International baby boy names

[hallodarknessmyoldfriend]

Hi!

I am a FTM and we are having a baby boy later on this year.

We would ideally like to find a name that works in English as well as Nordics / Western Europe.

Our shortlist so far (I like, but don't LOVE these):

Oliver
Samuel
Kai
Leo
Max
Daniel
Noah
Gabriel

Which one would you choose? Any recommendations?

I love Gabriel & Noah

What about-

Otto
Finn
Jasper
Jesper
Raphael / Rapha

I would say Max as it is the one sounding most similar no matter which language speaker says it.

New suggestions: Caspian, Vincent, William/ Willem, Mikael

Soren

Wouldn't Soren have the umlaut or a line across in Nordic countries like Søren Kierkegaard?

Suggest Torben instead or Thor.

Adam
Nicolai
Albert

Most versions of Alexander, George, Peter or David would work in many countries.

I know an English Jan (pronounced Yan) - that works for everyone and easy to spell.

Thomas.

avoid anything that starts with a J.

from your list I would choose Noah, Max or Oliver.

Henry or Henri

Oh I love the suggestion of Henri

I like the suggestion of Henry / Henri / Henrik.

I’m very fond of Eric / Erik.

Thanks so much.

I really like Henri!

We also want names that work in a few different countries/languages. To add to above suggestions our lists have also had:

Samuel
Felix
Sebastian
Elias
Anton
Aaron
Benjamin
Casper
Lucas

Gabriel or Daniel

Suggestions:

Julian
Felix
Lucas
Oscar
Benjamin
Theodor (I have one ☺️)
Emil
Elias
Anton
Fredrik
Dominic
Benedict

Conrad/Konrad

What do you think 'works internationally' - some names might be spelled same but pronounced different or spelling wouldn't work between different countries. For example, Erik is Erik in Nordic, but Eric in France.
Do you want name that is pronounced the same, spelled the same or just crosses boarders easily?

then
Oscar - in some countries it's Oskar
Emil - at least in German countries it's male name
Marco
Desmond - should be spelled with ease in most EU countries, and pronounced easily
Edmund - same as above
Lucian
Florian - popular in Germany and Austria
Ilyas - French version of Elias - AYE sound doesn't work in many EU countries
Roland - It's Orlando in Italian
Magnus - travels pretty well, but some EU people pronounce it weirdly
Amaury - French form of Emery
Emmett - works as Desmond, but some countries might add -o at the end, like Italians
Valerian - works in many EU countries, and it's associated as healing herb in EU, but it's poison in A.Christi work (it's not actually a poison, it's just healing herb with possible side effects)

Love love an international baby name! I'm from a blended culture family too so my list looks similar haha My favorite on your list is Kai :)

Other ideas -

Nicolas nn Nick, Nico
Asa (ace-uh)
Bellamy
Kit
Cassian love the nn Kaz
Dario
Elio
Flynn
Sander
Marcel
Penn
Micah
Roan
Tristan
Matthias
Idris
Robben/Robbie
Julian
Alaric nn Ric
Ben
Damon
Kaius
Enzo
Gael (guy-el)
Neil/Niall
Milan
Pascal nn Cal
Ren
Andraes
Dimitri
Stefan
Dorian
Pax

Theodor is likely to be pronounced quite differently as some countries don’t have the Th sound that we have in English

Of your choices I love Samuel (Sam) best, although Max is nice and simple too.

Have you considered William? - it's top 100 in over a dozen countries worldwide (and top 10 in Sweden, Norway and Denmark). Obviously the pronunciation will vary slightly depending on accent, but at least the majority will be familiar with that spelling (plus people generally know the "English" pronunciation too due to the popularity of Shakespeare).

Thomas/ Tomas

Till

Simon is also fairly international (although pronounced differently in different places).

Please don't go with Noah - such a lame name.

Samuel or Lucas if you want a biblical name.

International names that sprung to mind

Filip
Luca
Sven
Tomas
Henri
Alexander
Karl

Also, I would think of international royal names and biblical names,

Henrik
Quentin
Vincent
Marcus

We had the same focus and went with Sebastian!