Partner and I are at an impasse with the name for our second boy. We are a Welsh-German family living in [name_m]England[/name_m]. We speak Welsh and [name_m]German[/name_m] at home and it is very important to my partner that the names tie back to our cultures and are not “generic [name_f]English[/name_f] names”. I am on board with this but with the caveat that the names are pronounceable and otherwise “work” in all three languages. Our first born is [name_m]Rhys[/name_m] [name_m]Johann[/name_m]. [name_m]Rhys[/name_m] is pronounced [name_f]Reese[/name_f], [name_m]Johann[/name_m] is pronounced Yo-hann.
[name_m]The[/name_m] only other name we both love at the minute is the Welsh name [name_m]Macsen[/name_m], but my partner’s sister has expressed multiple times that this is her top pick for a boy (she does not have children yet but is planning to in the near future), and we don’t want to deal with backlash because we “stole” her name.
[name_m]Other[/name_m] Welsh names my partner likes are
[name_m]Caradog[/name_m], [name_m]Gruffudd[/name_m] (pronounced similarly to [name_m]Griffith[/name_m], but partner does not like the anglicised spelling) and [name_m]Llewelyn[/name_m]. I am vetoing [name_m]Caradog[/name_m] and [name_m]Gruffudd[/name_m] because I do not think they work in [name_m]German[/name_m] and I dislike the “car dog” and “gruff” associations. I objectively like [name_m]Llewelyn[/name_m] but am struggling to get on board because of pronunciation worries- [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers would say it similarly to [name_m]Lewis[/name_m], but the Welsh double L is pronounced by blowing air from around your tongue, sort of a soft “chl” sound. This is how we and the Welsh side of the family would pronounce the name, but it took me a while to master this sound when learning Welsh and I don’t expect [name_f]English[/name_f] or [name_m]German[/name_m] speakers to. Since the name is very awkward in [name_m]German[/name_m], my partner thinks he could go by [name_m]Leo[/name_m] around his [name_m]German[/name_m] side of the family. I like [name_m]Leo[/name_m], but I think it is too confusing if he goes by Llewelyn or Llew at home, “Lew”-elyn or “Lew” at school and [name_m]Leo[/name_m] in [name_f]Germany[/name_f]. I am also not a fan of contrived nicknames and would rather just name him [name_m]Leo[/name_m] at that point.
From other Welsh names we can’t seem to find any that we like or fit our criteria. We can’t use [name_m]Osian[/name_m] and [name_m]Ioan[/name_m], I don’t like names ending in -i (Dewi, [name_m]Rhodri[/name_m] etc), neither of us like names that are technically Welsh but now super common everywhere (Dylan, [name_m]Owen[/name_m] etc), and names like [name_f]Brynn[/name_f], [name_m]Glyn[/name_m], [name_m]Hywel[/name_m] are considering very outdated at the moment.
[name_m]The[/name_m] other option is a [name_m]German[/name_m] first name (we like [name_m]Anton[/name_m], [name_m]Otto[/name_m], [name_m]Emil[/name_m], [name_m]Nils[/name_m] and [name_m]Kjell[/name_m]) but the concern is it won’t go with [name_m]Rhys[/name_m].
Feeling like we have named ourselves into a corner here and sort of wishing this one was a girl because we had the girl name lined up (Seren).
