Amalia?

[beforesunrise]

well i am pushing 35 weeks with dd2 and still no decision on names. we need a name that works in italian, german and english as we are a slightly international family... i am dead set on Anna but dh not very keen.

last night he came up with Amalia (his first positive contribution to the debate) which i quite like to too. so we may have reached a compromise.

but i need someone to tell me whether it sounds completely daft/weird/harsh to english ears? would people misspell it or mispronounce it you think? it's fine if it's a bit exotic, i just don't want it to be weird!

the truth please!

thanks in advance!

I have an Amelia, I do think people are likely to spell and pronounce it Amelia tbh and imo

sorry, I should have also said that I like the name Amalia

lovely name - i know a lady with this name. Think she spells it Amarlia

It does sound like a mistake in English, but a foreign name in a family with international origins is perfectly acceptable. It will be misspelt all the time though...

Isn't Amelia any good?

Froma an english persepctive it looks like you couldn't spell Amelia - sorry

It's quite pretty.

Claudia?

i think Amelia sounds too much like Emilia and i am not too keen on that one. i like the open sound of Amalia (Ah-mah-lia), unless that's not at all how you would pronounce it in english?

How about Amelie

It does seem like a misspelling

Anna, are you my friend Claudia in disguise by any chance? she keeps lobbying for me to choose that name. but we already have a Clara, and it's too same same.

NorthernLurker, that's interesting. dont you think people would make allowances for the international background?

My first thought when I saw the thread title was that you were someone who couldn't spell Amelia.

It's quite nice, but I do think you'll find that you'll spend your whole life saying "No, not Amelia ...".

I much prefer Amalia to Amelia. Amelia is pretty, cutesy, old English-y. Amalia sounds exotic and classy

People might pronounce it Am-ay-lia

That's how I said it in my head, but I stand corrected!

who asked you mrs m

ok both Amelia and Amalia are nice names but they are different names... actually i would be ok with Amelia too if it weren't for the fact that italians would constantly ask "Emilia?" and i had a horrible classmate called that.

whereas Amalia is the name of my brother's ex girlfiriend and she was lovely and very beautiful...

Then I think you should go with Amalia, my mum has a friend called that and actually more often than not will call my dd that on the phone but then my mum's not normal

Susanna?
Livia?

I really like it and when I saw it didn't think it was a mis-spelling - I am a teacher and have lots of children with names that have different spellings, getting less and less with 'traditionally' spelt names! - I wouldn't worry about it, I think it is lovely!

My friend's little girl here in Italy is called Amelia, so it is used as a name here, albeit rarely. It's not pronounced Am-ee-lia, though, it's Am-ey-lia, so, yet no mix up with Emilia, though pronounced differently from English.

Whatever you do someone's bound to pronounce it incorrectly somewhere. My DD's name is Italian but entirely phonetic and pronounced the same way in English yet some relatives in UK still manage to mispronounce it. Just go with what you like.

I know an Amalia and think it's a lovely name but had to train myself for ages not to say Amelia.

I think its a lovely name but does look a bit like you made a spelling error!

What about Isabella?

Reading it, I'm not sure how to pronounce it TBH. Is it Am-arlia or Am-aylia? Quite like both but suspect there will be trouble ahead on the pronunciation and spelling front.

no

I like Amalia. I prefer your choiuce of Anna, but Amalia is nice. Better than Amelia (apologies to Delgirl) and much better than Amelie.

My (Spanish) aunt is called Amalia. It was in my shortlist of names for dd . In Spain it is pronounced A-mah-lia.