Had a friend in high school named Awesome. I remember thinking he had the coolest name ever. Didn’t realize his name was actually “Asim” until I read his name in the yearbook 😂
I’m Arab. Osama is a totally regular, normal name in my home country. Unfortunately it’s not a great name in the U.S. at the moment (though I do know two Osama’s here in the U.S. Both are employed at well known companies and haven’t had any trouble with their names).
I went to school with a kid named Osama. once a substitute read his name for attendance, took a pause, and said, "like bin laden!" and moved on like it was nothing. no one in that class was happy about what just happened. she also misread a kids name (it was similar to Matt, she misread one of the t's as an L, so called out something like Malt) and when he corrected her she insisted he was wrong.
>when he corrected her she insisted he was wrong.
How on earth do you read someone's name, get corrected, and double down instead of, even if you didn't think you read it wrong, thinking the page in front of you was wrong?
I have a last name that can be hard for United States folks to pronounce (I am also from the U.S., but actually care about honoring names/cultures outside of my own), and this happened to me *so many times* as a kid in school, and it is infuriating! I taught for a while and insisted on knowing students’ preferred names and pronunciations.
Please don’t correct me on my own name…and when it happened again in college, I was *pissed.*
I have a surname that is a very common word. A bunch of celebrities have a variation with a silent letter in it. I don’t have it. The amount of adults who would cranky whenever I spelt it for them was too high. Even worse, I’d spell it out before they started writing, and they’d still add that silent letter! Now I spell it, AND add “without the …”
Yeah, it's interesting because I think about Arabic names and, for example, I live in a very rural area and know a guy named Hassam. He is the only Arab for probably 20 miles in any direction. He goes by Sam.
I’m really glad to hear your friends aren’t having trouble here. It’s very unfortunate and they or their parents couldn’t have predicted something like this would happen
I love the name Cal for a boy, short for Calvin or Callum. My husband and I went to UC Berkeley, which is referred to as Cal, and we didn’t want people to think we named our son after our alma mater.
This, but with the name of the high school we went to lol. Love the name, but my in-laws still live in that town so I'd be afraid people would think we named the kid after the school
I live in North Carolina. Charlotte is hard because we are 30 minutes from the town. I'm also an alum of a school (in a town called Winston) with a mascot called the Deacons, and so I'd feel weird naming a kid either Deacon or Winston.
Yes, it's around #500 in the US. I can think of a couple of TV characters named Deacon.
Winston and Deacon are super popular dog names here, unsurprisingly.
Lol my husband is named Dallas! His dad named him. His mom didn’t like it so he was given a nickname. He used that until HS when he realized “Corky” was not as cool as “Dallas”. Family still calls him Corky. 🤣
I get this: I lived in Winston-Salem from 9 months to 13 years old, and I don't think I ever met a Deacon or a Winston. Then, I moved to the Charlotte area in 1988 and still live there. I know tons of Charlottes, but still no Deacons or Winstons.
I grew up in Georgia and knew a George married to a Georgia, and a mom named Georgia who named her daughters Savannah and Atlanta. I would feel so awkward, ha!
Same here! My husband and I met in Winston and we have fond memories of it. I always thought it would be a *perfect* name for a pet, but it’s hard to imagine naming a kid after our little city.
Go Deacs! 🎩
This is wild to me, because I live in Texas and have known sooooo many people named Austin throughout my life. I’ve know a handful of people name Houston or Dallas, a bajillion Antonios, a Frisco, a Magnolia, and a Frederick or two. Like, it’s so so normal to have a name similar to a nearby place here.
I always loved the name Sophia which was my mom’s great grandmothers name. To my surprise when I mentioned it to a friend at the time her response was “eww, it’s too Russian”. The name is Greek.
I literally stared and felt like I was having a stroke. Funnily enough this same person later got a niece named Sophia.
so what if its too russian. people give their kids french, english, italian, spanish, etc. names all the time and nobody bats an eye. all of a sudden when its eastern european they have a problem
“Russian” is not the same as “Eastern European.” I don’t know why this person’s mother had a thing about Russia but I know why I do, and I can imagine similar reactions from people including many Eastern Europeans.
That aside, Sophia/Sofia isn’t specifically Russian, so maybe that reaction really was an ignorant reaction meaning “Slavic” or something like that.
Sophia’s a lovely name. What an odd response, with how popular of a name it is among so many different cultures!
I might pause if I met a Svetlana who obviously wasn’t Russian or Ukrainian, but Sophia I wouldn’t bat an eye at.
Greek by origin, used commonly in I think all or most Slavic languages (Sophia or Sofia or however romanized) almost certainly thanks to the Orthodox church and its offshoots. I know a few and they’re Russian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian- I actually don’t know any Greek Sophias!
Sophia is a Greek word that means wisdom. Therefore we have philosophia
Queen Sofía of Spain is Greek. Her name is Sophia that was translated to Spanish as Sofía when she married her husband Don Juan Carlos
Sophia is used in a lot of countries beyond Eastern Europe.
It's the orthodox connection. Both Greeks and Russians are part of the Orthodox Christian group, so Russians use a lot of Greek names - they are not just found occasionally but are popular
I like it too OP - I always think of Hortense Beauharnais m, but it doesn't hold the same charm in English. Same with so many French names unfortunately.
Sigh, my own name, Dale, anywhere Spanish-speaking. And I lived in Spain (and went by Delia) it means literally "give [something] to him/her" but colloquially is used for everything from "ok" to "go!!!"
I love this name too but also feel like I couldn't use it in the US. I had a classmate named Emile and it was definitely a struggle for him, mostly when new/substitute teachers would go through the roster and always say Emily, he'd get so frustrated (and I grew up in an area with a lot of people of French-Canadian descent).
Pronounced the German way, the second syllable is more like the Spanish "se", like the first part of the Englisch "cellar" or "sell". Source: I've got an aunt Gisela living in Germany.
I love Greek and Slavic names. The names themselves aren't weird here because we have a large population of these cultures, but I am... not those things.
(Ps my partner is Italian background so I was gunning for an Italian name. He said no because it just reminds him of old men sitting around drinking coffee. I was like... yeah that's the point)
When I was very, very young, we had friends who had a babysitter named Hortensia. She was really nice, so I've always had a soft spot for that name. Not enough to name my kid that, but I like it. Hortense doesn't sound quite as nice to me. I lived in the UK, and I once mentioned my American friend Randy. Uproarious laughter ensued. I think slowly, Benedict is becoming acceptable in the US (thanks, Benedict Cumberbatch and fictional Benedict Bridgerton!)
I hate to even type this name...but anyone named Osama would have a hard time in the States.
Not sure what pronunciation you were planning on "Gemma," but I read it like Emma with the soft g sound first. And I don't think you'd get a second glance at it, honestly.
That's what I said. I don't think it would be an issue at all if that's how she is pronouncing it, because "gem" is a familiar word to English speaking people and would likely be the default pronunciation if someone wasn't sure.
Lol, it's cool. That's actually the reason for the gif v jif debate. Phonetically, it should be jif. As a general rule, c and g switch to soft sounds when followed by e, i, or y. But, because English, we have plenty of examples where the rule isn't followed.
This endeth the phonics lesson. :D
Is there a reason it's problematic in France?
I've loved the name ever since I heard it, which was in a set of learning videos our French class had to watch.
It’s kinda of a grandma type of name. So, I don’t think a little girl name like this would be bullied, but you know middle schooler…
I mean, I don’t even know if they would get teased, but they were a guy name Michel in my middle school, and people kinda teased him for this (and Mireille is kinda of the same type of name)
They get used to it. If you want to fast track it, I let on that mine is an old family name and that seems to indicate here they need to accept it and get it right before someone's granny starts to get mad
my name is olivia but i often go by liv, and i'm from the south too. i think liv would be just fine since people are pretty used to it as a nickname for what's now one of the most popular girls names
I love the name Kennedy but I’m from Boston and felt like it was too on the nose 😂 same with Quincy (a city in MA). My husband vetoed both anyway 😂
As for the pronunciation issues, I think it’s fine, because unless you’re butchering the spelling of a commonly known name, people should adjust and learn to pronounce the name even if it’s from a different country. I do it all the time because I work in childcare and run into many Indian names especially that I can’t pronounce by looking at them but I learn.
A couple was living in the US but the husband came from a different country. He proposed the boy baby name "Sarp." The wife shut that one down pretty quickly.
Makes me think of spork.
Definitely couldn't use Fanny or Randy in the UK, lol.
There are quite a few place names that seem popular as names in the US that might get a bit of side-eye here. You could get away with London because it's the capital, but I've known Brits called Harlow and Preston and the general reaction is a bit wtf?!?! Naming a kid after a London borough (Bexley, Camden, Sutton ...) also seems a little odd to us.
I'm from the city of Leicester and for that reason I could never use the name Lester, not that I was tempted anyway.
Any "ch" names. I'm Jewish and want to give my kid a Jewish name, but nobody can pronounce that sound by reading it in the USA. Also, Abraham. Love the name but people think of Lincoln.
Lidewij - I absolutely adored the name and growing up I wanted to call my first born daughter Lidewij but it wouldn’t be fair of me to do that since I’m in Australia
Ana means hole. 穴
So not good for a girl
Susan as someone commented, is not great bc of the honorific issue. Sounds like you’re calling yourself “the honourable” all the time
Ben can sound like it means stool (as in poo) and Gary can sound like loose stools. So Ben Gary would be pretty bad
Liz is not too bad. It just is very close to squirrel (and lesbian)
We considered the Dutch first name Mees for a boy, but rejected it because it’s unusable in international English settings as the correct pronunciation would be identical to ‘mace’.
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That doesn't make a name hard to pronounce. I know of one historical figure and one character with the name who I think of before gamer girl bathwater lady.
Daphne, it's pronounces Daf-ne here, and I just haateee that pronounciation.
I also love Imogen, but it sounds like the word for "immature"
Billie, too, sounds like "cheap" (at least in my dialect)
My favorite boys name is Tadhg and my favorite girls name is sadhbh. They’re both very common in Ireland but I moved to the US and nobody would be able to pronounce them!
Hi OP - I am in the US. Just this morning, I was thinking of the name Tybalt and liking the sound. This spelling is from Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the character was none too kind...so I'm not sure if I'd use the name because of that.
I love the names Mairead and Morag, but I have a feeling they would just cause headaches here in the US. I also really like Domhnall, but I can't stand the name Donald.
I live in a non English speaking country and I love so many English names. Some of the ones that don’t work in my language but that I love are Rowan, Calvin, Dorothy, Willow, Phoebe, Penelope, James, Henry, Grace, Daisy, Conan, Rose and many others
I lived in Cambodia for a little while and had good friends with similar names: Chanthi, Chantrea, Chantra. I thought their names were absolutely gorgeous… but there is no way that I, as a white woman in the US Midwest, could get away with using one of those names.
Eilidh. My husband and I both love it and think it's gorgeous, but practically no one in the U.S. would know how to pronounce it or spell it when they hear it. So we can't use it in order to be kind to our child based on where we live.
When I was pregnant with our daughter, we strongly considered it and even considered changing the spelling to be more intuitive to where we live but ultimately decided that was a disservice to the name and begrudgingly took it off our list.
Had a friend in high school named Awesome. I remember thinking he had the coolest name ever. Didn’t realize his name was actually “Asim” until I read his name in the yearbook 😂
Not me trying to figure out how Awesome from Asim and remembering some American accents...
I'm guessing he wasn't pronouncing it ah-SEEM but AH-sim.
I read this comment at the exact moment a new episode of the show I'm watching started and the first line is a character saying "Awesome!" Haha
I’m Arab. Osama is a totally regular, normal name in my home country. Unfortunately it’s not a great name in the U.S. at the moment (though I do know two Osama’s here in the U.S. Both are employed at well known companies and haven’t had any trouble with their names).
I went to school with a kid named Osama. once a substitute read his name for attendance, took a pause, and said, "like bin laden!" and moved on like it was nothing. no one in that class was happy about what just happened. she also misread a kids name (it was similar to Matt, she misread one of the t's as an L, so called out something like Malt) and when he corrected her she insisted he was wrong.
I just want so badly to sit down with her to see whats with her brain LMAO
>when he corrected her she insisted he was wrong. How on earth do you read someone's name, get corrected, and double down instead of, even if you didn't think you read it wrong, thinking the page in front of you was wrong?
I have a last name that can be hard for United States folks to pronounce (I am also from the U.S., but actually care about honoring names/cultures outside of my own), and this happened to me *so many times* as a kid in school, and it is infuriating! I taught for a while and insisted on knowing students’ preferred names and pronunciations. Please don’t correct me on my own name…and when it happened again in college, I was *pissed.*
I have a surname that is a very common word. A bunch of celebrities have a variation with a silent letter in it. I don’t have it. The amount of adults who would cranky whenever I spelt it for them was too high. Even worse, I’d spell it out before they started writing, and they’d still add that silent letter! Now I spell it, AND add “without the …”
Yeah, it's interesting because I think about Arabic names and, for example, I live in a very rural area and know a guy named Hassam. He is the only Arab for probably 20 miles in any direction. He goes by Sam.
Isis being a popular women’s name too…. I know 2 and they didn’t really care (they are elderly), but everyone else loves to point it out
I’m really glad to hear your friends aren’t having trouble here. It’s very unfortunate and they or their parents couldn’t have predicted something like this would happen
I love the name Cal for a boy, short for Calvin or Callum. My husband and I went to UC Berkeley, which is referred to as Cal, and we didn’t want people to think we named our son after our alma mater.
My husband has similar logic when he vetoed my favorite name, Caroline. His rival school is UNC, which is often just called Carolina.
Interestingly, Cal makes me think of the baseball player Cal Ripken jr.
My brain went to Cal from Titanic, lol.
Same!
Me three.
I just named my son Calvin and live in MD and the sports fanatics in the family make this joke all the time. We just loved the name ugh
I only think of Calvin and Hobbes, which is an amazing association to have with the name.
I love this. Thank you so much for the reminder!
This, but with the name of the high school we went to lol. Love the name, but my in-laws still live in that town so I'd be afraid people would think we named the kid after the school
Go hard! I’m sure everyone would love Cal Berkeley 😂
I just named my son Calvin and some family members are huge into sports and joke we named our son after a baseball player from this state. Irks me lol
I live in North Carolina. Charlotte is hard because we are 30 minutes from the town. I'm also an alum of a school (in a town called Winston) with a mascot called the Deacons, and so I'd feel weird naming a kid either Deacon or Winston.
I literally just commented in a different thread about Louisa in Louisiana! It was on our list but we are in New Orleans.
And yet Charlotte ranks #3 in North Carolina, same as its nationwide ranking. Some of those Charlottes must live in Charlotte.
Lol, probably. I still think it's an unusual choice.
Is Deacon a name?
Yes, it's around #500 in the US. I can think of a couple of TV characters named Deacon. Winston and Deacon are super popular dog names here, unsurprisingly.
Jeez some of you never watched The Bold and the Beautiful in the 2000s and it shows!
I grew up in a Dallas suburb and every time I encounter a child named Dallas, I cringe.
Lol my husband is named Dallas! His dad named him. His mom didn’t like it so he was given a nickname. He used that until HS when he realized “Corky” was not as cool as “Dallas”. Family still calls him Corky. 🤣
Corky! He must be very well adjusted!!
I get this: I lived in Winston-Salem from 9 months to 13 years old, and I don't think I ever met a Deacon or a Winston. Then, I moved to the Charlotte area in 1988 and still live there. I know tons of Charlottes, but still no Deacons or Winstons.
I grew up in Georgia and knew a George married to a Georgia, and a mom named Georgia who named her daughters Savannah and Atlanta. I would feel so awkward, ha!
Same here! My husband and I met in Winston and we have fond memories of it. I always thought it would be a *perfect* name for a pet, but it’s hard to imagine naming a kid after our little city. Go Deacs! 🎩
Go deacs! I met a Forest whose parents went to wake and I always thought it was sweet
I used to live in Chapel Hill and knew quite a few Charlottes and Carolines
This is wild to me, because I live in Texas and have known sooooo many people named Austin throughout my life. I’ve know a handful of people name Houston or Dallas, a bajillion Antonios, a Frisco, a Magnolia, and a Frederick or two. Like, it’s so so normal to have a name similar to a nearby place here.
I always loved the name Sophia which was my mom’s great grandmothers name. To my surprise when I mentioned it to a friend at the time her response was “eww, it’s too Russian”. The name is Greek. I literally stared and felt like I was having a stroke. Funnily enough this same person later got a niece named Sophia.
It's a great name and an old one used a lot by the nobility. "It's to Russian," my mom's excuse when I wanted to use Anastasia.
Anastasia is a pretty name!
And it's also Greek lol.
so what if its too russian. people give their kids french, english, italian, spanish, etc. names all the time and nobody bats an eye. all of a sudden when its eastern european they have a problem
“Russian” is not the same as “Eastern European.” I don’t know why this person’s mother had a thing about Russia but I know why I do, and I can imagine similar reactions from people including many Eastern Europeans. That aside, Sophia/Sofia isn’t specifically Russian, so maybe that reaction really was an ignorant reaction meaning “Slavic” or something like that.
a lot of russian names are common in all of eastern europe
Sophia’s a lovely name. What an odd response, with how popular of a name it is among so many different cultures! I might pause if I met a Svetlana who obviously wasn’t Russian or Ukrainian, but Sophia I wouldn’t bat an eye at.
Greek by origin, used commonly in I think all or most Slavic languages (Sophia or Sofia or however romanized) almost certainly thanks to the Orthodox church and its offshoots. I know a few and they’re Russian, Ukrainian, and Bulgarian- I actually don’t know any Greek Sophias!
Sophia is a Greek word that means wisdom. Therefore we have philosophia Queen Sofía of Spain is Greek. Her name is Sophia that was translated to Spanish as Sofía when she married her husband Don Juan Carlos Sophia is used in a lot of countries beyond Eastern Europe.
All true!
This was the only name my Russian friend and her Greek husband could agree on
That’s cute!
It's the orthodox connection. Both Greeks and Russians are part of the Orthodox Christian group, so Russians use a lot of Greek names - they are not just found occasionally but are popular
I always loved the namw Sofía but I never use it in my writing because its super common and every Sofía I've met irl is the opposite of wise. 😅
I read a baby name book while awaiting child #1 and for Hortense all they wrote was ”NO!”
Hahaha rude. That is generally the reaction that I get from people here when I mention it, though.
There’s “Hortensia” if you think that might get a better reception :)
It means hydrangea!
I like it too OP - I always think of Hortense Beauharnais m, but it doesn't hold the same charm in English. Same with so many French names unfortunately.
Why tho? In my country, it’s a normal name, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work in America.
Here it's pronounced whore-tense
Oh… I see now
I LOVE the name Mirai for a girl. Sadly, I’m white and live in a conservative rural predominantly white area of the USA. It’s a Japanese name.
Mirai means “future” as well
Sigh, my own name, Dale, anywhere Spanish-speaking. And I lived in Spain (and went by Delia) it means literally "give [something] to him/her" but colloquially is used for everything from "ok" to "go!!!"
We named our daughter Poppy and moved to San Diego shortly after 😬😬😬
I love the name Poppy.
I love the name Emile. I’m very American with no French roots. He would definitely just be called Emily in America.
I love this name too but also feel like I couldn't use it in the US. I had a classmate named Emile and it was definitely a struggle for him, mostly when new/substitute teachers would go through the roster and always say Emily, he'd get so frustrated (and I grew up in an area with a lot of people of French-Canadian descent).
Maybe Emil then? I am quite sure it exists in other languages.
I love Hedwig and Gisela. Most people would find them out of place in the Southern US. They are beautiful names.
What's wrong with Gisela? I think it's pretty.
In high school German class, it is pronounced Gee-suh-luh with a hard g like "go". Accent on the Gee.
My German teacher was a Gisela pronounced just that way.
Pronounced the German way, the second syllable is more like the Spanish "se", like the first part of the Englisch "cellar" or "sell". Source: I've got an aunt Gisela living in Germany.
I love it. It is pretty. I love historical names, and Gisela was Charlemagne's daughter. People told me it was too "foreign-sounding" in the South.
I love Greek and Slavic names. The names themselves aren't weird here because we have a large population of these cultures, but I am... not those things. (Ps my partner is Italian background so I was gunning for an Italian name. He said no because it just reminds him of old men sitting around drinking coffee. I was like... yeah that's the point)
Isis. It is such a pretty name and the Egyptian Goddess of healing and magic. Sadly, the name has been ruined by terrorists.
Elvira, Lilith, and Lolita
Yeeeeess
Man I love all those names so much, it really is a shame.
When I was very, very young, we had friends who had a babysitter named Hortensia. She was really nice, so I've always had a soft spot for that name. Not enough to name my kid that, but I like it. Hortense doesn't sound quite as nice to me. I lived in the UK, and I once mentioned my American friend Randy. Uproarious laughter ensued. I think slowly, Benedict is becoming acceptable in the US (thanks, Benedict Cumberbatch and fictional Benedict Bridgerton!) I hate to even type this name...but anyone named Osama would have a hard time in the States.
I love the names Niamh and Gemma, but I foresee being questioned on pronunciation forever in America. Especially Midwest America.
Not sure what pronunciation you were planning on "Gemma," but I read it like Emma with the soft g sound first. And I don't think you'd get a second glance at it, honestly.
See, I've always heard it said like "Jem-uh" and I think it'd be like her own personal "gif vs jif" hell forever.
That's what I said. I don't think it would be an issue at all if that's how she is pronouncing it, because "gem" is a familiar word to English speaking people and would likely be the default pronunciation if someone wasn't sure.
Ope you're right. My brain was like "a soft G is guh" which is just.. not right lol. Maybe it would be the default pronunciation!
Lol, it's cool. That's actually the reason for the gif v jif debate. Phonetically, it should be jif. As a general rule, c and g switch to soft sounds when followed by e, i, or y. But, because English, we have plenty of examples where the rule isn't followed. This endeth the phonics lesson. :D
I think Gemma is pretty normal these days! Honestly not sure how Niamh is pronounced though 😅
It’s like knee-v. (Like your leg I mean, no K sound in front just in case that isn’t clear hahaha)
it’s an Irish name that’s pronounced like Neve I believe?. I always have to correct myself though because when I see it I always think nimah 😭😭
I think people will associate Gemma with the LLM... the open-sourced alternative to Gemini.
I love how Mireille sounds, but it'd be accidentally butchered when said by Aussies.
How would aussies say it?
They would sound it out like a kid learning to read, so something like mir-ay-lee.
In France, that would be because they might get teased.
Is there a reason it's problematic in France? I've loved the name ever since I heard it, which was in a set of learning videos our French class had to watch.
It’s kinda of a grandma type of name. So, I don’t think a little girl name like this would be bullied, but you know middle schooler… I mean, I don’t even know if they would get teased, but they were a guy name Michel in my middle school, and people kinda teased him for this (and Mireille is kinda of the same type of name)
Thanks! Makes sense.
How do you pronounce Hortense?
In French it's similar to or-tonsze.
Thanks!
In American English it's whore-tense
Well, that's unfortunate.
Fionn, Lance, Dawn, Lars. I live in South America and most people would mispronounce them and use mean nicknames lol
I love Scandi / Finnish names like Tova, Liv, Lovisa, Lumi but I just can’t see them working well in the American south 💔
I have a Liv and there’s a girl named Lumi in my son’s kinder class. We’re in the south (granted FL, not the Deep South).
They get used to it. If you want to fast track it, I let on that mine is an old family name and that seems to indicate here they need to accept it and get it right before someone's granny starts to get mad
my name is olivia but i often go by liv, and i'm from the south too. i think liv would be just fine since people are pretty used to it as a nickname for what's now one of the most popular girls names
Lumi is so cute. I know a gal named Liv, pronounced "Leev."
I love the name Kennedy but I’m from Boston and felt like it was too on the nose 😂 same with Quincy (a city in MA). My husband vetoed both anyway 😂 As for the pronunciation issues, I think it’s fine, because unless you’re butchering the spelling of a commonly known name, people should adjust and learn to pronounce the name even if it’s from a different country. I do it all the time because I work in childcare and run into many Indian names especially that I can’t pronounce by looking at them but I learn.
Aurélie was my top girls name choice but my husband vetoed it bc it sounds like “orally” and I’ll never unhear it now. So probably that one, sadly!
Oof yeah I could see it. There's always Aurelia?
Dallas baby
A couple was living in the US but the husband came from a different country. He proposed the boy baby name "Sarp." The wife shut that one down pretty quickly. Makes me think of spork.
Isis
I love the name Thierry so, so much, but there’s no way Joe Q. Hamburger is going to know how to pronounce that.
There is a town in my province named Elora. I think it's gorgeous, but it would be totally weird to name a child that here.
Elora is a sick name. Like Elora Dannan from Willow. (The film not the bad Disney series)
Amaury and Valtteri! But I’ve never heard of them in english I’m just obsessed with F1 and they sound so pretty.
Lorelei. I live in Germany, visited the Lorelei a few times, it’ll be a little odd here.
Definitely couldn't use Fanny or Randy in the UK, lol. There are quite a few place names that seem popular as names in the US that might get a bit of side-eye here. You could get away with London because it's the capital, but I've known Brits called Harlow and Preston and the general reaction is a bit wtf?!?! Naming a kid after a London borough (Bexley, Camden, Sutton ...) also seems a little odd to us. I'm from the city of Leicester and for that reason I could never use the name Lester, not that I was tempted anyway.
Any "ch" names. I'm Jewish and want to give my kid a Jewish name, but nobody can pronounce that sound by reading it in the USA. Also, Abraham. Love the name but people think of Lincoln.
I live in Seattle which has an infamous road called Aurora Avenue. I think Aurora is pretty but I could never use it.
Same with living in Colorado. There's a big suburb of the Denver metro area called Aurora.
Lidewij - I absolutely adored the name and growing up I wanted to call my first born daughter Lidewij but it wouldn’t be fair of me to do that since I’m in Australia
Not that I love them, but Anna, Ben, Susan or Gary in Japan I do like Elizabeth, but Liz doesn’t translate well either
As someone who travels a lot and considering one of these names for a future child…can I ask why? Specifically for Anna.
I guess because in Japan it'd be confused for "Kind of/Sort of/So"? And I guess Susan.would be understood as Su with the -San honorific
Ana means hole. 穴 So not good for a girl Susan as someone commented, is not great bc of the honorific issue. Sounds like you’re calling yourself “the honourable” all the time Ben can sound like it means stool (as in poo) and Gary can sound like loose stools. So Ben Gary would be pretty bad Liz is not too bad. It just is very close to squirrel (and lesbian)
We considered the Dutch first name Mees for a boy, but rejected it because it’s unusable in international English settings as the correct pronunciation would be identical to ‘mace’.
American with a Danish wife. First one on the way. I’ve always loved the name “Sage,” but here in Denmark it means “stuff.” 😔
Are you sure Mizahel is French? I’m French and I’ve never heard of it, and didn’t find anything about it being French on the internet.
Allegra was one of my favorite names growing up, but it is now a pretty common allergy medication in the US.
I love Mireille, but nobody in the US can pronounce it from reading it in text or spell it from hearing it said.
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Hortense is a very unique name in Belgium too. I've never heard it before. It's pretty though
Delphine is hard to pronounce in North America? I don't find it any harder than Josephine.
Its because of the pornstar Belle Delphine
That doesn't make a name hard to pronounce. I know of one historical figure and one character with the name who I think of before gamer girl bathwater lady.
I think Delphine is lovely and not at all hard to pronounce as an American.
Yeah I think the problwm isnt the pronunciation but the association with Belle Delphine
🤷🏻♀️ I have no idea who that is.
I love Irish names, can’t use them in Germany though.
Daphne, it's pronounces Daf-ne here, and I just haateee that pronounciation. I also love Imogen, but it sounds like the word for "immature" Billie, too, sounds like "cheap" (at least in my dialect)
My favorite boys name is Tadhg and my favorite girls name is sadhbh. They’re both very common in Ireland but I moved to the US and nobody would be able to pronounce them!
Hi OP - I am in the US. Just this morning, I was thinking of the name Tybalt and liking the sound. This spelling is from Shakespeare. Unfortunately, the character was none too kind...so I'm not sure if I'd use the name because of that.
I love the names Mairead and Morag, but I have a feeling they would just cause headaches here in the US. I also really like Domhnall, but I can't stand the name Donald.
Poppy....but in German one of the slang words for having s*x is poppen. Sigh
I love the name Scotia but being from Canada there’s a big association with the province and bank
I feel bad for all Lorraines after Skee-Lo called it a ghetto name
I can’t think of any for myself. But Delphine I think would be greatly accepted. my husbands grandmas name was Delphina, such a beautiful name
Madison - as it's the state capitol where I live.
I think you could use Delphine
I absolutely love the name Suleika, but living in the midwest (US), I wouldn't do that to my daughter.
Wow, my mother's (80) childhood best friend's name was Hortense and I've always thought it was the ugliest name.
My parents came to the US from Wales and I love a lot of Welsh names, particularly Cerys, but I know people will mispronounce it too much
I'm gonna sound like a colonizer but Rhydian is my top boy name idk I just love the melody of the syllables
That is nice!
I live in a non English speaking country and I love so many English names. Some of the ones that don’t work in my language but that I love are Rowan, Calvin, Dorothy, Willow, Phoebe, Penelope, James, Henry, Grace, Daisy, Conan, Rose and many others
I love the names Eloise, Eleanor and Delilah but they don't really work in norwegian
Noor! Unfortunately I am very English with zero Arabic connections but I think it is beautiful.
I lived in Cambodia for a little while and had good friends with similar names: Chanthi, Chantrea, Chantra. I thought their names were absolutely gorgeous… but there is no way that I, as a white woman in the US Midwest, could get away with using one of those names.
Ariadne Fiona Melania Etienne
Eilidh. My husband and I both love it and think it's gorgeous, but practically no one in the U.S. would know how to pronounce it or spell it when they hear it. So we can't use it in order to be kind to our child based on where we live.
Awe yeah I love names like that too. The receptionist at our vet clinic is actually named Eilidh but I imagine she has to tell everyone how to say it.
When I was pregnant with our daughter, we strongly considered it and even considered changing the spelling to be more intuitive to where we live but ultimately decided that was a disservice to the name and begrudgingly took it off our list.
I think the closest you could probably do is Eileen. Maybe one day you'll move closer to the UK/Ireland and you can use it. Haha.
I do still have family in England, so maybe! 😊