WDYT of these bi-lingual English/Spanish names?

Girl Names
1

We are a bi-lingual English/Spanish family living in the U.S. expecting a baby girl in 3 months. Trying to come up with names that work cross-culturally. What do you think of these
bi-lingual choices? Please leave comments about each. Thanks!

[name_f]Adriana[/name_f]
[name_u]Andrea[/name_u] (pn AnnDRAYa)
[name_f]Camila[/name_f] (pn Cameela)
[name_f]Cassandra[/name_f]
[name_f]Celia[/name_f] (pn Sayleeuh (spanish way)
[name_f]Elena[/name_f] (pn Ehlayna)
[name_f]Giselle[/name_f] (pn Jiss-elle)
[name_f]Graciela[/name_f] (pn Grahsee-ella)
[name_f]Liliana[/name_f] (nn [name_f]Lily[/name_f])
[name_f]Natalia[/name_f]
[name_f]Nayeli[/name_f] (pn Ny-ellie or NaYAYlee)
[name_f]Mariela[/name_f]
Miria or [name_f]Mira[/name_f] (pn Meereea, [name_f]Meera[/name_f])
[name_f]Valeria[/name_f]

1 Like
2

[name_f]Adriana[/name_f]: I absolutely love [name_f]Adriana[/name_f]! I think it’s very beautiful and elegant and feminine.

[name_u]Andrea[/name_u]: I don’t love [name_u]Andrea[/name_u], however I don’t dislike it.

[name_f]Camila[/name_f]: Reminds me of [name_f]Camila[/name_f] Cabello but that’s not a reason to dislike the name. I think it looks prettier than it sounds but it is an overall pretty nice name.

[name_f]Cassandra[/name_f]: [name_f]Cassandra[/name_f] always reminds me of a mystical, magical sort of girl with long curly blonde hair. It is a pretty name.

[name_f]Celia[/name_f]: I think the Spanish pronunciation won’t come naturally to most people living in the US; most people will pronounce it see-lee-uh when they first see it. I don’t love the say-lee-uh pronunciation.

[name_f]Elena[/name_f]: I love [name_f]Elena[/name_f]! It is very pretty written and spoken and works well with both English and Spanish speakers.

[name_f]Giselle[/name_f]: I love [name_f]Giselle[/name_f] as well! It is very soft and elegant, and an overall beautiful name.

[name_f]Graciela[/name_f]: I only know one [name_f]Graciela[/name_f] and she is an older woman so it is a bit hard for me to picture it on a little girl. The sound is okay.

[name_f]Liliana[/name_f]: I think with so many different [name_f]Lily[/name_f] variants, [name_f]Liliana[/name_f] just seems to be another spelling of [name_f]Lilianna[/name_f]/[name_f]Lillianna[/name_f]/[name_f]Lilliana[/name_f]. However, I love [name_f]Lily[/name_f] and [name_f]Liliana[/name_f] has a pretty sound to it.

[name_f]Natalia[/name_f]: I think [name_f]Natalia[/name_f] is a perfect name in the sense that it is very easy and familiar for English speakers while also having Spanish roots. I really like it!

[name_f]Nayeli[/name_f]: I know a girl named [name_f]Nayeli[/name_f] who pronounces it “nay-ellie”, but “ny-ellie” is also a nice pronunciation. I think [name_f]Nayeli[/name_f] is beautiful! The meaning is another plus.

[name_f]Mariela[/name_f]: I like this better than [name_f]Graciela[/name_f] but still don’t REALLY like it.

Miria/[name_f]Mira[/name_f]: I like [name_f]Mira[/name_f]! But doesn’t “mira” mean “to see” in Spanish?

[name_f]Valeria[/name_f]: [name_f]Valeria[/name_f] seems more like an older-woman name to me, but it is pretty in sound.

My favorites from your list would have to be: [name_f]Adriana[/name_f], [name_f]Elena[/name_f], [name_f]Giselle[/name_f], [name_f]Natalia[/name_f] and [name_f]Nayeli[/name_f]!

3

[name_f]Liliana[/name_f] and [name_f]Mira[/name_f] get my vote

4

Thanks for the great feedback! Yes, you are right, [name_f]Mira[/name_f] is from the verb 'to look"
in spanish. Didn’t think of that! So that one is probably out.

5

I like [name_f]Camila[/name_f], [name_f]Elena[/name_f], and [name_f]Valeria[/name_f] best. Lots of beautiful names on your list!

6

We had same problem w our kids we needed names that were pronounced the same in both languages. Most of your names do not work except for [name_f]Nayeli[/name_f], [name_f]Liliana[/name_f] and [name_f]Natalia[/name_f]. What about [name_f]Violetta[/name_f]?

7

[name_f]Nayeli[/name_f] is a Zapotec name and I personally wouldn’t feel comfortable using that if my heritage were white Spanish and English. [name_f]Camila[/name_f] and [name_f]Giselle[/name_f] mostly get Latine usage and not so much in actual Spain. [name_f]Liliana[/name_f], [name_f]Graciela[/name_f] and [name_f]Mariela[/name_f] sound a tad dated to me from a Spanish pov, and [name_f]Cassandra[/name_f] is usually spelled with one S in Spanish. None of these should necessarily be dealbreakers for you tho, just pointing this out. I’ve always loved [name_f]Celia[/name_f] and [name_f]Natalia[/name_f] especially, beautiful and timeless names.

Some suggestions:

[name_f]Mireya[/name_f]
[name_f]Lucia[/name_f]
[name_f]Paloma[/name_f]
[name_f]Sofia[/name_f]
[name_f]Iris[/name_f]
[name_f]Ines[/name_f]
[name_f]Amalia[/name_f]
[name_f]Amaya[/name_f]
[name_f]Maria[/name_f]
[name_f]Lilia[/name_f]
[name_f]Noa[/name_f]
[name_f]Daniela[/name_f]
[name_f]Lara[/name_f]
[name_f]Victoria[/name_f]
[name_f]Valentina[/name_f]
[name_f]Alicia[/name_f]
[name_f]Alba[/name_f]
[name_f]Irene[/name_f]
[name_f]Diana[/name_f]
[name_f]Alexandra[/name_f]
[name_f]Alexia[/name_f]
[name_f]Elisa[/name_f]
[name_f]Lola[/name_f]
[name_f]Cecilia[/name_f]
[name_f]Catalina[/name_f]
[name_u]Carmen[/name_u]
[name_f]Carolina[/name_f]
[name_f]Sara[/name_f]
[name_f]Laura[/name_f]
[name_f]Amelia[/name_f]
[name_f]Olivia[/name_f]
[name_f]Julia[/name_f]
[name_f]Julieta[/name_f]

8

I like [name_f]Elena[/name_f], [name_f]Liliana[/name_f] and [name_f]Mira[/name_f]

9

[name_f]Celia[/name_f] and [name_f]Elena[/name_f] would be my picks. Beautiful names.

10

Beautiful selection.
I especially love [name_f]Adriana[/name_f], [name_f]Elena[/name_f], [name_u]Andrea[/name_u] and [name_f]Liliana[/name_f]

11

Finding a name that works in more than one language can be a challenge, but I think you have some very good choices!

Here are the names I think are the most intuitively similar in Spanish and English:
[name_f]Elena[/name_f]
[name_f]Liliana[/name_f]
[name_f]Natalia[/name_f] (in English the end is more -yah than -ia, though)
[name_f]Nayeli[/name_f] (I think in English people would say nay-ellie instead of ny-ellie, but its a simple correction)

Although there is a slightly different pronunciation of the names between English and Spanish, the differences are subtle.

As for the rest…
[name_f]Adriana[/name_f] - this is on the edge for me. I love the name, but in English people would pronounce the first syllable fairly differently, and while you could correct them, its a fairly glaring difference.

[name_u]Andrea[/name_u] - same as above. [name_u]Andrea[/name_u] is a gorgeous name, but Spanish ahn-DRAY-ah is quite different from AND-ree-uh or an-DRAY-uh

[name_f]Camila[/name_f] - [name_u]Cam[/name_u]-ILL-uh vs. cam-EE-lah. Depends on if that bothers you, and of course you could correct people.

[name_f]Cassandra[/name_f] - again, lovely, but cah-SAHN-drah vs. cah-SAND-ra

[name_f]Celia[/name_f] - seh-lee-ah (S) vs. cee-lee-uh or even ceel-yuh

[name_f]Giselle[/name_f] - for this one I am just not particularly fond, even though it is a nice name

[name_f]Graciela[/name_f] - In English this name does sound similar, but it sounds very garbled vs. lilting in Spanish

Miria/[name_f]Mira[/name_f] - doesn’t work in Spanish because of “mirar” the verb

[name_f]Valeria[/name_f] - I like this name in Spanish, but it has the double issues of how Vs are pronounced in Spanish and the fact that it definitely feels like a middle-aged name in the U.S.

All in all, if your first criteria is just a name that works really well in English and Spanish I think [name_f]Elena[/name_f] is your best bet. It is recognizable in both languages, pronounced nearly the name, and is a simple, timeless name. However, I think that most of your names do work to an extent, so if either don’t mind the English pronunciation or don’t mind correcting people, I would suggest [name_f]Adriana[/name_f]. It is a beautiful name, relatively uncommon but still recognizable, and I do think it crosses the language line with a significant amount of grace.

12

I don’t mind subtle differences in pronunciation like “Cassandra” (cah-SAHN-drah vs. cah-SAND-ra) although I realize some of the name pronunciations are not so subtle like “[name_f]Celia[/name_f]” (Sayleeuh vs Seeleeuh) My main concern is that the name be pronounceable in both languages (even though there may be subtle differences) and very importantly that the name sounds attractive and workable in the U.S. since that is where we live.