Please help with the near-impossible...!

[aguafresca]

I don't know anything about Catalan names, except I once taught ESL to a Jordi.

I like all of your girl name options. The one I like the most is Belén (I didn't know that was Basque - I thought it was the Spanish word for Bethlehem.) and I don't think it's hard to pronounce (at least not in Castellano, maybe in Basque it is). I know a little Belén and she is the most beautiful toddler I have ever seen. I am considering it for a middle name if we have another girl. From your list, I think Helena, Mireira, and Belen would probably be the easiest in English and Catalan. Is the pronunciation of "r" tricky in Catalan like it is in Spanish? Would that make it difficult for you to correctly pronounce Mireira or the other names that have "r's"? From your husband's list I like Alba, Marina, and Dalia. But they are all nice.

For boys, I LOVE the name Ferran. I've never heard it before but I like Fernando and Federico, and it's kind of in that vein. I also like the idea of Sandro. Ferran, if the "rr" isn't a problem, is so cool!

[ericat53]

Thanks for the input, everyone. We've been generally thinking our criteria are so limiting that we haven't really considered other factors -- like, do we love the names? does it flow with the middle and last name? how do they sound together? That said, what do you think of the following twinsets (in no particular order)? I recognize that they don't exactly "match."

Tess and Xavi (prn Shah-vee)
Tess and Ferran
Tess and Sandro (prn Son-dro)
Tess and Biel (prn Bee-yell)
Tess and Herold (nn Harry? or not?)

[ericat53]

Thanks, aguafresca -- I think you are right that Belen is Spanish/Castilian, not Basque after all. The Catalan language is more of a hybrid of Spanish and French; Xs are pronounced "sh", there are adjacent Ts and Xs, J-apostrophes, etc.

We expect that any name will be Americanized here for daily use, but need the Catalans to be able to say it too. Ferran would probably be pronounced the same in Spanish and Catalan (rolled R), but here would be "Ferrin" or "Fah-ron".

Ferran and Mireira are Catalan names, so we are not worried about them being able to say those.

[flick]

I like Tess and Ferran and Tess and Xavi, though I think Ferran would work better in the US.

[nat108]

It seems that in the past few years Americans have been more interested in soccer. Iker appeared on the SSA list because of the last World Cup. We have Euro2012 and the Olympics this year, so the Spaniards will be all over the TV

Love Xavi. Although it's Basque, I prefer Xabi
Santi
Lluis could substitute Louis
Josep

Don't care for Tess and it looks rather plain next to her brother's names, what about Teia?
Belen shouldn't be tough to pronounce
I like Alba, Marina, and Dalia
Eulalia
Bruna

[blairx]

Aram screams Armenian to me and I've never met or heard of a non-Armenian Aram. Interesting to know it's used in Catalan too. Tess and Aram (or Tess and Xavi) would be cute, IMO.

edit: I just saw Aram is on your rejected list.

[ericat53]

@blairx - Aram is not Catalan; you are right that it is Armenian. Although it is a preference, we are willing to consider non-Catalan names too.

@nat108 - thanks for your input. You've come up with some other good Catalan options. I like Josep (actually, I really like the cute nn Pep), but I wonder if it'll just become Joseph here?

A lot of the Catalan boys' names are more becoming widely known (though not yet common in the U.S.) because of Barca soccer. My husband is a big fan.

[missyjane]

Oh, the joys of compromise!

I'm kind of flipping out because if I were having a girl, Tess, Beatrice, Helena (my great grandma's name) and Mabel (other great grandma's name) would ALL be at the top of my list. Of your picks, Tess does make a lot of sense, but I do love Beatrice so much, incl. the nickname "Bea." Is there a Catalan version of that? It's a pretty international name. Of your hubby's picks, I love Marina too, but maybe that's because my name is Marisa! Lol! It's international, evokes the ocean, and is nice and unusual.

For boys, I have no ideas myself, being ignorant of Catalan names entirely, but of the ones listed, I do really like Xavi (and do think of soccer player Xabi Alonso). That's probably my favorite along with Louis, which is adorable but is becoming more popular now, so if you want to stay really unusual and away from names on the rise, you may want to think about that. Sandro is lovely too.

Boy names are tough! We're slogging through right now too...

[aguafresca]

From the ones you listed, I like:
Tess and Ferran
Tess and Sandro
Tess and Biel (There's something so simple and lovely about this combo. Though i realize in English it might just get pronounced "B.L.", but in Spanish it's much nicer.)

So are you definitely going with Tess? (I like also Dalia and Sandro, or Helena and Ferran, for example).
Do you live in the U.S.? (Sorry if I missed this info!)

[catheyc]

Of your new list, I like Tess and Xavi the best. Although more people will probably pronounce Ferran "correctly" on sight (that's in quotes because I suspect they'll Americanize it, not use the actual Catalan prn), Xavi is such a great name that it seems worth correcting people the first time. And he'll/you'll only have to correct people who see it in writing -- if he's introducing himself, obviously they'll know how to say it from the get-go. I'm sure Ferran is beautiful in Catalan, but the Americanized version I'm coming up with (because I'm completely ignorant of Catalan) is not nearly as nice as Xavi.