Boy's Name in Spanish

[Anonymous]

Jon-Carlo
Jon-Matteo
Juan-Carlo
Jon-Marco
Carlo
Marco
Mason
Marcos
Leo
Juan-Antonio
Jon-Antonio
Tomás
Tomás Antonio

[Anonymous]

We went with Xavier, with Xavi as a nickname. Sometimes we get "Zavier" or "ex-zavier" for pronunciation, but easily corrected. We chose Xavier over the Javier spelling for sports reasons (oh, DH...). Our other considerations were Oscar, Santiago, Emanuel, Tadeo, and... Joaquin.

[Anonymous]

We considered Diego, Santiago, Jaime. We ended up with James. I regret sometimes not going with Diego, but we use it as a family nickname.

[Anonymous]

My husband's is a Portuguese speaker and our sons are Rafael, Gabriel and Nathaniel. I also love Alexander and Michael . I also think Carlos will work well.

[Anonymous]

I love Diego, Mateo, Santiago, Olivier, and Xavier. We are thinking about Xavier but worried about confusing my DH's non-spanish speaking family.

[Anonymous]

Ramiro

[Anonymous]

Santiago (Santi)
Nicolas (Nico)
Roberto (Robbie or Berto)

[Anonymous]

If I was a Spanish speaker, and wanted my child's name pronounced correctly the Spanish way, I think I'd avoid spellings that are the same in English and Spanish.

I think it's easier for the average American to manage "Jose" or "Marco" or "Joaquin" than it is for them to remember that this particular Julian is pronounced with an /h/ sound, or that Nicolas has an accent on the last syllable. I also think that, even if the parents make a point of insisting on a certain pronunciation, after about first grade it's only going to stick if the kid makes the same point, and many kids don't.

I'm not a Spanish speaker, and I know that many people have no problems with their child being "Julian" with an /h/ at home and "Julian" with a /dg/ at school, but if you do care, it's something to consider.

[Anonymous]

Javier - like the cute Javier on Good Behavior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If I was a Spanish speaker, and wanted my child's name pronounced correctly the Spanish way, I think I'd avoid spellings that are the same in English and Spanish.

I think it's easier for the average American to manage "Jose" or "Marco" or "Joaquin" than it is for them to remember that this particular Julian is pronounced with an /h/ sound, or that Nicolas has an accent on the last syllable. I also think that, even if the parents make a point of insisting on a certain pronunciation, after about first grade it's only going to stick if the kid makes the same point, and many kids don't.

I'm not a Spanish speaker, and I know that many people have no problems with their child being "Julian" with an /h/ at home and "Julian" with a /dg/ at school, but if you do care, it's something to consider.

I agree with this. We are a bilingual family and chose names that are pronounced the same in English and Spanish so the kid could be called the same thing by everybody. Lucia works for this Isabela works ok. Joaquin, Mateo and Javier all work well. Other great names like Julian and Gabriel don't work as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I was a Spanish speaker, and wanted my child's name pronounced correctly the Spanish way, I think I'd avoid spellings that are the same in English and Spanish.

I think it's easier for the average American to manage "Jose" or "Marco" or "Joaquin" than it is for them to remember that this particular Julian is pronounced with an /h/ sound, or that Nicolas has an accent on the last syllable. I also think that, even if the parents make a point of insisting on a certain pronunciation, after about first grade it's only going to stick if the kid makes the same point, and many kids don't.

I'm not a Spanish speaker, and I know that many people have no problems with their child being "Julian" with an /h/ at home and "Julian" with a /dg/ at school, but if you do care, it's something to consider.

I agree with this. We are a bilingual family and chose names that are pronounced the same in English and Spanish so the kid could be called the same thing by everybody. Lucia works for this Isabela works ok. Joaquin, Mateo and Javier all work well. Other great names like Julian and Gabriel don't work as well.

I don't think Lucia works for this. There are very different pronunciations out there and I don't think the most common English pronunciation is the same as the Spanish. It is a lovely name but not consistently pronounced.

[Anonymous]

Donaldo, a charming Mexican name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Love Joaquin. What's the nickname for that? Joe?

No. Mainly because Joe is a completely unrelated name and you don't pronounce with name with a "Jay" sound. It's pronounced hwah-KEEN. Nicknames are Chimo and Ximo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We went with Xavier, with Xavi as a nickname. Sometimes we get "Zavier" or "ex-zavier" for pronunciation, but easily corrected. We chose Xavier over the Javier spelling for sports reasons (oh, DH...). Our other considerations were Oscar, Santiago, Emanuel, Tadeo, and... Joaquin.

Oh man, I'm a non-native Spanish speaker, and I said Xavier with a "z" or "s" sound in my head even knowing it was supposed to be a Spanish pronunciation. Javier with an "h", but the X brought it back to the English pronunciation.

[Anonymous]

I think Joaquin is challenging for English speakers.

Consider:

David
Marco
Pablo
Javier

I love Iñaki but it might be too Spanish for you.