Oh, of course! Right, ruling out "A", "H", "J", "th" and any names linked to very famous people/characters! Are there any names left, do you think?! Maybe it'll decide to be a girl and make Mummy's life a bit easier...

I bet you can't wait for that scan. I remember walking out of the hospital with my OH after we found out that the second kid would be a boy. I asked him if he was pleased it was a boy - son and heir and all that stuff.
He said "I'm pleased there'll be no more bloody Barbies."
He's called Alex - nobody has any problems with that.

By avoiding "A" I guess I meant the "kEtrin" issue. Did some member of the royal family come over to Italy once and teach everyone that "a" is pronounced "e"?

Alex is a lovely name, but it's also the name of my nephew, and my husband is Alessandro. See what I mean about all the good names being taken?!

Really looking forward to the scan but I think its Daddy is the most excited! He wanted the midwife to tell us the other day (she has an ultrasound machine but it doesn't seem to be as powerful as the "proper" one) but she said she wasn't qualified. Both grannies are very excited to know too, so let's hope baby cooperates at the scan!

Don't forget you won't be allowed to call a girl Nicola or Andrea either, not that you might want to!

Indie, did you know Alice also means anchovy?!

No-one has a problem with Antonia, except it is the Italian equivalent of Freda or Ethel!! Lol! The Nonna's that are called Antonia love it!!

yeah but Alice name and alice anchovy are pronounced differently.

Have any of Antonia's school mates tried to give her a nickname like Tony or Tonia or Anton?

Hi everyone, Hope you don,t mind me butting in!! My OH is called Massimiliano we did think about Max(as he gets called here but gets the full blown name in Italy!) but one was enough!. I've got a Lucas (loved Luca but thought Lucas sounded more english,). a Harris (did not realise the 'H' thing till after so he is Arris in Italy) and for my last son we went for a real Scottish Gregor just because is starts with a G as our surname starts with G. Saying that it took us a whole 9 months to come up with these names. Harris was a Daniel for 24 hours after he was born! Our friends in Italy are having a Nicolo in a few weeks, not sure about that one. Good luck with your pregnancy.

We named our son Raphael (which obviously the Italians hear as "Raffaele" until we correct them). We didn't tell anyone our name choice until he was born. The first time I spoke to my mother-in-law, a couple of hours after Raphael was born I said "so do you like the name?", there was a pause of about 20 seconds and then she replied "well I always liked Eduardo!", WHATEVER

ohhhh now Gregor is nice! Are English peeps really allowed to use Scottish names though!!?? Julia was known as 'Tiger Everest' for a week after she was born as we couldn't decide (we never wanted to know the sex but we assumed she was going to be a boy for some weird reason) on a name. Jamie and I both brought a baby naming book each and kept compiling lists and then comparing and guffawing at each other's lists... she was nearly 'Maddeline' before I decided that I didn't like the shortenings of 'Mads' or 'Maddie' (knew a maddie when I was younger who was a right cow!!) and the last list I had 'Juliet' and Jamie had 'Julia' and he said 'Well I can cope with Juliet' and I looked at him and said 'well actually I prefer Julia' and Julia it was... I call her 'Jude' at home and Jamie calles her 'Jules' but loads of people thought it was a weird choice for a baby though for some reason.... ... my sister kept trying to convince me to call her 'Hermione' as she was reading a Harry Potter book at the time.... but I'm glad we didn't.... could you imagine the Italians with that??!!

Classic!!!!! I love the name Raphael by the way.... families are weird aren't they??!!

When I had the 20 week scan for my two, we were told they were both boys so we decided on the names Leonardo and Sebastian. At the 30 week scan I was told that infact one was a girl, so we changed names altogether and ended up with emma and luca, short and sweet! I know three people who have had boys in the last couple of months and all three have called them Leonardo! Emma was also very popular in 2007 when mine were born but we didn't know that until it was too late!

One of my boy names i liked was Thomas, also quite easy to pronounce. Popular english names over here are also Michael, Oscar, William and Kevin (after Costner) !!

Thanks Indiebird..........my partner's family are weirder than most unfortunately!

Malcesine: Max is another great name which has already been done by another cousin! lol.
Stellina: Raphael is lovely but the dreaded father-in-law is called Raffaele and I refuse to name my child after him as he is a very difficult man! (And anyway, who drops into the conversation that they would like you to name your child after them?!)
Sian: Thomas is one of my possibles. I just have issues with already knowing someone by that name but may be able to get over it! My dad's name is Michael but in any case one of the Grande Fratello finalists was called "Maicol" (what on earth...?) and I couldn't bear people thinking that was my baby's name!
I like George (although it's mega-popular in the UK at the moment I think) and it was my grandad's middle name but again, a real idiot in Grande Fratello had that name! (Sorry- we don't have Sky so our only option is rubbish Italian telly!)

I totally agree re: the father-in-law thing. A friend of mine is married to a Calabrian guy (v. strong traditional family values) and basically she had no choice. When they found out at the scan that the baby was a boy he was always going to be Vincenzo after her father-in-law, end of discussion

Yes, my in-laws are from Basilicata so I guess it's similar. I don't hold with having no choice though. RESIST!

If necessary I shall tell him that in Britain we only name people after deceased relatives (he's never been there and doesn't speak English so I can make up any rules as desired!)

I was Geraldine until I got to Italy. The employee at the local anagrafe registered me as Gerardine, refused to accept he had made a mistake and I am now officially that on all my documents. I was told I could change it ... if I went through a court case and proved I was really Geraldine. It seem too much hassle at the time, I knew very little Italian and needed Italian residency to work. Everyone calls me Dina anyway ...