Next week I will be 33 weeks pregnant with our second child, and my husband and I are still deciding on a name. With our first, we agreed early on that we wanted a Spanish first name that was easy to pronounce in English (more importantly one that my husband felt comfortable with).
It was important to me that he stay connected with his Chilean side and I wanted to start with his name. Oddly enough, it was my American husband who found the name Matías — he liked it because it worked in several languages. What we didn’t realize was just how many languages it would work in. When we lived in the UK (where our son was born) we had people ask if we were Greek, German, Polish or Finnish. Talk about a universal name! We are well aware that we will live in the U.S., but like many bicultural and bilingual families, we feel names are an important part of your identity and help keep you connected to your roots.
Now we are having our second child, a girl, and we just cannot decide on a name. It’s been more difficult than the first time and we’ve also learned to keep our ideas to ourselves, because everyone seems to have an opinion on this topic — mostly from my familia. No surprise there! It’s either too old fashioned, or too edgy or too foreign. Yes, these are the types of comments we get. That’s why I’ve had to keep the names to myself despite being asked every chance they get.
Read: What’s in a Name? So many Choices, Only One Winner
What we do know is that we would like a name that works well both in English and Spanish, but one that won’t be butchered in English and easy for my husband and his parents to pronounce. I know what it is like to have an unpronounceable name or one that gets cut in half — no one wants a lifetime of that.
I keep repeating names to myself, saying them out loud to see how it would sound when calling my daughter and what feeling they give me. Another factor to consider is the shortening of names; for instance, my husband likes Victoria and Magdalena, but I am not a fan of Vicki or Magda. Of course, we won’t call them that, but others may and we don’t want that. Nope, not having it!
So I ask you readers, how did you decide on your children’s names and what factors did you take into consideration? Was having a name connected to your roots imminent in the decision-making process? As for us, we are still deciding, but with the baby due in February, we should have one soon!
{photo by Gato Azul}
Congratulations on your pregnancy! I’m sure whichever name you pick out will be beautiful.
Thank you! I will reveal soon – she is due next week
We also wanted a name that would be easy to pronounce in English or Spanish as well as one that was not too common. My daughter’s name is Giselle and we love it!
I think we found a winner – so I will introduce you to her soon! And Giselle is a great one
I can relate to this big time! Like me (I’m assuming), your husband nor his family speak Spanish. I swore I would choose a name that was latino-centric. I ended up going the total opposite route. My cousin helped me realize that their identity will not be wrapped up in the name. It will be wrapped up in the experiences and exposure we give him to both cultures. Instead, we went for an ethnically ambiguous name that both cultures (african-american and latino) can pronounce. Also, looks good on a resume, not be shortened or nicknamed, not be stereotypical spanish or stereotypical african-american, not a name of a student I’ve ever had (and I’m a kindergarten teacher!), is unique but not celebrity-like or trendy. We chose Graysen Quinn Woodbury. It helps that it has an “r” in it. It seems that any non-spanish name with an “r” can be made Spanish. LOL! And, I called many family members to make sure they could pronounce it. Good Luck! The name will come soon enough. You will both look at each other and just know:)
Actually it’s great you called around – you are a better person than I for that. We just finalized a name…took us long enough but we are happy with it – despite comments from the peanut gallery. But thats just my familia, always very ¡metidos en todo!
Babushka works for me! No?? Bella seems to be popular, also Aurora or Louisa… whatever name you choose I know it’ll be said with love. Just make sure the middle name es fuerte y potente- ’cause we all know that one’s only used when a regaño is coming. ; ) BB2U
Ufff the regaño – its a good one, I promise!
I love the idea of keeping our kids names Spanish oriented. We are still trying to get pregnant, but when I do have a child I would like to name them with unique Spanish names that mean something to myself and my husband. Congratulations and I’m sure you will pick a beautiful name!
Thanks so much and best wishes to you. The kids have an English last name and I love the idea of adding a bit of flavor in there to get people asking, what’s his/her background?
we decided on Sabrina because it comes from Sara my moms name. We chose Marie as her middle name because it comes from Maria (my paternal grandmother)–so took care of my parents two sides.
Oh my goodness, I haven’t heard Sabrina in so long, and it sounds wonderful! We have a solid first name that is unique to her and my grandmothers middle name.
The other thing we tried to account for but werent totally successful was to pick a name you could say in english in spanish as in it is pronounced exactly the same. Sabine worked but we preferred Sabrina.
What a beautiful post, naming a Spanglish Baby could be one of the most challenging parenting decisions! there are so many beautiful names out there… my main concern naming my son was to pick a name that could be pronounced in English and Spanish and a name that will carry his Latino heritage!
Exactly! So far Matías has worked well – its Biblical and everyone says, “oh yeah, I know it. But I haven’t heard it too much” And our daughters name should have the same effect – simple and easy to pronounce
Ah, we know about that dilemma! Our main concern was making sure that our girl’s name could be pronounced in English and Spanish and not be too butchered in either language. We also wanted to stay away from names that already existed in the immediate family. But, overall, it needed to to be one we both immediately liked.
The winner: Camila.
I actually came across it in a book from Marcela Serrano that I was reading during my pregnancy. The main character’s name was Camila and I just loved it, so did my husband.
Now, in reality, she gets called “Camilia” by English-only speakers all the time! I’m not half as annoyed by it as she is! LOL! She loves her name and is soooo picky about it
I love Camila, and very chilena (I know Marcela Serrano is chilena) “Camilia”??? Ayyyy – it wouldn’t happen in the UK because that name as we know, is very well known there. Matías actually corrects his teachers when they don’t say it right, so it’s good to see them taking pride in their pronunciation and differentiating what sounds right and wrong.
We had the same issue with our daughter. We only speak Spanish at home but my heritage is Polish. Both of our kids have Polish first names which sound fine in Spanish, English, and of course, Polish. But we wanted to give them Latino middle names. My son’s is Adrian, since it works in English too. For my daughter we settled on Valentina and I love it. So feminine and sounds great in both languages.
We really struggled first and second time around. It wasn’t so important to us to have a German first name, but we wanted a name that is easily pronounced and written in both languages, and ideally also in Spanish because I love Spanish so much. Plus it should be not too unusual or too common. We settled on Rona and Maya, and both have a very German middle name, after my mother and my paternal granny and great aunt. For boys’ names we were totally stuck, just as well they both turned out to be girls! Both names have lots of different meanings in many languages, I like that. Maya turned out to be more common than I had thought, firmly in the top 50 of baby names, and the only problem is that locally there are lots of kids with the same name.
So good to see you on here! I feel that it’s been ages!! I’m sure I mentioned this before, but my son has a German middle name after my Opa and my daughter will also have a French/German middle name after my Oma. It’s just one big mix these days – but that’s the way of the world!
Hola! My bilingual daughters have names that are easily pronounced in English and Spanish. I am Estadounidense, of Irish descent and my husband is Peruvian…a true mix of Spanish, Italian, German, Chinese, African, Inca… In any case, we chose girl names that end in A (common in Spanish speaking countries), as they would be easy to write and pronounce by both of our families. Our daughters are Kiara and Irina. (neither of these names, thankfully, are on the top 100 or top 1,000 anything). They mean “light” and “peace” respectively and they have brought us a great measure of both.
We shared your sentiment completely. We wanted a name that was familiar in both English and Spanish, and for our daughter, we ultimately chose Gabriella. I’m not a huge fan of the nickname Gabby, so we shortened it to Ella. That part never really caught on in Spanish since it’s easily confused for the pronoun.
So she tends to be Gabriella in Spanish and Ella in English. So far that’s worked out pretty well. Good luck naming your baby and congrats on the new little one!
Oh the nickname thing – see I love the name we chose, but NOT the shortening of it so we will have to stick to our guns. And Ella has been a big deal recently. An American friend of mine who lives in Chile wanted to name her child that all her life, but opted not to because, obviously it means “her” in Spanish and they live there not here. Sometimes you have to compromise on location and think to the future.
We chose names that would be spelled and pronounced the same way in Polish and German and finally decided on Klara and Julia. We also decided to keep Julia’s name to ourselves because we didn’t want anybody pestering us with question. I am now pregnant with my third child (almost as far along as you are, Maria, almost 29 weeks!), and now face the same dilemma, only this time it’s a boy and I think it’s even more difficult.
I find so many Polish names have similar ties with names in Spanish and the one we chose is common in Poland but pronounced differently. Good luck naming your son – I have tons of boy names but the girls for me really wasn’t easy. Hope you are feeling good!
My wife and I wanted a name in Spanish that is easy to pronounce in English. In the end, we chose Emilia. Our daughter’s middle name is Rose. People pronounce it pretty well, though her name is frequently misspelled “Amelia.” Our daughter is four now and loves her name. She’s told us before “I wanted the name Emilia!” Another girl’s name I love that works in Spanish and English is “Sofía,” but that name is extremely popular right now and we wanted something less common.
I always wanted something different and unique for the names of my kids. So I looked into Mayan and Aztec names, I’m from the capital city of the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico where there is Mayan population. I was lucky enough after many hours searching the web to find 2 beautiful names for my oldest his name is Yaxkin which means New Sun in the Mayan culture a new sun is a new beginning that was what my son symbolize also a new beginning in my life, and my daughters name is Yatziri also Mayan and it means Maiden of the Moon. So lucky both their names start with a Y just like mine. Good luck on picking the name to your new baby!
Wow, you really dug deep and found unique and stand alone names – I like it, especially the meaning behind them. We have a name and I will share it soon. Thanks for the well wishes
We also wanted to choose a name that would remind them of their heritage, but also easy to pronounce in English and Spanish. We used the first name for that, and the middle name as a more English name. Our first born was Belen Isabella (and yes, we’ve had to help ppl with the first one, but they get it) and our second was Brisa Bella. Dad picked the second one the moment we found out she was coming and my daughter seemed to understand who “Brisa” was right away during the pregnancy.
I recommend going through your facebook friends, and even their friends… That’s how Belen’s name was decided!
Belén – love! Brisa is just brilliant
A name with a story!!
In my family we have the his, mine, and our situation. My son named Daniel, his daughter named Jaden and two girls together. My parents, who speak very limited English have decided to “rename” Jaden and is now known as “guerita” a term of endearment, really! So when I became pregnant with our first “ours” I wanted a name that would not be mispronounced or changed all together. We went with Emma, simple and both sides of the family were able to pronounce without difficulty. The second time around, among the several choices We discussed were Sofia, Martina and Alicia, which to me were pretty “neutral”. In the end we went with Alicia. I love the name and for the most part all family members are able to pronounce. With a name like Jovita, this was very important to me!
Hola
We have a daughter called Clara. We wanted to keep it simple and short. I think it works very well in both languages and it’s easy to pronounce.
Saludos desde Londres
Hola Cristina! Where in London are you? I lived there for six years and Matías was born there
Clara, short, strong and to the point. Me gusta and I think the one we chose does the same. Cariños
Hi Maria! My husband an I named our first son Memphis Rey. We wanted the same things for a name: easy to spell/pronounce works in both languages and not too common. We loved using a name of a place because most people recognize it.
I was in love with the name Jorah, until my bilingual husband pointed out how it sounds in Spanish, and what kids would do with it in school, so we ended up with Tressa and Iliana, both of which sound pretty in English and Spanish, and reflect our multi-ethnic backgrounds. The names didn’t have to be Spanish, but we didn’t want something that sounded too mixed up (loved the name Liam for a boy, but not in cimbination with Hernandez…).
I find it interesting no one has mentioned multi-generational names;I was profoundly grateful to have two daughters, because there was no way I was going to name a son Mario IV, but my FIL was already planning that he had a namesake on the way!
I can relate too! We are expecting our first baby in March, and choosing a name has been such a challenge! We finally decided on a first name that we love, but we are keeping it a secret to avoid all those opinions, like you mention
Now we have to find a middle name – so the hunt continues!
I live in New Zealand–a million miles away from mi marido’s Cuban heritage. However, he wanted a Spanish name for our little girl and I agreed as long as it was pronounceable in English. My family are from a Polynesian heritage in the Cook Islands, so the sea is very important for us. It is also important for Cubanos but a different ocean! Anyway with that in mind I chose ‘Perla’ because it relates to precious, organic gifts from the sea and mi marido finally agreed –the only one he agreed on but he added ‘Marina’ to the name as ‘Perla Marina’ is a very famous traditional song from Cuba. It suits my little girl very well and is easily pronounceable for Kiwis.
This sounds like a similar conversation to the ones that we have also had. My husband is Guatemalan, I’m from the California and we live in Guatemala and are expecting our first in June! Our name criteria involves a name that can be easily pronounced in both English and Spanish. My parents don’t speak any Spanish and my husband’s parents no English. So our litmus test is to see if they can all pronounce the name
Best of luck with your little one!
My husband and I both went through the same dilemma before the birth of our daughter. We’re both first generation born in the U.S. Dominican Americans, and it was very important to me to choose a name that sounded nice in English and Spanish. We had the hardest time choosing a name, but we opted to name her Mía Elena. Coincidentally, this was the only name pairing where we found a first/middle name we liked together. I must say though, it was very difficult trying to figure out a boys name (before we found out the gender) and still, our boys name list is much shorter than our girls name list. We’re expecting our second baby in August 2013 and hoping for a boy, si Díos quiere. Good luck to you! Oh, and I’m all for keeping it to yourselves if you’re getting a lot of negative feedback for family/friends. Choose a name that you and your husband have fallen in love with and fits your daughters personality. Maybe wait until you meet her to decide on a name and just go to the hospital with a short list of options?
Make up a name, like we did. We took the first 3 letters of my name and the first 2 letters of my husband’s name and came up with Elipe (Elizabeth & Pedro) for my son’s name, cool
ahh, those are cool! I’ve come across many combined names and everyone is always very proud of how/why they got them. We have decided on one, but not a cross between María José and Bryan! Maybe next time
Congratulations, Maria Jose. We are also a mixed couple- my husband is English and I am South American. Our son has an English name (James, although he often calls himself Jaime, especially when travelling). Our daughter is called Maria Isabel, but everybody calls her Maria.
Its like reading our own story. When I was pregnant we thought we were expecting a girl and therefore a long list of girls names, the favourites being Lucia y Francisca, but it turned out to be a boy. His name is Lucas!
OH MY GOODNESS! If it were a boy it would have been Lucas. And guess what? The name we chose is one of the two you mentioned
I will reveal soon
I also have been wanting a bilingual spanish girl name. Both of my parents are spanish and were born in Chile. I was born in Venezuela and grew up in Long Island, NY. Since the age of 3. My first Child turned out to be a boy and we named him Lucas Anthony. And now for this next baby due in september this year, the only real name my husband and I love is Penelope. Sounds good in english and in spanish. The other names I also did like was Camilia, Valentina and Serena.
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