Galician/Spanish boys names

[cunningplan101]

Please help us choose a Galician or Spanish boy's name...

Our top choices so far:

Gael - pronounced 'Gah-el'; the 'Gah' sound is similar to the 'a' in map and the 'el' is the sound in 'bell'; no nickname, but has the diminutive Gaelito which I think is very cute

Anxo - pronounced 'Ansho'; means 'Angel' in Galician; I don't know if it's a lot to live up to?

Rafael - nicknames Raffy, Rafa or Rafe

Tiago - nickname Teo or Santi

Xoel - pronounced Shoel, the Galician version of Joel

Izan - pronounced like Ethan

I also like the names Mateo, Xacob (Shacob) and Theo very much but can't use them because of close family/friends.

I really like Anxo and Rafael.

I love all of those!

I like Rafael and Tiago.

Anxo makes me think of the word ancho.
Are you in Galicia?
If so, I suppose that wouldn't be an issue although be may not live there his whole life.
And you may not consider it an issue at all.
I love Gael. I would use it but it's too similar to my Dd's name.
Izan and Tiago are very common atm but that might not bother you.
I believe Tiago is the name of Leo Messi's DS so it's become trendy after previously being mostly popular in Latin America. I'm not sure about whether it also was in Galicia.
Rafael very standard name common over quite a lot of generations.
I like Xoel a lot, also Joel with catalan pronunciation.
My vote is for Gael or Xoel!

For living here I would say Tiago or Rafael, both very nice and easy to spell/pronounce.

Gael!

Thank you very much for thoughts so far. Seems kind of a tie, with Rafael edging the lead? (& not much love for Izan)

I didn't know that about Leo Messi's DS, @Nightwithhertrainofstars - thank you. What did you mean by the word 'ancho'?

I think really my favourites are Gael and Rafael. Gael because it is unusual in England and sounds so lovely when my husband says it in his Spanish accent. I also think it looks elegant when written down. But I do worry about it being difficult for English speakers to pronounce and whether it would annoy him when he grows up, always have to correct people.

I like Rafael because it is well known and easy to pronounce in both languages and 'Rafe' seems like a cool nickname (while Raffy/Rafa are sweet).

We plan to live in England, but spend quite a lot of time in Galicia on holidays visiting family.

@likemindedarseholes

Gael!

I like it but I think it’s too easy to take the P out of.

Xoel and Tiago. Love Galicia OP.

Ancho means wide, broad. But probably not an issue given you'll be spending time in Galicia where the gallego word is understood.
I like Gael and Gaelito best (I'm a sucker for a diminutive), but I think Rafael might be easier living in the UK as people are more likely to be able to pronounce it. Also try saying the names in your local UK accent, bc it's bound to not be as pretty as in Spanish!

Oh that's very interesting about Ancho, @colouringfoxes (I really need to improve my Spanish!) I'll check with DH on whether he thinks that could be an issue.

@Hoppinggreen Do you think Gael would be made fun of because it's unusual?

I did wonder if kids would taunt 'Gael is a girl' or 'Gael is gay'. Not that either of those things should be an insult obviously. But I don't really know what playgrounds are like these days. If kids want to bully, can they find a way to make fun of any name in the end?

We live in London where I think unusual/foreign names are probably more expected because there are people from so many different backgrounds, but if we move out it might become more of a problem.

I think we'd also have to not be too precious about people pronouncing it 'wrong'. E.g. if they thought it was 'Gail', a completely different name, it'd be sensible to correct. But if someone said 'Guy-el' instead of 'Ga-el', it'd seem a bit arseholeish to say 'Actually it's Ga-el'.

I do like Xoel too. I would really love to have a Galician name. DH's father's first language is Gallego and DH feels a little guilty that by living in England, he's letting that heritage drop a bit.

He's also a little unsure on Rafael because of its pronunciation in English being very different (apparently, to his ears!) to its pronunciation in Spanish.

Yes, as PP says ancho means wide or broad and the letter X produces a "Ch" sound in some parts of Spain. So the name made me think of that but of course it's not pronounced quite like that in Galician. And wouldn't be an issue if you'll be in the UK. Although it would be a name that next to no-one will have heard of it.
As you'll be living in the UK Xoel would require your DS to explain the spelling and would probably develop a shorthand like "It's like Joel but with an X".
Rafael would be the easiest in terms of ease of pronunciation and spelling in the UK. I don't think it's pronounced very differently in the two accents but I suppose that's subjective! I think it's a lovely elegant name, particularly in English actually!
I don't think Gael would necessarily lead to much teasing but it's true that kids always find a way!

The problem with Rafael to a Spanish speaker is that in Spanish it has a hard R sound which doesn't exist in English. So it does sound very different to Spanish ears. Lovely name though.

Gael is nice, not sure why anyone would tease someone based on that name?

Anxo Xoel and Izan will lead to a life of constantly having to spell his name several times over (when a name is unfamiliar and you just spell it, particularly is if has sounds which do not seem to correspond to what English speakers would expect, the recipient doesn't take it in until you do it slowly, letter by letter and then confirm it). He won't thank you for it.

I think Tiago or Rafael would be easiest in the UK. I love both those names, by the way. With the others, I think you would be correcting the pronunciation frequently. English people are just not going to expect X to be pronounced like Sh or Izan to be pronounced the same as Ethan. Gael will probably be read as "Gail" by people unfamiliar with Spanish/French etc.

That said, if you live in a highly multicultural area with a lot of families who have children with non-English names, then perhaps having a "difficult to spell/pronounce" name is less likely to be an issue.

Tiago. Went to school with one, cool dude.

Think he spelt it Thiago though.

Anxo is the one I like best and sounds best with an English accent I think. No one would know it's meaning here - makes me think chillies! and in Spain loads of people have religious names. I don't think Gael sounds the same with an English accent, when my Galician dh says it it sounds like Gy-el rather than Gah-el to me - but neither way sounds quite right in English and I think people would mangle it. Tiago makes me want to ask 'where's the San??' I don't know how you'd get the nickname Santi unless you used Santiago (which I prefer). I like Santiago with Teo as a nn. Rafael with Rafe as a nn works well too I think and Izan is easy as it sounds like Ethan.

@Gowithme - that's interesting about the Gy rather than Gah sound. My DH has said definitely not a Gy sound, but I think I'd be ok with people pronouncing it either way. I also think that maybe Gaelito is easier for English speakers to say so when he is young we could use that quite a lot. I like Santiago too but reminds DH too much of the place. I think 'Santi' would just be a pet name for me to use as I think it's sweet, so it wouldn't matter if other people wouldn't get it (as logically yes could only be used with the full Santiago).

@CatherinedeBourgh and @demoness That's a very good point about how annoying it could get for him always having to say 'It's like Joel but spelled with an X and pronounced with a Sh'. Also run the risk of him being called 'shoal'!

Thanks so much everyone for all your thoughtful responses. It helps a lot hearing how different people think about the names.

I’ve always liked Xoán, which is pronounced a bit like the Irish Sean/Shaun. Also, Iago which is both Galician and Welsh, but the Shakespeare thing could be an issue.

I’d avoid Izan generally as even being half British, Spanish people can be super snobby about that name with that spelling and start making jokes about how a boy named Izan might as well be named ‘Kevin Costner de Jesus’. I don’t know why but it happens just about every time. If you want to call him Ethan, that’s probably better, they won’t care about that once you tell them how to pronounce it.

I meant to mention that the name Hugo is quite popular for little boys in Spain at the moment but it usually sounds good to people on both sides of the channel and is easy to pronounce for everyone. It’s not very Galician, though.

Gael is gorgeous.

Oh I started this thread a little while ago, and then just today I started a new one about the name Francisco/Frankie. And now this one has come back! 🙂

That's interesting @Iliada about Izan. I don't think I quite understand though - is it seen as a mangling of an English name into Spanish?

Xoán pronounced Sean is lovely too. I am not keen on Hugo in English somehow - and one of my DH's Spanish close friends is called Hugo, so would be another reason not to use it.

Gael still definitely one of my favourites! Somehow I think Gaelito may be easier for English people to pronounce than Gael ... so I was wondering if we could even use that diminutive e.g. when they are at primary school. Would it make sense to English people to have a nickname that is longer than the birth certificate name?

Yes, that’s it. Older Spanish people seem to all think that the parents heard the name Ethan in the ‘Mission Impossible’ films and then tried to work out how to spell it and got it wrong.

I think Gael is lovely too, by the way. And I know why you worry but I don’t think that kids are going to call each other ‘gay’ as a perjorative as much as they did twenty or thirty years ago. It’s not a ’thing’ to be gay now for most kids anyway, it’s just normal and boring, so even if they do say something, you can just invent a withering put down for him about how out of touch they are with what is cool to say, in case they ever try it. There’s almost certainly going to be a kid with gay parents or uncle/aunt, granny, etc who will stand up with him on silly stuff like that these days, anyway.

Besides, most Gabriels and Guys have got through life just fine, even when kids made a big thing about ‘your name sounds a bit like gay’.

It’s never possible to guess what kids will get teased or not teased about. Go with the name you love saying.

Also a massive fan of the name Rafael, too. Your husband will make sure he can roll his Rs for when he introduces himself in Spain and as a name it works everywhere in Europe.

And I have never met a nasty Rafael. They’ve all been nice!