name that works in spanish & english

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-11-2005
name that works in spanish & english
10
Sun, 09-11-2005 - 11:03pm

I am expecting a baby in a few months and like most new mothers am struggling with finding an appropriate name. I, however, am having a difficult time finding any resources to help me with my search. I am from the US and my husband is from South America. We would really like to find a name that sounds good in both languages. For example, Sara basically sounds like Sara in both languages. Also, we know that we can't have a name that starts with a J because the two languages treat this letter very differently. There are several reasons why this is important to me but one of them is that the maternal grandparents don't speak Spanish (so Guadalupe is out) and the paternal grandparents don't speak English (no Jonathon)... I don't want my child to have to hear one set of grandparents butchering his/her name :-) Any links, books, ideas would be greatly appreciated...

Version breve en espanol:
Soy gringa y mi esposo es latino... Queremos un nombre que suena bien en los dos idiomas especialmente porque los abuelos de cada lado solamente hablan su idioma... No quiero que cuando mi hijo(a) esta con unos de sus abuelos tiene que escuchar su nombre maldicho... Si alguien conoce un enlace, libro o lo que sea para ayudarmos lo agradescaria...

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2005
Mon, 09-12-2005 - 8:58am
I am in a similar situation and learned the hard way after naming my son Riley. Some ideas are:
Gabriel
Nicolas
Luis
Christopher
Brian
Julian
Andre
Samuel
Evan
Tomas
Gregory
Alex
Miguel
Alan
David
Max
Ian
Brett
Brandon
HTH!
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-16-2005
Mon, 09-12-2005 - 9:10am

A few that might work for you:

Robert/Roberto
Miguel
Raul
Esteban
Marco
Samuel
Tomas
Matteo (I absolutely love this and would use it if my ln didn't start with M)
Eric
Daniel

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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-17-2005
Tue, 10-18-2005 - 7:45pm

My auntie named her newborn girl Saylea ..

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iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 10-18-2005 - 9:33pm
How about Elena for a girl, Andre for a boy?
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 12:31am
How about Diego and Rafael (Raffy for short)?


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-27-2004
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 12:54pm

Here are suggestions that I think are great in both languages:

Alicia
Alita
Ana
Anica
Damita
Elisa
Gitana
Ines
Isabel
Lareina
Lola
Lucia
Mireya
Mora
Neva
Ria
Rosalind
Savanna
Sierra
Solana
Tierra

Alejandro
Antonio
Carlos
Darien
Dario
Devante
Diego
Fabricio (Fab)
Leonardo (Leo)
Marco
Mateo
Nicolas
Salvador
Tomas
Xavier
Zavier

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-11-2005
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 9:15pm

LOL!

I've always loved the name Diego so much that I named my black Lab that 8 years ago... Don't really think I could handle my son and my dog having the same name :-p

Thanks for the suggestion though!

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 10-19-2005 - 11:42pm

how about:

Alicia
Alondra
Amaya
Anita
Carmen
Carolina (kahr-o-LEE-nah in Spanish)
Catalina
Dolores
Elena
Esmeralda
Esperanza
Giselle (okay, I know it isn't Spanish, but my dh served a mission in Brazil, and I know that this is a favorite in South America, and it's a great choice)
Graciela
Guadalupe (okay I know you said this is out, but I don't speak Spanish and I can pronounce it just fine, if you like it, maybe run it by your parents and see how they do with it)
Isabel
Lourdes
Luz
Margarita
Maria
Mariana
Maribel
Mariela
Marisol
Mercedes
Natalia
Noemi
Paulina
Raquel
Reina
Selena
Valeria

Alejandro (I know you say j's are out because of the different pronunciation, but I think most, if not all, English speaking people know that here the j would be pronounced like a y)
Angel (AHN-hel in Spanish)
Antonio
Carlos
Diego
Hector
Javier (again, probably everyone knows this is hah-VYER)
Joaquine (this might take a little more training on your parents part, but it shouldn't take long for them to be clear on the prn hwa-KEEN)
Jose (everyone knows this is ho-SAY, unless of course the person saying it speaks Portuguese, in which case it might be pronounced zho-SAY)
Juan (everyone knows this is HWAHN, and if you like Johnathan, Juan is the Spanish form of John)
Lorenzo
Luis
Manuel
Mateo
Miguel
Pedro
Ramon (again, it might take some coaching, but your parents ought to be saying rah-MAWN in no time)
Raul
Roberto
Victor (again, you'll need to explain to your parents that it's BEEK-tor, but they'll get it)

Jayme
mom to Johnathan Corey (1/16/01)
and Ethan James (10/15/03)
ttc #3 c3 cd12
http://www2.fertilityfriend.com/home/9a48a

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 02-22-2005
Thu, 10-20-2005 - 1:58am

Here are some ideas. The girls names are easy to come up with. The boys names are harder.

Girls:
Eva
Carmen
Cristina
Sofia
Isabel
Ana
Elena
Marta
Maria
Inez
Flora

Boys:
Victor/Vic
David
Alejandro/Alex
Antonio/Tony
Nicolas/Nico
Santiago
Francisco
Carlos
Miguel

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-22-2005
Thu, 10-20-2005 - 1:59am

I love Gabriel!

Also, Javier.