Naming Your Spanish-American Baby

 

Naming Your Spanish-American Baby

 

Nora, Leo, Teo, Emma. What do these names all have in common? They are easy for people to pronounce in Spanish and in English.

 

When naming your Spanish-American baby, I think it’s common to consider a list of names that work in English and Spanish. But not us. We went full Spanish on Don Loco’s name. I figured Americans can learn any name. I’d rather my kid have a very Spanish name to start with, and if he wants an English nickname well, he can rename himself.

 

It was important to me that Don Loco have the same name in Spanish and English. In America, you can name your kid whatever. But in Spain, if there’s a Spanish equivalent, you have to name your kid that. It’s hard enough to have two nationalities, I didn’t want things to get confusing with Elizabeth Jones vs Isabel Jones Smith.

 

Spaniards also don’t have middle names. Double-barreled first names? Yes, María del Mar. José Francisco. There seems to be a lot of angst about middle names in the US, but I am a simple person, so no middle name for Don Loco, either.

 

Another note about Spanish baby names:

 

Maybe it’s the people I know, but it seems common in Spain to announce the name of your kid before he/she is born. Like people announce their kid’s name at the same time that they announce their pregnancy.

 

In the US, the advice seems to be, don’t tell anyone your baby’s name before they are born, because you don’t want people weighing in on the name choice. 

 

Click here for this article in Spanish  (Trying something new! I'll translate some of my posts into Spanish.)