sian.sesto.c

Ha ha!!! No worries!!!! Congratulations, when are you due? We went for easy names for our twins, names which could be pronounced easily on both sides of the family

K in Modena

Due mid-August, which should be "fun" with the heat but at least we have now moved to a place with air conditioning! Your twins' names are two of my favourites but my cousin is already Emma so no can do and I think DH has now got very attached to the idea of an exotic English name, so no Luca! Also my father-in-law wants us to call it after him if it's a boy, we don't want to, so it having an English name is the perfect excuse not to!

indiebird

Welcome Sian. This is a friendly forum so you will be okay with us lot!!

On the subject of names: mine is 'Mel' short for 'Melanie' but I get called 'Mary' a lot here they can't cope with Mel and I glare at people if I even think they are thinking of calling me 'Melanie' and I explain that only my mum and my nan call me that!! Kids names: Julia is alright although, she's just started to write at school and, of course she writes her name the English way which is then pronounced 'U-Lia' she really hates this and I think she now has her class trained to call her 'Giulia'. Harrison obviously wasn't the best choice. People think we named him after a washing machine i.e 'Ariston' so we are always explaining that it's like Harrison Ford and then the Italians are fine with it. The kids in his class can pronounce it with an 'H' as he has them all trained to.... drives him mad hearing 'Arrison' but at least there is only one of him!!

K in Modena

I had though about that with "Julia" too- perhaps another one to avoid then. It's funny though, there are plenty of "Jessica"s here and it gets pronounced just like it would in England, but I worked with a Josef pronounced Yosef. Right, so I'll avoid H, J, anything else??!!

indiebird

My friend (italian married to an Englishman) called her baby 'Sean' I think the italians manage quite well with it here although her English MIL was shocked that she chose such an ordinary name!! I think she was rather hoping for a more exotic 'Lorenzo' or something! What about William like 'prince william' that might work....

K in Modena

Not sure about William, although it is a family name. In France it inexplicably becomes "Williams" like the surname, which must be really annoying (and is very weird considering the French can't usually pronounce the final "s"), wonder if it would here too? My grandad was a William but known as Bill- however, Bill's already been done by my cousin! I bet if I called a child William people would be forever asking me if he was named after the prince (we ruled out Margaret, another family name, for similar reasons!)

indiebird

I really fancied 'Isabella' when Julia was born but my OH didn't like it... I also had Ruby on my list which he hated with a vengence!! He liked 'Sophie' which might work although you might have problems with the 'ph' in the middle! Boys names were always much harder for us. Harrison was the only one that we both liked when Harrison was born.... although he was named after George Harrison rather than Harrison Ford! Could you imagine if we'd called him 'Lennon'??!! i always fancied 'Rufus' or 'Jimmi' for a boy but they were waaay too 'out there' for Jamie's tastes.... Harrison had a boy in his class called 'Wilbert' in the UK.... poor kid.... he's known by everyone as 'Wil'!!

Lorna at Vicenza

We chose Chloe thinking it could be eaily pronounced by both sides of the family and by Italians. We didn't know anybody with kids then and never really knew that it's not used here at all - even if we had we'd probably still have chosen it anyway.
Some Italians tell us it's lovely. Some don't like it. Some ask if I chose that name coz I'm a foreigner. One miserable old git asked me why I gave such a beautiful girl such an awful name. One friend of Max's called her Clio for months and months until he finally got it right.
It took her Italian teacher lots of reminders to write it with an H even though she was seeing it on her school books every day.

Her English teacher was nice the other week. Told Chloe that she had a little present for her. She'd been shopping in a 'profumeria' and got given some free samples. One sample was a little bottle of Chloè perfume and she'd brought it to school for Chloe.

indiebird

That was lovely eh!? We know a few Chloes in the UK... the trouble I always have is that my parents bred dogs for a while and so I have known dogs called all the names other people suggested to me! Sophie for instance was a no-no because of that and so was Chloe. We also had a dog called 'Buffy' (the colour of her was Buff and we added the 'y' ourselves -imaginatinve eh??!! ) waaay before that annoying vampire slayer came out on the telly!!

Lorna at Vicenza

Funny things names aren't they and the connections you make. I would never have chosen certain names because of the connections to the nasty boy at school or the bitch girl or the horrible teacher etc.
I'm also very glad that Max never wanted to name our son after his dead dad. He was called Renato and although I don't hate it, I didn't want it for my baby.

K in Modena

I like "Isabella" too but my DH said he didn't like it, then forgot he'd said that and now says he does! He was the other way around with "Juliet"- he's saying he doesn't like it now! I like Isabel too, and Emily- I can't imagine Italians doing too much damage to those two! It'd probably be Eezabel but I can handle that! "Sofia" is nice but my sister-in-law considered it for her first so I wouldn't want her to think I was stealing her name for any future girl...
I have the same issues as Indiebird about boys names- most of the ones I like already belong to various cousins. I thought about Thomas (a rare occasion where the Italian inability to pronounce "th" would be a good thing!) although we'd no doubt have the same problems as Chloe with teachers omitting the "h"! Family members too no doubt, my father-in-law still insists on spelling my name "Ketrin"!
Hopefully we will find out the sex in two weeks' time which should help us focus on choosing a name!

That's very sweet of Chloe's English teacher, Lorna!

Lorna at Vicenza

I know an English girl that lives halfway up the mountain in a village that's even more tin-pot backwards than mine. Her two girls are called Charlotte and Isabel. Charlotte used to get pronounced Shar-lotttt but most people call her Lottie now as the family nickname for her has rubbed off onto other folks. Isabel was never a problem. I know some people asked if it was meant to be Isabella but the mother just kept saying "No, it's Isabel."

Yeah - the English teacher is nice. I think all the kids like her.

indiebird

Julia's middle name is 'Alice' ... you know how the Italians pronounce it...so I think you should rule that one out.... I noticed recently that Harrison's teachers have started to call him 'Harry' This is what we call him within the family although here I tend to stick to Harrison for him. He said that one started doing it as she has 'diminutivi' for a lot of the kids she likes in the class.... I thought it was dead sweet that she seems to have started it with him automatically... must mean that he really is behaving better!! The other one has started to do it too recently...

K in Modena

How is "Harry" pronounced though? I ruled it out as I thought it would end up as "Airy"!

indiebird

They kinda say 'Arry' here like any proper Londoner would really! Don't forget that they all know 'Harry Potter'