard keyboard.

Both lovely names. Sorry, not helpful !

Álvaro is beautiful

Emilio

The problem with Álvaro in the U.K. is the accent. I'm also not 100% sure I'm not butchering the pronunciation!

I don't think people will know where the stress goes ie. if it's AL varo or Al VAR o. Al is a cool nn though.

I'd go with Emilio. There is one in my son's school so it's not totally out there in the UK.

Hmmm didn't think about placing of the accent on Alvaro in English. My one concern with Emilio is it might be a little to close to Emily/Emma and Emilia in English?

That’s true - he might get called Emily which may or may not bother him. Are you both Spanish living in the UK, or vice versa?

@SirChenjins that's my only fear with Emilio!

dad is Mexican and I'm Irish! Living in UK.

There's lots of Spanish names that work in English like Sebastian, Nicolas, Mateo. I still like Emilio though.

I don't think in this age of football slebs anyone would think of it as girly. Plenty of cool Spanish/ Mexican footballers around. Foreign names are totally normal these days.

Emilio definitely.

Emilio gets my vote

I prefer Álvero, no idea if I am pronoucing it correctly though, Al-ver-o? But most people can say a name correctly once you've told them how to say it. I think Emilio is too close to Emily etc and will be said incorrectly a lot.

I think Emilio is too close to Emily/Amelia type names and they are very popular names so I would go with Álvaro

Emilio

The accent will definitely be dropped, as are most special characters on UK documents, school records…

@irishfarmer it’s pronounced AL-vah-roh, stress on the first syllable. And it’s spelt Álvaro with 2 a’s not an e!

Also the way most English pronunciation goes, he'll get called Al VAAAR oh. You can correct people but it depends how confident you are at secondary school. Lots of different teachers. Plus, many people just don't listen. I have a very easy to pronounce name but some people still don't manage even after being corrected.

I like both so would probably wait until he arrives and see what felt right

@EileenGC sorry I looked it incorrectly! Thanks for the pronunciation :)

I would pronounce it Al-VARRR-O. I think most would so maybe Emilio is better.

Emilio - it's much more likely to get a correct pronunciation and spelling

Alvaro! It’s a lovely name!
Emilio is too close to the many similar and very popular girls names.

As suspected a 50/50 🤣. @SnowdropFox think you may get be tight, might need to see which one jumps into our mouths when he arrives!

@flippertyopWe live in Scotland so I think the long ahhhh sound a lot of English accents have wouldn't be so much of an issue 🤞

Alvaro is gorgeous! Strong but beautiful, international and interesting but familiar.

Emiliano makes me think of Emilia immediately and seems a bit feminine, but thats just me being stupid