Naming the Bilingual Child

One of the first difficulties in bringing up a bilingual child is what to name him or her. Do you give them a name from the country in which you are living, a name from your native country or a name that exists or is similar in both countries. We opted for the latter as we wanted a name that would be fairly easy for both families to pronounce and that was spelt and pronouced similarly in both languages, which is not easy to find, believe me!

What became clear is that it is much easier to find girls´ names that are similar in both languages than boys´names. Girls´ names that we liked were Rebecca/Rebeca and Chloe, which although not very common in Spain is pronounced quite similarly.However, I later found out that in Spain it is often spelt Cloe! Boys´names we liked were Thomas/Tomás although we preferred the English pronunciation to the Spanish pronunciation, which stresses the last syllable much more and I liked Isaac although my husband wasn´t keen. As I had a daughter, we finally decided on Chloe so Chloe it is! The only problem with the name Chloe is older Spanish people don´t know whether it is a boy or girls´ name and sometimes people get confused and have called her Cleo! Here are some links of names for those of you who are also trying to find a name that is suitable and easy in both languages:

http://www.babynames.com/

http://www.babycentre.co.uk/babyname/