Mariana writes:<\/p>\n
I am writing to enlist your help in search of the perfect international boy’s name.<\/p>\n
I live in Brazil and I am expecting my first, a boy, in September. My husband is also Brazilian. Growing up, I lived in Chile, England and Brazil, and through travel and studies became fluent in French, Spanish and English. As an adult, I spent 15 very happy years in New York, where I built a good career for myself as a graphic designer, and created strong and lasting friendships. I have since relocated to Brazil, but I go back very often, for work, and to see friends. I aso travel extensively for work in Europe, Canada and the rest of the US, and my husband and I have friends in many places. We truly feel the world is a small place and we hope our boy will grow up to be quite a traveller himself. In fact, we plan on enrolling him in a bi-lengual school as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
With such an international lifestyle, I have always wanted a name that could work in English, French and Spanish, and of course our native Portuguese. By that I mean a name that could be understood and pronouced easily in any one of those languages, withouth spelling changes or adaptations. And which doesn’t feel immediately “foreign” in other countries.<\/p>\n
For girls it was easy – Julia, Helena, Olivia and Alma were at the top of our list. For boys, however, we’re stumped. There’s Gabriel and Daniel (far too many around us already), Oscar (a little odd here in Brazil, and doesn’t go with our last names), and the only one we like, Bruno. My favorite boy’s name, the one closest to my heart, is Pedro – but that has such immediate “latino” implications, which is exactly what I don’t want. I also tend to like short names, rather than longer ones.<\/p>\n
To further complicate matters, I have a Rumanian last name, Ochs, and my husband an Italian one, Corsi. We find them impossible to combine! My husband’s name is Gustavo (which we have to shorten to Gus when we’re in the US), and he has a 7-year-old son from his previous marriage named Artur (Brazilian spelling for Arthur).<\/p>\n
Any suggestions would be tremendously appreciated!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Are you sure there are too many Daniels for your tastes? It has all the hallmarks of a great name: long roots, good nickname, flexible image (that is, it doesn’t call to mind any particular type of person\/profession), easy to spell and pronounce. It works with both surnames, and also with the name Artur.<\/p>\n
Gabriel, too, seems like an excellent choice: the long roots! the good nickname! the flexible image! good with the surnames and sibling name! Popular names, yes, but a GOOD kind of common: timeless, enduring, classic, traditional—never-wear-out kinds of names. More than two kids named Maverick in town and things get a little awkward, but you can easily have a couple of Daniels or Gabriels in every classroom.<\/p>\n
For further suggestions, I have to turn to my readers: I’ve never even been out of my own country, except for brief drives through Canadian customs and right back out again. I’m hoping some of you are more well-traveled than I, and can offer some helpful suggestions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mariana writes: I am writing to enlist your help in search of the perfect international boy’s name. I live in Brazil and I am expecting my first, a boy, in September. My husband is also Brazilian. Growing up, I lived in Chile, England and Brazil, and through travel and studies became fluent in French, Spanish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3iyiG-1Sj","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swistle.com\/babynames\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}