Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Huggies. All opinions and stories are all own.
One of the first things expecting couples do is write down a list of baby names that could be the perfect fit for the little being that is about to join their lives. For some. it’s as easy as continuing along the tradition of passing down either their own names or that of a cherished family member. For others it’s about being unique and/or finding names that have a special meaning — be it symbolic or religious. After all, it’s not a decision to be taken lightly since names are a huge part of a person’s lifelong identity and sense of self, as well as how they are perceived by others.
When I was expecting my one and only over six years ago, my husband and I had our own set of criteria for her name:
1. We both had to be completely in love with the name (this was, of course, the hardest requirement!)
2. We didn’t want it to be a name from anyone in our immediate family. We realized we were going a bit against the norm with that one, but we felt strongly about her having her own identity.
3. The name wouldn’t be able to result in a nickname that wasn’t desirable or a mockery.
4. The name must sound the same and be easy to pronounce in both English and Spanish.
We actually thought back then that making sure our girl’s name sounded well in the two languages we led our lives in was something very unique to us. Little did we know, many bilingual and multilingual parents find this to be important. And the more you think about it, the more it makes sense – for example, if you address your child at home only in Spanish and his name is Jorge, will he be okay when the outside world calls him George because Jorge is too hard to pronounce for non-Spanish speakers?
I was six months pregnant and we still hadn’t been able to come up with one name we both loved. I had started reading a novel by Chilean author Marcela Serrano and the main character’s name was Camila. I instantly felt a connection to the name, the spelling of it and its meaning: free-born and noble. But most importantly, it sounded beautifully and was easy to pronounce in both Spanish and English.
If you also have a list of requirements for your baby’s name and making sure that it sounds well in both English and Spanish, you’re not alone. I asked our SpanglishBaby readers if this was an important factor for them, and if so what name(s) they chose for their child. We got an overwhelming response and I’ve compiled most of those names in this list below to serve as inspiration for your own bilingual baby name quest. You can also continue to check out Huggies Latino’s Respuestas de Mamá to search the most popular baby names and maybe your baby’s name is already waiting to be revealed!
Girl
Alexandra
Alexia
Aliyana
Ana
Andrea
Bianca
Camila
Catalina
Celeste
Clara
Cristina
Cynthia
Daniela
Delia
Edna
Elsa
Enara
Erika
Eva
Fabiola
Fátima
Gabriela
Giselle
Gloria
Heidi
Isabelle
Isela
Jessica
Julia
Julianna
Karina
Liliana
Lucia
Lynn
Maria
Marilu
Marisa
Marisol
Melia
Mercedes
Mikaela
Mónica
Nadia
Naomi
Nicole
Noelia
Noemi
Olivia
Paloma
Pamela
Paola
Patricia
Penelope
Ria
Samantha
Sofía
Solaris
Valentina
Victoria
Victoria
Viviana
Wendy
Boy
Abraham
Alan
Aldo
Alec
Alexis
Alonso
Andrés
Antonio
Ariel
Benicio
Benjamín
Brandon
Carlos
Christian
Daniel
David
Diego
Dylan
Emilio
Eric
Francisco
Gabriel
Henry
Ian
Ignacio
Ilan
Isaac
Jonathán
Joshua
Julián
Leo
Lucas
Luis
Marco
Mateo
Matías
Nicolás
Richard
Samuel
Sebastián
Sergio
Tomás
Zahir
Do you have more names to add to the list? Please share!
Photo credit> Shelley Ginger on Flickr
Nice list! My sons’ names are both on the list. I might add Adriana, Natalia, Susana, Tatiana, and Teresa.
Good ones!!! Thanks for adding them!
My little girl’s name is “Luna.” She is five now, bilingual, and she and I both love her name.
Oh, yes! Luna is a great name in both languages!
My daughter’s name is Carolina – it theoretically works in English and Spanish, except for people pronouncing it like the state!
Erica, my sister’s name is Carolina and she always has such a hard time getting people to pronounce it in Spanish. I guess I was biased and didn’t include it because of that! Ja!
Xavier is our sons name. It is easy to pronounce and spell in English and Spanish
You’re right! The pronunciation can be a bit different because of the X in English, but it works and love the name.
My son’s name is Cruz and my newborn daughter is Daniella, both names work in Spanish and English which was very important to us
We do have Daniela (with one L), but missed Cruz. Thanks for sharing it!
We chose “Max” as it works in both languages. Though the longer version is “Maximiliano”.
Ah, Max is a perfect example of a name that works well in both languages!!!
We had the exact same criteria. We named our Daughter Amalia. It’s doesn’t sound butchered when not said with a Spanish accent. But we found out it’s german in origin. Oh, well. We still think it’s pretty, especially when the vowels are pronounced in Spanish. We get Amelia all the time, but most people don’t mind the correction.
I also love the name Adela and the connotation of a strong women during the Mexican Revolution (Adelitas). Glad we had a little girl, not a lot of boys names I like that there aren’t a ton named already in our circle of friends, Tomas, Mateo, Andres.
Amalia does sound so beautiful in Spanish. Great choice!
I love the name! I was named Amalia and it unfortunately was hard for my teachers to correctly pronounce my name. Although I do love it in Spanish. ☺
My first son’s name is Gerardo and you definitely cannot pronounce that name in English. That’s my husband’s name and although he was somewhat hesitant in naming our son after him, I convinced him and he’s glad I did. Although his name gets butchered EVERYTIME, I’m glad we stuck to it because there is a long line of Gerardo’s in my husband’s family. People tend to say “GERARLDO” with an “L” and not the “R”. Not sure what it is but once we break down the pronunciation “HEAD-ARE-THOUGH” people get it!
My second son’s name is Joaquin, and I love it since you can pronounce it in both English and Spanish
you think he’ll end up using Jerry like most Gerardo’s do?
Gosh, I hope not! A lot of friends call my husband “Gerry” and he says he regrets allowing it to happen. Meaning, not being more firm with sticking to “Gerardo.” What’s sad is most of his friends speak spanish so they should be able to pronounce it. I guess it’s also laziness. All those R’s confuse people.
I have a Benjamin, Matthias and Sebastian — so I of course approve this list! Great choices
I think you might have had a bit of an input in these
I had the same requirements for my kids. My first born was Nathaniel. Although the Spanish version is natanael, we thought everyone I’m our family could get used to saying nataniel. They do and no one complains. My twin daughters are Abigail and Lauren. Abigail is the same in Spanish. Lauren was tricky. Sometimes they call her Loren like Sophia Loren. But I remind them that the advent is on the o not the e. The most difficult part was agreeing on a name with my husband. I would also add Oliver to the list.
my name made the list! It rarely makes any names lists… and both my sons’ names are on there too. I’d add Natalia and Sara to the girl names. Maybe even Mila, which was a name used on my mother’s side of the family and which I’ve been seeing more of lately.
I’m surprised my daughter’s name is on the list. Isabel. We actually call her Isa, which for people that doesn’t know her name is Isabel they pronounce Aisa if they see it written, or Esa if they only hear it…
We named our son Rio. We wanted both bilingual and nature-inspired. We also liked the name Leo, and Rio has a similar sound.
Azalea?
We have a Julio and and Alejandra. Most people can say Julio fine (unless there are a lot of Brazlilians around, so then they pronounce the “j” like the “j” in English and Portuguese). Alejandra was a risk. Lots of peope can’t say it, but we call her Ale, which is easy enough.
But I have to disagree with “Andrea” being on this list. It can be pronouced three different ways: 1) Andrea with the first “a” sounding like ant and the accent on the first “a”, 2) Andrea with “a” like “ah” (Ahndrea) and the accent on the first “a”, 3) and Andrea with the accent on the e like in Spanish. Although I loved this name, I didn’t want my daughter to always be correcting people. I also had a list of “no way” because they are so hard to pronounce in English (e.g., Guillermo). Thanks for this fun list!
As an Andrea, I’ve never been bothered by the possibilities. My parents gave me the name Andrea with the first pronunciation that you mention – beginning like “ant” – but I am so grateful that they gave me a name that transitions so smoothly into Spanish. I love the distinction of having an English version of myself and a Spanish version of myself!
My kids’ are paraguayan-american and their names are Mia, Sienna and Max. We wanted something that worked in both languages and didn’t mean anything dirty in Guarani!
My daughter’s name is Ismari. It’s also easily said in both languages. It’s definitely not a common name.
Have two girls already on the list – Cristina and Daniela – pronunciation is a little off for both in English. Also have Amanda and Natha (for a boy).
Both my son’s and my daughter’s names are on there, lol.
Marcella, Nataly & Claudia
What a great list! Wish we would have had it when we were looking for bilingual names for our 1st child. We live in Guatemala but wanted to make sure family and friends from the States could pronounce our child’s name so we did the “starbucks” test— each time we went to Starbucks in the States we gave the barista a different name to see if they could say it and spell it correctly. The name Elena was the winner : )
My first son is Emilio which can be pronounced in both English and Spanish although sometimes English speakers say: “Ameliu” LOL – my second boy is Alexander and Spanish speakers say it “Alec-sander” I love both names very much!
My sons name is Santiago. I’m white and speak no Spanish along with my whole family and my husband is Mexican and his family don’t speak English and everyone says his name perfect.
Our oldest is Félix and it’s a classic in both English and Spanish so everyone gets his name right. We have twins Lionel (leo-nell) which is a little harder in English but they can always use the typical English pronunciation. His twin is Noemi which is impossible for most English speakers to pronounce
Natasha. Christian, or Christopher
Milena, Mila, Stella, Scarlett, Eloise, Lucy Lydia, zarah/ sarah, An Lezi. Kya Genesis, Eden Maite Eulalie Kezia/ Kessia Natalia/ Natalie, Melanie
Briana…. an lezi from above is
nit a name… sorry. This topic of names has always facinated me and then I lived and married an Argentine… so our kids names had to be spanglish or as my husband says inglol names. Our first is Jillian Juliette and our second daughter Olivia Eden. I have a long list of bilingual names from my baby name lists. I’ll share as I remember or find the lists.
girl names that end in “ette” of french origin are usually fairly easy to pronounce for people in both languages such as: Juliette, Scarlett, Anettte, Alivette, Colette, Cozette, Ivette, Joliette etc…
here are some more other girls names:
Ellia, Brenda, Cecilia (Ceci/Cecy), Chiara/Kiara, Selina/Celina/Selena
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Emma, Zoe, Laura, Maribel, Angelica, Aaron, and Ivonne.
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I think Dexter and Damian would sound good in both English and Spanish. Same with Lina (Lena?), Deborah, Dahlia/Dalia, Daria and Emilia.
I wonder how would Remedios sound in English. Perhaps they could call her Remy?
When I picked my boys names I looked for names that would be spelt the same in English or Spanish so I named the Izaak and Abel both can be said in either language and spelt the same regardless of language and thinking about Ezekiel for my next all my kids names are biblical also.
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Our bilingual named children are:
Natalie/Natalia
Lucas
And. Alenna
Now I’m looking for a name for # 4!
My girl is Rebeca (just one c) and she does not like Becky so everyone calls her Rebeca or Beca…. Easy in English/Spanish
I noticed someone wrote Damian for an option. My husband is from Ecuador and I asked him about this name and he completely ruled it out because they believe it is the name if the son of the devil. The devil can’t and doesn’t have a son! I wish I could convince him but he won’t budge. I love the name. In due in 3 weeks and we got nothing. Week we might do Leo, Lionel, or Lucas but I’m not totally in love with those names. Help!
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My mom having 5 girls, I’m surprised she came up with great names. Such as Maricela, Leticia, Juliana, Lizette, and Giselle. But I fell in love with my daughters name, Melina!
Our daughters name is Evelyn and works both here in the US and in Colombia (mind you, it took us 9 months to actually agree on a name)! We are awaiting baby number 2 and do not know the sex but we will be back at square one I am sure!
Hello, my name works too:
Martin.
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Lydia and Mya for the girls list and I know Henry is there but Enrique has a better ring to it I think