Is Gianna too ‘Italian’

[Cooldetective]

Love the name Gia, but DH wants a fuller name with Gia as a NN.

Obviously Gianna is the obvious choice, neither of us are Italian. Is that weird?

We’ve considered Georgia too but decided against it.

Any other options if we decide against Gianna?

Thanks!

No such thing as too Italian! There is if you are taking an ordinary Italian name then changing the pronunciation, @ChocolateCinderToffee . It's the equivalent of naming your baby Seán but saying it a See-un.

I think Giovanni will be coming round again but Gianni is someone aged 60+. Gian- names are very 1970s. @AStitchinTime9

Too Italian. As others have said, it's pronounced Janna, although the double N means it's more like Jan-Na. (Both A's like the A in Apple)

I prefer Giovanna, but I don't see why "too Italian" is an issue.

Italian here. Can't comment much on how it sounds in the UK, but in Italy it's very 60'/70' (not those classic 19th century names that are back in fashion now) and there is a very popular rockstar with this name. It's pronounced Janna, with long N sound and, while inoffensive, it's a bit of a weird name for a newborn.

That's really interesting to hear an Italian perspective.

What about Giovanna?

Giovanna is very similar, quite meh. The youngest Giovanna I know is 65. The name is also on the boring side, one of those names you easily forget. Not posh, not cute, not memorable, but also not tacky or unusual.
If I only had to chose between Gianna and Giovanna I would probably go with the first, but it wins by a small margin!

What names are baby girls getting now? Are they less traditionally Italian?

Agree with @Criteria16 , it’s fairly old lady, out of the 2 I prefer Giovanna (which gets shortened to Giò). It might be location dependent but the Giovannas I know are more 45-50 than over 65. I dislike Gianna as the 2 I’ve met (both older than 65) have been quite rough and screechy.

Giada (Jade) is less old lady, my DD’s generation has a few (20s). But it’s not pronounced Jee-Ada so if you were going to pronounce Gia as Jee-a then that wouldn’t work as a shortened version.

Conta nomi – Istat

Sofia
Aurora
Ginevra
Vittoria
Giulia
Beatrice
Ludovica
Alice
Emma
Matilde

Gioia (Joy-a) would give you Gee-ah

Yes, I can imagine a screechy Gianna actually!

Mind you the more fashionable suggestion of Giada sounds screechy to my ears as well, and definitely doesn't work in English as it's too close to Giardia which is a type of intestinal parasite that causes explosive diarrhoea and copious farting.

It goes to show cultural boundaries can be tricky.

So true @Calliopespa, my DD has an Italian name and we needed to exclude tricky spellings and tricky to pronounce for non Italian speakers. That definitely excluded all the Gi names and anything where the vowels sounded different (eg. Claudia).

Similarly, when evaluating English names, many were automatically discounted because they meant something negative in Italian.

For example, Ruby I was out as it sounded like what a thief would be called. Such a minefield!

I’m a 70s child, and had a friend called Giovanna (large Italian community in our area). How I loved that name, even though she anglicised it to Jo outside her home. It’s true, I don’t know a single person called that name now, in both our part of Italy and up north.

Snap. Our DS has an easy to pronounce name in both languages. No ‘g’ names, and we ruled out the male ‘a’ names like Andrea and Nicola, too.

It’s lovely!

Yeah sorry it is. It's like when people name their kid after a celebrity like Gigi Dua Lipa, thinking they'll be glamorous when often it's the opposite. Gianna's nice for an Italian girl, comes off cheap if not.

I don't think it works as a longer name for Gia, sorry. They have different prononciations!

Jia or Jiya, with a J, is quite a common Indian name these days, why not just call her that and spell it with a G if you want?

If you wanted a longer name I think the only one that works is Georgina.

How are you pronouncing Gia and Gianna? Because in my mind they're very different! Gia = Jee- a, Gianna = Janna

If you call her Georgiana to get Gia, her nickname will likely be Georgie at school, and eventually everywhere.
If you want her to be known as Gia, the only real way to do that is to put it on the birth certificate.

We have a Giulia in the family and although the Julia spelling was predicted, it seems to be too difficult for some people.

If you wanted a longer name I think the only one that works is Georgina.
I know a few Georginas and they are all George, Georgie or Gina.