German Middle Names

General Name Discussion
1

DH and I want to use at least one traditionally [name]German[/name] name as a middle name for our future children. What do you think of these combos?

BOYS
Aeson [name]Josiah[/name] [name]Matthias[/name] (mah-tee-us)
[name]Maddox[/name] [name]Theodor[/name] [name]Walter[/name]
[name]Lucian[/name] Günther [name]Klaus[/name] (goon-ter klows)
[name]Cassius[/name] [name]Bastian[/name] [name]Ludwig[/name] (bahs-tee-in loot-vig)

GIRLS
[name]Alba[/name] [name]Johanna[/name] [name]Leigh[/name] (yo-hah-nah)
[name]Harlow[/name] [name]Eliza[/name] [name]Katja[/name] (kaht-yah)
[name]Ariadne[/name] [name]Flora[/name] [name]Mathilda[/name]
[name]Amaya[/name] [name]Rae[/name] [name]Wilhelmina[/name] (vil-hel-mee-nah)

Here are the other names I’d consider using…
[name]Dieter[/name] (dee-ter)
[name]Heinrich[/name] (hyne-rick)
[name]Karsten[/name] (karz-ten)
Sören (zoo-ren)
[name]Alena[/name] (ah-len-ah)
[name]Amalia[/name] (ah-mah-lee-ah)
[name]Helena[/name] (hah-len-ah)

[name]Feel[/name] free to switch up the combos and order, as long as the first name remains the same.

2

I love [name]Alba[/name] [name]Johanna[/name] [name]Leigh[/name] and [name]Maddox[/name] [name]Theodor[/name] Dietrick! good luck with the baby’s name! Keep me posted on whatever you name your new little one!

3

[name]Love[/name] [name]Soren[/name]!

4

I love [name]Alba[/name] [name]Johanna[/name] [name]Leigh[/name] and [name]Lucian[/name] [name]Josiah[/name] [name]Matthias[/name].

5

Those are both my tops picks too.

The thing is…my grandma is [name]German[/name]…born & raised. She spoke [name]German[/name] to all her kids, but stopped as they got older for fear of them having an accent and being teased, etc. She did the same with my and my sister, but none of us retain it because she didn’t keep up on it. DH and I really would love it if she spoke to them only in [name]German[/name]. Of course, since she’s not the parent, they won’t speak it fluently (as they’re in different houses), but it would be such a fond memory for our kids to have certain phrases, words, etc. that they recall in [name]German[/name] and remember being able to communicate with their great-grandmother in [name]German[/name].

In addition to that, we would like her to call them by their [name]German[/name] name. So Aeson would be called [name]Matthias[/name] by her, [name]Alba[/name] would be called [name]Johanna[/name], etc.

I just think it would be a really nice way to hold on to some sort of their strong cultural background. I’m about 70% [name]German[/name] and DH is about 40% [name]German[/name], so our kids will have a lot of [name]German[/name] in them still.

6

Why do so many people talk about Traditional [name_m]German[/name_m] Names…but then list a bunch of Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, Italic, and Slavic names???

7

Why do so many people talk about Traditional [name_m]German[/name_m] Names…but then list a bunch of Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, Italic, and Slavic names???

8

“I am [name_m]German[/name_m]. My Husband is [name_m]German[/name_m]. Germany ethnicity is really important to us. So we are going to give our kids names from other cultures instead!”

Was?

9

[name_m]Heinrich[/name_m], these names are typical for Germany or the german spelling of international names, so it’s not wrong to think of them as “german names”. I’m sure you’d think of [name_f]Megan[/name_f] and [name_m]Jason[/name_m] as english names though they’re originally greek, too.

About the names:
[name_m]Matthias[/name_m] - like
[name_m]Maddox[/name_m] [name_m]Theodor[/name_m] [name_m]Walter[/name_m] - will probably just turn out an english [name_m]Theodore[/name_m] [name_m]Walter[/name_m]
[name_m]Lucian[/name_m] Günther [name_m]Klaus[/name_m] (goon-ter klows) - feel like old people names. Goon-ter would be Gunt(h)er, the ü-sound is hard to explain in english :-/
[name_m]Cassius[/name_m] [name_m]Bastian[/name_m] [name_m]Ludwig[/name_m] (bahs-tee-in loot-vig) - [name_m]Bastian[/name_m] is cool and [name_m]Ludwig[/name_m] vintage, like!

GIRLS
[name_f]Johanna[/name_f] - is nice, but maybe no-one will realise it’s german
[name_f]Katja[/name_f] - nice, but feels more international than german
[name_f]Ariadne[/name_f] [name_f]Flora[/name_f] [name_f]Mathilda[/name_f] - are all nice on their own. I’d drop the h in [name_f]Mathilda[/name_f].
[name_f]Wilhelmina[/name_f] is great!

[name_m]Dieter[/name_m] - isn’t that literally “someone who’s on a diet” in english?
[name_m]Heinrich[/name_m] (hyne-rick) - You’re not getting the “ch”-sound right so I wouldn’t use it
[name_u]Karsten[/name_u] (karz-ten) - like
Sören (zoo-ren) - the Günter-problem again. (But [name_m]Soren[/name_m] and [name_m]Gunter[/name_m] are proper names, too, so you could spell them like that.) Also feels more danish than german.
[name_f]Alena[/name_f] (ah-len-ah) - seems random, I don’t really like it.
[name_f]Amalia[/name_f] (ah-mah-lee-ah) - has a royal feel, nice!
[name_f]Helena[/name_f] (hah-len-ah) - is a good name, but also feels rather international

10

Wow I love [name_f]Alba[/name_f], stunning choice

11

I’m not even going to address [name_m]Heinrich[/name_m]'s remarks.

Thank you for the input. This post is suuuuuper old. Lol. I came back only because we are now pregnant with our second and I wanted to take a look at some names I remember loving. We did name our first daughter [name_f]Alba[/name_f] [name_f]Johanna[/name_f] [name_u]Leigh[/name_u] with the [name_m]German[/name_m] pronunciation. My grandma is able to still say it better than I am, lol. When people read it, they think of “jo-han-nah”, but it’s not that big of a deal to me because it is just her middle name. I would be more concerned about the pronunciation if it were her first name.