My husband and I have lived abroad several times in our lives, and although we live in the States now, we’d like to live abroad again in the future. I want to encourage my children to see the world and I’d love them to have names that would work in multiple languages/cultures.
So far, the only girls names I have that I think work well in multiple languages are [name]Anna[/name] and [name]Louisa[/name].
And for a boy: [name]Luca[/name]
Any other ideas?
Thanks!
[name]Hi[/name], [name]Kim[/name]. Let’s see…names that appear in many languages. [name]Do[/name] you want the names to appear as is, or are spelling changes okay once international waters are crossed? Pronunciation may differ:
[name]Amelia[/name]
[name]Amelie[/name]
[name]Audrey[/name]
[name]Anastasia[/name]
[name]Anna[/name]
[name]Annabel[/name]
[name]Beatrice[/name]
[name]Bella[/name]
[name]Caroline[/name]
[name]Cecilia[/name]
[name]Claire[/name]
[name]Clara[/name]
[name]Eliana[/name]
[name]Elena[/name]
[name]Francesca[/name]
[name]Grace[/name]
[name]Gabriella[/name]
[name]Helen[/name]
[name]Helena[/name]
[name]Josephine[/name]
[name]Julia[/name]
[name]Lila[/name]
[name]Lucy[/name]
[name]Liliana[/name]
[name]Lola[/name]
[name]Maria[/name]
[name]Margot[/name]
Magaret
[name]Natalie[/name]
[name]Natasha[/name]
[name]Rose[/name]
[name]Sophia[/name]
[name]Simone[/name]
[name]Tatiana[/name]
[name]Viviana[/name]
[name]Veronica[/name]
[name]Alexandra[/name]/[name]Alesandra[/name]
[name]Delphine[/name]
[name]Ingrid[/name]
[name]Valentina[/name]
[name]Alexander[/name]
[name]Charles[/name]
[name]David[/name]
[name]Dashiell[/name]
[name]Edward[/name]
[name]George[/name]
[name]Henry[/name]
[name]James[/name]
[name]John[/name]
[name]Leonardo[/name]
[name]Liam[/name]
[name]Lucas[/name]
[name]Michael[/name]
Matteas
[name]Milo[/name]
[name]Nicholas[/name]
[name]Oliver[/name]
[name]Peter[/name]
[name]Simon[/name]
[name]Vincent[/name]
[name]Victor[/name]
[name]William[/name]
[name]Adrian[/name]
[name]Lorenzo[/name]
[name]Mateo[/name]
[name]Orion[/name]
[name]Roman[/name]
[name]Stellan[/name]
Best wishes to you!
I’m not an expert on international names by any means! But I’ve heard that [name]Enzo[/name] and [name]Lena[/name] are really popular in many European countries. I think to avoid confusion, it would be best to avoid Celtic names if you’re going to live in [name]Italy[/name], Spain, etc. Of course, if you’re going to live in [name]Asia[/name], you might as well pick whatever name you want. I think if it were me, I would just pick names I really love. The names I love the most are classic, so they would probably work. I would choose, say, [name]Charles[/name] and [name]Lucy[/name] - ooh, sounds like [name]Charlie[/name] [name]Brown[/name].
I [name]LOVE[/name] [name]Luca[/name]. One of my favorites!!!
Here are some others to consider. I think they would work well in europe and probably are simple enough for asia also.
Boys
[name]Micah[/name]
[name]Alex[/name]
[name]Alec[/name]
[name]Nico[/name]
[name]Enzo[/name]
[name]Sebastian[/name]
[name]Thomas[/name]
[name]Nicholas[/name]
[name]Louis[/name]
Girls
[name]Lori[/name]
[name]Laura[/name]
[name]Luisa[/name] (different spelling, more translatable to italian and spanish)
[name]Alexis[/name]
[name]Alexa[/name]
[name]Celia[/name]
[name]Cecily[/name]
[name]Margo[/name]
[name]Lila[/name]
[name]Macy[/name]
Masie
Good luck!
I have this problem with my name! The way the people say it where I live it sounds like they’ve got a throat infection. I’ve got a little bit of experience with this, though I can’t say anything about [name]Asia[/name]. I think there are lots of possibilities, but these are just off the top of my head (though there are definitely other versions and spellings in some countries):
[name]Alexander[/name]
[name]Nicholas[/name]
[name]Sebastian[/name], [name]Thomas[/name], [name]Stephen[/name], [name]Phillip[/name] (though where I live these are kind of dated)
[name]Marcus[/name]
[name]David[/name]
[name]Michael[/name]
[name]Roman[/name]
[name]Alina[/name]
[name]Elena[/name]
[name]Sophie[/name]/[name]Sophia[/name]
[name]Marie[/name]/[name]Maria[/name]
[name]Julia[/name]
[name]Anna[/name]
[name]Francisca[/name]
[name]Laura[/name]
I think that what doesn’t work too well are names that have sounds that are special to a specific language, like the CH and TH sounds in English. For example, Greeks can pronounce Th in the name [name]Bethany[/name] as English speakers do, but Germans would often say Bessany. And J is prounounced differently in a lot of languages – if I were using a J name, I would try to use a classic so that there would be a familiar form in a lot of cultures.