A friend of mine is due with her baby boy in the next few months. Her husband is [name]German[/name] and they spend a lot of time with his [name]German[/name] family in Germany. They have a son named [name]Noah[/name], which they love because it is easy for an American, and a [name]German[/name] to say and translates well in both languages. They are still completely lost as to what to name baby boy #2. Any Suggestions would be awesome!! Thank you in advance!
There are lots of names that work in both languages- maybe miss anything that has a J, as the pronunciation will change…but almost anything else will be fine. These are some of the names that you hear pretty much anywhere in Europe, from Germany to [name]France[/name], Scandinavia, Spain, [name]Britain[/name]…:
[name]Lucas[/name]/[name]Lukas[/name]
[name]Liam[/name]
[name]Max[/name]
[name]Thomas[/name]
[name]Hugo[/name]
[name]Oliver[/name]
[name]Leon[/name], [name]Leo[/name]
[name]Alexander[/name]
[name]Tobias[/name]
[name]Sebastian[/name]
[name]Dominic/name
[name]Felix[/name]
[name]Samuel[/name]
[name]Luca[/name]
[name]Matthias[/name], [name]Matteo[/name]
[name]Gabriel[/name]
[name]Theo[/name]
[name]Oscar[/name]
[name]Daniel[/name]
PP gave you a lot of great suggestions! Another one that comes to mind is [name]Otto[/name].
What exactly are they looking for in “easy translation”? Near-identical pronunciation? That is what [name]Noah[/name] has. That’s going to be somewhat rarer, although plenty of the names above do it (most of the names above do it depending on exactly how identical you consider identical to be) . Same spelling and a logical pronunciation in both languages expands it A LOT ([name]Tobias[/name], [name]Matthias[/name], [name]Gabriel[/name] and [name]Daniel[/name], to me, have pretty different prns - [name]Theo[/name] too – but the point is a speaker sees the name and knows what to say). [name]Plenty[/name] of Spanish speakers do this, i.e., code-switch – [name]Angel[/name] like the word in English but ahn-HELL (also like the word : D) in Spanish.
Here are some more that use the same spelling and that people know what to do with them in both, even if it’s different prn.
[name]Michael[/name]
[name]David[/name]
[name]Albert[/name]
[name]Robert[/name]
[name]Conrad[/name]/[name]Konrad[/name] (this one’s nearly identical)
[name]Ingo[/name] (OK, this name feels much more familiar in [name]German[/name], however the prn is the same)
[name]Carl[/name]/[name]Karl[/name]
[name]Marcus[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Paul[/name]
[name]Jacob[/name]/[name]Jakob[/name]
[name]Soren[/name] (similar to [name]Ingo[/name])
[name]Rafael[/name]/[name]Raphael[/name] (similar to [name]Ingo[/name] and [name]Soren[/name])
[name]Richard[/name]
As a native [name]German[/name] speaker I’d stay away from [name]Samuel[/name] and maybe even [name]Liam[/name]. They both feel awkward to say.
[name]Tristan[/name]
[name]Maximilian[/name]/[name]Max[/name]
[name]Felix[/name]
[name]Emmett[/name]
[name]Christoph[/name]
[name]Benjamin[/name]
[name]August[/name]
[name]Abel[/name]
[name]Korbin[/name]
are some of the English/[name]German[/name] names on my list.
I also have more traditional [name]German[/name] names like (but mostly they are family names).
[name]Johannes[/name]
[name]Wolfgang[/name]
[name]How[/name] about [name]Luther[/name]?
@lexiem- I know a couple of Austrian Samuels (one 20s, one toddler) and a couple of [name]German[/name] ones (a teenager and a baby), and more Dutch Liams than Irish ones 
[name]Liam[/name] is also weirdly popular in [name]Sweden[/name] (it’s a top 10 name there!). They sound a little different in Swedish/Dutch/Standard [name]German[/name]/Bavarian, but my impression is that the ‘feel’ of the names and the relative popularity is very similar, which is I think what OP was requesting.
@maple_blythe. I think it would depends on your accent. In Standard [name]German[/name] I find [name]Samuel[/name] awkward in Bavarian and most Austrian dialects the letters meld more - but it starts sounding a little different - Dutch and Swedish are completely different languages to [name]German[/name]. I lived in [name]German[/name] for most of my life and I don’t remember meeting a single [name]Samuel[/name] (despite the fact that I grew up in a major city and was part of a very traditional church). I didn’t intend to imply that they didn’t translate, just that I find the prn of the name in [name]German[/name] awkward.
[name]Luka[/name]
[name]Christian[/name]
[name]Remy[/name]
[name]Oliver[/name]
[name]Louis[/name]
[name]Thomas[/name]
[name]Enzo[/name]
[name]Alexander[/name]
[name]Erik[/name]
[name]Finn[/name]
I’d add:
[name]Calvin[/name]
[name]Beckett[/name]
[name]Philip[/name]
[name]Anton[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
Stefan
I know a [name]German[/name] woman who is married a British man,they live in the Netherlands.
Children are named
[name]Casper[/name] (maybe ar ending,not sure)
[name]Nia[/name]
[name]Emma[/name]
So names like those should work?
I think standard names like
[name]Charlotte[/name]
[name]Victoria[/name]
[name]Alice[/name]
would also work.
I visited a town just outside Stuttgart a few years back and they struggled to say [name]Hayley[/name],so maybe avoid similar sounding names?