Spanish baby girl name, any ideas?

[LouLouH]

Got a few:

Bella
Alejandra
Esmeralda
Marcela
marisa
Lucia
Sofia
Amaris
Alba
Angeles

Our names for what turned oout to be ds were:

Clara
Elena
Carolina
Catalina
Eva
Candela
Isabel
Juana
Loreto
Elisa
Lucia

My cousin is Scottish but lives in Barcalona with her Spanish partner.

They have two little girls - Lara and the new baby is called Mar (or it could be Marr, not sure how it's spelt). Mar apparently is Catalan for sea/ocean or something like that. Don't know what Lara means.

I think they are lovely names, although not as "Spansih" sounding as others mentioned so far.

I don't think you can beat Mercedes.

I think Mercedes is a lovely name - but if you use it over here, people will think she's been named after a brand of car. Just saying.

Some girls around here (Cadiz)are called Maria del Mar or Marimar for short

I also like Rocio, Noelia, Malena, Nurea and Nieves (Snow)

I LOVE Alba, sadly it wouldn't go with our surname. It's Spanish for surise.

Also:

Teresa
Noa
Nuria
Beatriz
Chenoa (this was the name of a contestant on the Spanish version of pop idol when I lived there and apparently got very popular with Spanish baby girls!)

The girls in my DCs' classes are:
Marta
Cristina
Maria
Elena
Miriam
Maricarmen (short for Maria Carmen)
Maribel (short for Maria Isabel)
Gloria
Nuria
Ester
Teresa
Noa
Eva
Lydia
Alejandra
Clara
Ana
Lourdes
Paula
Laura
Rosa
Irene
Carlota
Alma
Alba
Sonia
Natalia

Ummm...can't think of anymore right now. HTH

Only the exceptionally ignorant would think a little Spanish Mercedes had been named after a brand of car.

I second Ynez, or Inés as I have seen it spelt also.

Paz
Paloma
Esperanza
Noelia
Irina
Eva
Ana Maria
Luisa
Adelina
Violeta
Eugenia
Aurelia

I love Spanish names. Sometimes hard for Brits to get their tongues around. Alejandra is one of those ones that I fear very many Brits would struggle with. Soime of the Spanish women I know:

Marisol
Marisa (pronounced Mar-ee-sa, short or Maria-Luisa)
Graciela (love this)
Soledad
Carmela (known as Carmelita)
Emelina (her sister was Delfina)
Inez

I know an Alejandra and the children manage to say her name well. I love the name.

The children learnt her name by listening to it, not by reading it, so they were not influenced by the spelling. Most schools in our area are multicultural and many children do not have "English" names.

Itzel or Izel (Mayan name, popular in Mexico and hispanic US), means 'rainbow princess'
Arantxa (Basque name) means 'thornbush' though
Remedios -- from 'Nuestra Senora de los Remedios'; very uncommon name
Corazon -- means 'heart' or 'courage'; uncommon name

I'm not against non-English names@Madsometimes

I have a foreign, fairly tricky to pronounce name myself.

I just think the sound that the 'j' makes in Alejandra is particualr1y hard for a lot of Brits to get their tongue around.

She might become 'Ally-handra' or 'Alec-andra'.

It's like those lovely French names that get butchered by nasal British accents. Angelique becomes Angie-leek etc.

I've always liked Begonia, after a very beautiful and clever lady I met when young.

Or how about Dulcinea, which can be shortened to Dulcie in English.

My favourite Spanish name is Aurora, meaning dawn.

Know a lovely Elena. Of course Brits often say 'El-ay - na rather than 'El-eh-na', but they learn surely.

It's been said before (poster with knowledge of Italian names) that you might want to find out if a name has a really 'old lady' image in the native country in question (eg Maria in Belgium). Not that it should put you off if you like it, but just to be aware of an Aunt Agatha connotation.

(Agatha will no doubt come round again here soon).

Well ladies, you have definitely given me a lot to think about. My OH is stuck on Bella and as i was adamant on the name for if it was a boy i suppose i should give him that much. I will however probably push for the name Marisa as suggested by TweedyneeCole i had it on my name list but didn't really think about the fact that its my first name and middle name put together!

I LOVE Alba but OH wasn't too keen.

personally love

Carmen
Pilar
Inez

all traditional mind

we nearly called our daughter Noeme, the Spanish version of Naomi

This may not bother you in the slightest but a lot of the names mentioned are very old-fashioned and you don´t come across many little girls in Spain called
Juana/ita
Consuelo
Mercedes
Soledad
Esperanza
Remedios
Angeles
Esmeralda (I have never met anyone in Spain in RL with that name)

Plenty of old ladies though (sorry!)

Lucia, Sofia, Inés, Alicia, Ainhoa, Alba, Veronica, Claudia, Paula, Laura, Nerea, Nuria, Leire are very very popular amongst little girls in Spain at the moment.

I like:
Ana, Noelia, Luisa, Andrea

I think most have already been mentioned - good luck!

My 17 year old DD1 is called Sofia - its a beautiful name and has suited her all of her 17 years, i think it translates well from infant to adult.

Inez is very classy