Quirky names that work in German

[JulieBindelHasAKindle]

Dp is German and I’m English and we are currently living in Italy but will be moving to the UK in the next 18 months. We’ve decided on Aloisa for a girl but are struggling to decide on a boys name. I always wanted to call my child Jude if they were a boy but it’s inappropriate in German. Names we like are as followed:

Karl (but it’s quite popular in Germany and I worry people will think of Marx)
Mies (dp wants this as it’s a family name however I don’t think it works in English)
Egon (I like but dp thinks it sounds too much like Elon)
Rainer (we both like but think it sounds tol American)
Wolf (we both like but worry it’s too ‘weird’ in English)

Names we can’t use: Otto, Rex, Rafael

There's an architect called Mies van der Rohe, who I believe is Dutch. Mies the German adjective means nasty, unpleasant, particularly of someone's character or behaviour. I wouldn't use it for a part German child.

Your other names, and many of the other suggestions, are rather the German equivalents of Barry/Brian/Geoff - very 'late middle-aged man'.

Clement is good, more usually Clemens in Germany.

Names if German boys I know:
Bruno
Ferdinand
Lorenz
Carl (nobody thinks of Marx)
Oskar
Luca
Malte (pronounced Mall-tuh with a short A)
Gregor

Albert?

Oh yes, and lot of Emils (pronounced Ay-meel with emphasis on the first syllable) and Johanns, and Pauls (Powl).

@JulieBindelHasAKindle
Dp’s grandfather was called Mies, he was from a Jewish family and I think came from Holland so it may be a Dutch/Jewish name! It’s pronounced slightly differently to the German ‘Mies’ which I think means crook (my German has seen better days) which is another reason why I’m not keen but dp doesn’t seem to see the issue as the baby will grow up in England 🙄

Thanks that makes sense! My first thought was Sylvia Mies, a famous Dutch TV presenter (and ex-WAG!)

I love Tobias (pronounced the German way) and Tobi is easy for English & German families to pronounce the same way xx

Great names on this thread!

I love Mies, Rainer, Walter, Conrad, Wolf(gang), Bruno.

Fabian, Tobias, Alexander, Florian, Robert, Ben, Jonas.
Not Jude, that would be weird/problematic in German.

I used to know a little German boy named Moritz, which I thought was a cute name. Plus many English speakers will have heard of the ski resort San Moritz so pronunciation shouldn't be an issue.

Oh, and Dorian!

Valentin
Willem
Christian

I agree that Mies will get mistaken for Miles, could you have it as a middle name

That’s my concern with Mies, dp (who is German) is insistent that because the child would grow up in England/Italy it would be fine but I’m really not keen!

We (German DH and English me) named our son Henrik. We also wanted a name that worked in both languages and it's the only one that we had consensus on!

Dp has (finally) agreed to have Mies as a middle name. We’ve narrowed it down to three names:

Jascha ( Said Ya-sha)
Clemens
Karl

F1 is a good source of inspiration here :
Sebastian
Nico
Toto
Max
Jochen
Dietmar

Mies is a dutch name, but mostly used for girls. I had several “aunties” that were called Mies.

We wanted names that went well in Dutch and English so we got biblical , lots of inspiration there. Only problem is people think we are very religious when they here our kids names😎

I don’t like Jasha, too much of a Russian connotation and would English people pronounce it right?
Love Clemens, how is it pronounced in English? Like Clemence, which I think is a girls’ name?
Karl is very retro and popular, Karl Marx does not come to mind immediately.

We went for short, easy to pronounce first names with dc and left the slightly more difficult ones as middle names.

Torger nn Toto

That’s true about the connotations with Russia re Jascha, dp is from an area with a large Sorbian population so it’s relatively popular there. I believe Clemens is pronounced the same in English as in German like ‘kleh-munz’.

i think anything like Jascha will have a lifetime of mispronunciation in english. I hate Karl but in my age group it was one of the boy equivalents of tracy/karen type names but all names come back in fashion! Clemens has a lovely meaning but likewise he will always be spelling it out for people.

I like
Rasmus
Lars
Lucas
Anders

@DutchCowgirl dp’s grandfather was Dutch and he was called Mies! Dp has always been adamant it was his full name which seems to be quite unusual!?

I might be in the minority here but I think Jascha is a fairly straightforward pronunciation however I am Dutch so it may be slightly different. Meis could also be short for Bartholomeus (as well as Michiel) so potentially that could be dp’s grandfathers name. Particularly if he was Jewish.

We know an Otto (German and English parents).

Also nice in German:

Max / Maximilian
Felix
Sebastian
Theo
Lukas
Emil
Johann
Ansel
Karsten
Kaspar

I think Mies is great.

My list of German boys is

Nico
Joel
Louis
Konrad
michael
Moritz
Thomas
Jonas