Comments on: Global Baby Names: Picking a border-crossing name

By: Nickelini

Nickelini — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 21:18:20 +0000

We travel a lot, and my husband has family in Italy, so it was important to me that our daughters’ names would travel too.

It was also important that the names fit the surname, which is Italian. Many people in his family here in Canada gave their children Irish names that I think sound very odd with the Italian surname. And although it’s only four letters, “Erin” is impossible for Italians to pronounce (it sounds more like ee-Dihn).

We settled on Nina and Charlotte. Everyone can pronounce Nina, although I’ve had odd glances from Spanish speakers (“that’s her name?” It’s like calling your daughter “Little Girl”), and our family in Italy recognized the name Charlotte and immediately started calling her Carlotta or Carlotina.

By: tnagumo

tnagumo — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:06:41 +0000

My husband named our daughter Faith because he thought the world needed “a little faith”. Then my Japanese parents asked me why we named her a name they can’t pronounce (the “f” and “th” are problematic). I told them they can call her by her Japanese middle name, Maya, which they do. For Maya, I used the two characters meaning “truth” and “to be” (真也). Then I discovered that Maya is also a Spanish name, an Indian (Hindi) name, a Greek name…. lucky coincidence!

By: januaryjames

januaryjames — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 07:03:04 +0000

Sometimes I wonder if the customs officials can read! Despite the easy spelling of my name I’ve had some really strange pronunciations! You’d think that because it’s a month of the year it’d be easy!

By: Sarabi

Sarabi — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 09:10:28 +0000

I think we navigated our first’s name quite well. ‘Clementine’ is pretty, to me, in English. In French, it’s pronounced Clay-moan-teen, which also sounds lovely when spoken by her French family members. Now, if only it would stop growing on the popularity charts. I’m afraid that in a few years, it will lose that unique and fresh vibe we chose it for in the beginning.

By: catie75

catie75 — Fri, 08 Jun 2012 12:42:41 +0000

If only I had read this before the birth of my first daughter Eva (Evangeline)

We completely love our daughters name but discovered after that my partners Filipino family can not pronounce the ‘v’ so she is affectionately known as Eba…. not quite what we were going for but cute now while she is a little one and hopefully by the time she grows they will get the ‘v’ pronunciation.

It’s certainly a challenge for the next one where we love Xavier

By: brandywinefalls

brandywinefalls — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 00:24:22 +0000

I have a simple cross global name of Monica. I have never had problems with it. Occasionally it is spelled with a ‘K’ and pronouciation varies as I have Austrian family. My Polish doctor pronounces it more like Moon-ekha which my DH thinks is hillarious. Since I’ve grown up with hearing it prounounced in slightly different ways I don’t mind. It’s the French teacher in 7th grade that insisted on calling me Monique, that got me. Though if I were in France or Quebec, I’d be fine with it. Thanks mom for a Latin/bibical name that works well. Also, as boy’s name go, Paul (my brother) has had an easy time. Slight pronunciation variants, but nothing bad eg. Powl.

By: sundancer

sundancer — Sat, 19 May 2012 04:42:10 +0000

When I tell people who live in the middle east that my name is Dannielle they sometimes scoff and say that’s a boy’s name. Daniel is pronounced like Dannielle there. The same is true for people in Spain… if I lived there, my name would be Daniela, otherwise my name is very masculine to them. But the French love it!

By: airavati

airavati — Mon, 14 May 2012 08:52:05 +0000

I’m American, my husband is Canadian, and we’re currently living in India (and planning on having at least one kid while we’re here – long term expats). We’re determined to find name options that fit with English, French, and Hindi – it promises to be a tricky thing, and we may end up playing middle-name-games (each of us have two, and are likely to curse offspring with the same, for a total of three names before the surname!). Hunting down things that work with such varied pronunciations is quite difficult.

By: heatherleila3

heatherleila3 — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:37:53 +0000

This is a great topic. Heather is not a good name to travel on. Spanish speakers can get it after a few tries, but it is impossible for Portuguese speakers (if they don’t already speak English). The H and TH sounds are very difficult in many other languages. In Brazil I had to start going by my middle name, Leila, because telling people my name became a bit of a barrier. Leila happens to be a common Portuguese name, with this spelling too. It’s like my Portuguese alter-ego! It’s good to remember that names are part of a language, so an English name might be difficult for someone who doesn’t speak English, just like a Chinese name would be hard for someone who doesn’t speak Chinese.

By: bjoy

bjoy — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:32:33 +0000

This was an important consideration for us; my name is “Brittany,” which doesn’t work at all in Spanish (little did my parents expect I would grow up to major in Spanish and travel extensively in Latin America). Because of that, I wanted my kids to have more universal names. Just like a previous commenter, I have a “Rory” baby girl, but her given name is “Aurora.” Aurora translates well into all Latin-rooted languages, whereas Rory can be difficult to pronounce. Both names suit her well, and we love that she has options. Our son’s name is “Sebastian,” which has many international equivalents. We call him “Bash” at home in the states, but know that he won’t have trouble when we travel.