Joachim? Confluence of nationalities, need some help

[Barbaraaxt]

DH and I are both originally from Brazil, and are expecting our first baby. My family is part German, DH is half Japanese, and the baby will be born in the UK. It leaves us with a British/Brazilian/Japanese/German boy to name.

We wanted something traditional (not a made up name), that works well at least in English and Portuguese, that fits a Japanese-looking boy, and that is not too common!
We don?t want anything too Japanese, but on the other hand he will be mixed race, so anything like Fritz or Olaf is completely out!

So far I like Joachim, as it is reasonably usual in Brazil and is also used in several other countries (in Portuguese would be spelt Joaquim, in Spanish Joaquin, in German Joachim).

Do you think it is too weird? Would anyone have any problem to pronounce it?

Any risk of people shortening it?

I welcome other suggestions as well.

PS: He won?t have a middle name. It will be First name + my family name (German) + Husband?s family name (Japanese).

(Yes, it all sounds like a puzzle to me).

DS is still napping, so here are a few more. They all come from this site again, and are listed as being used in both Portugal and Germany (some more common than others)

Elias -- NN Eli? (as in ee-lie)
Gabriel
Hugo
Jeremias
Levi
Matius - NN Matt / Matty
Otto
Rafael / Raffeal
Siegfried
Wolf
Zacharius
Zeno

HTH [smile}

It's a shame you're not keen on Joe as a NN, because Jo is used as a boy's name in Portugal, Germany and Japan too! (With Josef being used in Portugal and Germany)

Kelvin might work in all languages?

Or even!

I quite like Joachim but English speakers will struggle with the pronunciation - I think you'll get Joe-ah-chim rather than Yo-ah-keem.

I think Joachim is wonderful, and I like Joe for short. It's on my list, though we don't really have the heritage for it. I would have thought with Mr.Phoenix being quite well-known, the Wakeem pronunciation is getting more well-known too?
I think people will get used to it, and if people say it incorrectly, they'll soon learn. People hardly ever get my surname right, and it really doesn't bother me. I have a not-unusual first name too, but still some idiots people manage to muck it up - I don't think it's a big deal.

Oh, it sounds most of you agree that the pronunciation WILL be a problem

thumbwitch Luca sounds good and works in a number of languages - but I've met so many annoying spoilt Lucas and Lucases that it kind of spoilt the magic to me (unfortunately)

BabyBecks I like Leonard and Leonardo (I would then have to choose one language).

lowrib thanks for all the suggestions! I like Nicola, but here in the UK it seems to be a girl's name, isn't it? Ricardo is my father's name - but doesn't it sound very "latin"? It reminds me of Ricardo Montalban! Aldo and Elias are options. I like short names.

And thanks for the suggestion of site!

AbFabT I have a difficult surname too, and I always have to tell people how to say it. To tell the truth, it never bothered me a bit - specially because after that people tend to remember it!

(hmmm, I never thought about it by this angle. Maybe my son won't mind so much having to tell people how to say it? I'm still not sure about imposing it to him, but now I'm going to think about that)

I agree that Joachim is going to be difficult for Brits to pronounce. As Taipo says, it was popular in the 60s in Germany.

Not fond of Aldo. Sounds very old fashioned.

My suggestion would be something international, like Thomas, Alexander, Phillip. Not sure how they translate.

Don't feel that you have to get something that 'translates' into all of your languages. As long as they can pronounce the name. Which for the Germans means no 'th' (Ethan, Nathan etc) as they cannot pronounce that.

My DC have Scottish names and although they are not common in Germany, our relatives and friends there can pronounce them and have learned them. We lived in Germany till about 16 months ago.

One thing to remember is that your families are already international so will be used to names that are unusual/foreign. Don't go mad trying to find the elusive name that sounds great in all languages. Look for one that you like, that works well in the country that you live (or are likely to live in) and goes well with your surnames.

Hi Barbaraaxt. Not Nicola! Nicolau. It's basically Nicolas.

If Ricardo is too Latin, you could always go for Richard. It's very popular in Portugal apparently, and it's Germanic by origin.

It's a little boring for my taste though, Aldo, Elias and Leonard are nicer IMO.

Andre/ Andreas
Arno
Arnold
Aldo
Axel
Bruno
Daniel
Elias
Emil
Ewald/Evald
Fabian
Ferdinand
Louis / Luis
Leonardo/Leo
Mario
Marco/Marko
Martin
Max
Simon
Urban

Would you consider a Japanese name? Ben and Dan are both on this list.