German girl names

[SnowmenMadeofIcecream]

Hello

I'm looking for names for my baby girl due in a few weeks. I live in a German speaking country so the name needs to work well in German and English.

So far on our list we have:
Sabrina
Imogen
Cassandra/Cassie
Tessa

Any other ideas? We're a bit stuck. Thank you!

Hannah
Eva

Adele
Kerstin
Henriette
Louise
Katerina
Johanna
Frederika
Alfreda
Greta
Liselotte - Lilo
Charlotta
Charleze
Mitzi
Jocelyn
Alice
Annica
Angelica
Belinda
Clarissa
Anastasia
Alaine
Zelda
Heidi
Giselle
Wylda
Lenore
Nixie
Ernestine
Angela
Willa
Ida

Johanna
Aina
Charlotta
Alice
Ebba
Agnes
Wilma
Julia

Liesl, Agathe, Maria, Johanna, Martina
Angela, Angelica, Emilia, Olga, Rosa, Laura, Marita, Heike, Meike, Steffi, Claudia, Ursula, Silke, Petra, Anja, Birgit, Astrid, Ilse, Ulla, Sabine

The names might be a bit like Carol and Sandra in Germany

I love Lena and Vada

My nans german, her names are Inge Maria Fransiska, Inge (pronounced Ing-ah) is constantly mispronounced.

Heidi

Cosima

Lena

There are a lot of names mentioned here that nobody in Germany (not sure about Austria or Switzerland) would name their child in 2023, for example, the youngest Elke that I know is 54, all Petras are possibly older than that, and the only Heidis I have ever met are either American or English.
The top 5 girl names in Germany in 2022 were Emilia, Mia, Sofia, Emma and Hannah.
Rund Ums Baby has a name forum you could have a look there what names are used.

@Igneococcus , they will be older women's names, because we will have heard the names on famous german women, or women we know, in my case mostly from work.
If I did the same with english names, I'd probably be suggesting names like Sue, Karen and Linda

I know @DuchessOfSausage which is why I'm pointing it out.
I don't actually think there is anything wrong with using "old" names, I mean plenty of names which are considered old have become popular again both in the UK and Germany (Johanna, for example) but some of them I doubt will ever make a comeback. Ilse for example is not ever going to be popular again.

Bianca

Not Imogen. I've heard them wrestle with this one in Austria and they give it a hard G so it sounds like a medication.

My friend is Laura.

I would guess Anneliese is dated as in Germany it was really popular in the 1970s due to the opera singer Anneliese Rothenburger's TV show.

Also you might think it works in German and English but you couldn't be more wrong. English people will 100% tell you it's a lovely name before failing to pronounce it.

Good points on Imogen. I'll remove that one from the list. Thanks!

Good choices above
i also like Anja.

Claudia?

I teach in a university and have had a few Austrian and German Petras recently, so it's not only an old name. Agnieszka (Aga for short) and Nicole also seem to be popular. My German relatives are Annabelle, Katja (pronounced katia), Katrin, Brigitte, Alice, Charlotte, Frederike, Maria and Kathrin.

Lenore is apparently the German form of Helen. In a Beethoven opera from memory.

Very wise to take Imogen off the list. She'd get either Imo-GEYN with a hard G or - if they realise she's (part?) English - Imo-chun.

Most of the names PPs are coming up with are very, um, retro. Sabrina from your list is very 80s.

Heidi, Magdalena and Lily (sadly usually spelt with two Ls in the middle) are popular among my dd's contemporaries and work in both languages. For some reason there seems to be a spate of Amys too.

More traditionally German might be Clara, Felicitas, Frieda, Emma (v much an old lady name here), Josephine (Yozuh-feenuh), Marianne (again with an 'uh' sound at the end). Annika is sweet. My eldest went to primary school with a Madita (also Astrid Lindgren-inspired).

I also like Annalena (like the foreign minister). Pronunication difference from English relatively slight. (And there's always a difference. I've named three English/German children what I thought were very 'international' names and the difference the pronunciation of one letter can make...)

Donata
Beate

We have a German Helena in the family ( although now doubting is it an e or a on the end ? Pretty sure the hanne is pronounced as a hanna

Emmeline or Emmie for short.

Matilda or Tilly for short.

Christa

Luisa

Definitely not Erika. Im German and that name has had no revival, it's old fashioned without any cute retro to it.