Boy's Name in Spanish

[Anonymous]

If you lived in CA, it wouldn't be an issue, but you don't. People will confused, unfortuantely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Xavi Hernandez Cruess and Xabi (Xabier) Alonso are two Spanish soccer stars. Thus, Xavier and not Javier. Our last name is also clearly Spanish, so I think that helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you lived in CA, it wouldn't be an issue, but you don't. People will confused, unfortuantely.

Nah, they'll be fine. Looks like people seem to know how to say Joaquin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Our main goal is to have mom who speaks Spanish and dad who speaks English calling our kid the same thing. Sure you'd have to tell people it's looseeya and not loosha or lucheea but once you have that cleared up everybody is calling her looseeya.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Our main goal is to have mom who speaks Spanish and dad who speaks English calling our kid the same thing. Sure you'd have to tell people it's looseeya and not loosha or lucheea but once you have that cleared up everybody is calling her looseeya.

In that case, it's fine. It is a lovely name, just one that has about four different common pronunciations.

[Anonymous]

Julian
Diego
Alejandro
Franco
Santiago
Marcelo
Andres
Matias/Mateo
Santiago/Tiago
Maximo
Elias
Nicolas


All those are easily pronounceable, at least in my opinion. I like Tiago or Thiago or Diego a lot.