My husband and I have different ethnic backgrounds and we’re trying to pick names for our sons that would be easy to pronounce in English,Japanese and Spanish. It’s been an enormous challenge but I would like to share our options to get some neutral opinions.
These are the names we have been able to come up with:
[name]Ben[/name] (familiar in all 3 languages because of [name]Benjamin[/name] and Benjiro)
[name]Dei[/name] (pronounced like the fist syllable of [name]David[/name])
Rei (Japanese name, similar to [name]Ray[/name], means king in Spanish)
[name]Ken[/name] (too close to [name]Barbie[/name]?)
Shin (close to [name]Sean[/name])
[name]Gen[/name] (not an actual English name but familiar enough I think)
[name]Kane[/name] (not a big fan of this name,but it seems like a legitimate English name)
[name]Kai[/name] (love [name]Kai[/name] but it might be too popular now)
[name]Zen[/name] (too hippy?)
[name]Tomi[/name] (again, familiar because of [name]Thomas[/name], [name]Tomas[/name] and [name]Tomi[/name] it’s a Japanese name)
Our oldest son’s name is [name]Ryo[/name]. We are unsure if we should use Rei (but I love Rei!)
Also, I don’t want to use names that have identical endings, such as [name]Dei[/name] and Rei.
I thank you all for our opinions and thoughts. Pick two names (or all the names you like). Let me know what you think
[name]Ben[/name] - I love this one!
[name]Dei[/name] - I’m not sure … I think I’m worried about people thinking that it is pronounced d-eye or dee.
Rei - I’ve never been a fan of [name]Ray[/name], and so I’m not particularly fond of this one. Also, I do think it is probably too close to [name]Ryo[/name].
[name]Ken[/name] - I do think of [name]Barbie[/name], I’m afraid.
Shin - reminds me of the part of the leg …
[name]Gen[/name] - quite nice.
[name]Kane[/name] - I’m not a big fan of it either … it reminds me both of [name]Cain[/name], as in [name]Abel[/name]'s brother, and canes, as in corporal punishment.
[name]Kai[/name] - I love this one, but it does seem quite popular.
[name]Zen[/name] - it’s a bit too obviously hippy for my taste, but on sound only it is a good name.
[name]Tomi[/name] - I love it!
My vote is for [name]Ben[/name] and [name]Tomi[/name] with brother [name]Ryo[/name]. [name]Ben[/name]/[name]Tomi[/name] and [name]Kai[/name]/[name]Dei[/name] would be my other choices.
