I’ve been meaning to start a discussion here about [name_f]Clare[/name_f] [name_u]Green[/name_u]'s blog post Picking the Perfect Multilingual Name that came out a couple of months ago.
I know a lot of Berries need to find names that work in multiple different languages or have already named a multilingual child (or, you know, are trying to figure out how a name would work across different languages for fun).
What kind of multilingual names would you/did you go for, and do they fit into any of the categories in the blog post?
Personally, I found [name_f]Clare[/name_f]'s tips helpful - we’re hoping to name a Finnish-[name_f]English[/name_f] child within the next year or so , and organising names we’ve considered into these 5 categories has clarified our options.
1. Universal (names that are the same across languages)
Summary
Technically, none of these names are pronounced exactly the same in Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f], but they are so close I think they count.
[name_f]Emma[/name_f]
[name_f]Matilda[/name_f]
[name_f]Sofia[/name_f]
[name_u]Maria[/name_u]
[name_f]Camilla[/name_f]
[name_f]Mia[/name_f]
[name_m]Anton[/name_m]
[name_u]Oliver[/name_u]
[name_m]Sebastian[/name_m]
[name_u]Noel[/name_u]
I can’t say the names in this category are my favourite - most of them are on my list only because they are the same across Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f], and neither of us particularly like them as names. It feels a like a compromise too far to pick a name we don’t love just because it works perfectly across both languages. We might still consider using [name_f]Matilda[/name_f] or [name_m]Anton[/name_m] but they’re not at the top of our list.
2. Chameleon (adapts across languages)
Summary
[name_m]Leo[/name_m] → Finnish pronunciation: Leh-oh
[name_u]Benjamin[/name_u] → [name_m]Ben[/name_m]-yah-min
[name_m]Lucas[/name_m] → Luukas
[name_f]Erica[/name_f] → Eerika
[name_f]Sylvia[/name_f] → [name_f]Sylvia[/name_f] or [name_f]Silvia[/name_f] (These are pronounced differently in Finnish. [name_f]Silvia[/name_f] sounds like the [name_f]English[/name_f] [name_f]Sylvia[/name_f]. The letter Y, on the other hand, makes a vowel sound that [name_f]English[/name_f] doesn’t have, but it’s kinda like the British pronunciation of moon.)
[name_m]Henry[/name_m] → [name_u]Henri[/name_u]
[name_u]Constantine[/name_u] → [name_u]Konstantin[/name_u]
[name_f]Maya[/name_f] → [name_f]Maija[/name_f]
[name_f]Isla[/name_f] → [name_f]Aila[/name_f]
[name_m]Edwin[/name_m] → [name_m]Edvin[/name_m]
[name_m]Emil[/name_m] → [name_m]Eemil[/name_m]
[name_f]Elvira[/name_f] → [name_f]Elviira[/name_f]
[name_f]Elvie[/name_f] → [name_f]Elvi[/name_f]
[name_f]Mary[/name_f] → [name_f]Meri[/name_f]
[name_f]Louisa[/name_f] → Loviisa
[name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] - [name_m]Nikolas[/name_m]
Some of our favourites fall into this category (and I love the idea of meeting the two languages in the middle and going with a hybrid of the two like [name_m]Lukas[/name_m] and [name_f]Erika[/name_f] ).
To be honest though, I’m only seriously considering names that are spelled differently but still pronounced nearly the same. I’m fluent in both Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f] and I’m used to pronouncing, for example, [name_f]Sylvia[/name_f] and [name_u]Benjamin[/name_u] differently depending on which language I’m speaking and I’d honestly find it difficult to decide which pronunciation to stick to… I think I would keep switching between them depending on which language I’m speaking and find that concept dizzying.
3. Hybrid (1st name from one language, middle from the other)
While we definitely want to include both a Finnish and an [name_f]English[/name_f] name in our combos (like [name_m]Edwin[/name_m] [name_m]Otso[/name_m] or [name_f]Elvi[/name_f] [name_f]Magnolia[/name_f]), in the blog post this refers to calling a child by their 1st name in one language and their middle in the other because there simply aren’t any names that work in both languages. Although Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f] aren’t particularly compatible, there is some common ground between the two, so we probably won’t be doing this.
Still, I do find the idea exciting and started toying with the idea of combos where the first and middle names are completely unusable in the other language:
Summary
[name_u]Harper[/name_u] Tyyne
[name_f]Quenna[/name_f] Säde
Helinä [name_u]Lane[/name_u]
[name_m]Väinö[/name_m] Hawthrone
[name_u]Montgomery[/name_u] Nuutti
Nyyrikki [name_m]Huckleberry[/name_m]
We have also thought about double barrelling a Finnish and an [name_f]English[/name_f] name to go for a similar hybrid effect so that our child could choose to go by either or both depending on the context, like [name_f]Lilja[/name_f]-[name_f]Belle[/name_f], [name_f]Venla[/name_f]-[name_f]Fern[/name_f], or [name_f]Helmi[/name_f]-[name_f]Alice[/name_f]. (These lovely suggestions came from @hyacinthbucket - thank you, [name_f]Lilian[/name_f]! ) A part of me worries about problems with spelling/using a multilingual double barrelled name and if that would cause our child a lot of headache, but I still absolutely love the idea.
4. Decisive (a name from one language everyone can pronounce)
These are the types of names I’ve spent the most time looking for and have managed to create a fairly solid list of names that we like & are easy to pronounce for both Finnish and [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers, like…
Summary
[name_u]Atlas[/name_u]
[name_f]Helmi[/name_f]
[name_m]Edwin[/name_m]
[name_u]Kennedy[/name_u]
[name_u]Alva[/name_u]
[name_m]Magnus[/name_m]
[name_f]Magnolia[/name_f]
[name_f]Fenja[/name_f]
[name_f]Fenna[/name_f]
[name_f]Freya[/name_f]
[name_m]Nikolai[/name_m]
[name_u]Artemis[/name_u]
[name_m]Monty[/name_m]
[name_f]Venla[/name_f]
[name_u]Romilly[/name_u]
[name_f]Saga[/name_f]
[name_f]Viveka[/name_f]
[name_f]Senja[/name_f]
Establishing some basic pronunciation rules has helped me figure this out, and if you’re trying to do something similar, I’d highly recommend making a list of the sounds that work/don’t work. (In our case, the name has to end in a vowel sound, S, or N; it can’t contain consonants J, Z, or Q; Finnish vowel sounds Ä, Ö, and Y are out; no Finnish names with double consonants; and no [name_f]English[/name_f] names with diphthongs.)
These names are pretty strong contenders - I like how simple and straightforward this solution is.
5. Playful (name in one language & nickname in other)
None of the names we’ve considered fit this category, but there are a few options here like naming a child [name_m]Alexander[/name_m] and calling them [name_u]Aleksi[/name_u] in Finnish. [name_u]Or[/name_u] Talvikki could go by [name_f]Vicky[/name_f] here in [name_u]Scotland[/name_u], and Ruusu could be [name_f]Rose[/name_f] to her [name_f]English[/name_f] speaking friends and family.