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Spanish vs. Trendy Conflict... Need Help!
My husband is Latino (from Honduras) and we'd both like to honor our baby's roots by giving him/her a Spanish name. Our interests TOTALLY conflict, as I like trendy/unique names as well as surnames, while my husband likes traditional Spanish names. As a compromise, I'd like to hyphenate a Spanish name with something American for the first name. I need suggestions as to what might go together-- keep in mind that I like trendy and unique.
LN: SantosSpanish names I thought were kinda cute:
GIRLS- Adriana, Clara, Lidia, Lourdes, Lucia, Melania, Nadia, Natalia, Olivia, Valencia, Victoria
BOYS- Diego, Donato, Mateo, Solomon, TristanEnglish/Irish surnames I like:
Aidan, Ainsley, Aubrey, Brady, Brennan, Delaney, Emerson, Logan, Mason, Quinlan, SpencerMy DREAM first names for a girl were "Spencer-Kate" or "Delaney"
For a boy I loved "Aidan" For a compromise name I'd pick something like "Lucia-Paige" (perhaps call her "Lucy" for short) or "Diego-Quinn" for a boy.ANYONE HAVE IDEAS??? OPEN TO ALL SUGGESTIONS-- THE MORE, THE BETTER!
THANKS EVERYONE! :)
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In my opinion, Mateo is a beauty...WOW.
-Mix and match Mateo with any appropriate name from your english list and you will have a keeper.
Mateo Santos sounds great!
*Mateo can also be shortened to nn "Teo" (Tay-oh)"Tay" which may satisfy your desire for a more conventional english-sounding name.For girls, Natalia ("Talia" or "Lia") and Valencia are gorgeous.
Santos is such a lovely last name. Very soft and whispery.--lucky child.
Most combos will sound very nice with it.I think you have a fabulous start with your selections...play around with them and you will know the right choice when the time comes.
Try doodling different name combos and saying them aloud, then envision your future child/ren.
It worked for me!
Behind every Bush is a terrorist...
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LOL... Mateo is my favorite too! Unfortunately, any fan of the soap opera "All My Children" will notice that Mateo Santos is the name of one of the characters on the show (Kelly Ripa's hubby)... Do you think it's still ok to use the name? I feel like I'd be obligated to explain that I didn't choose the name because of the show, and that would be annoying. However-- if I hyphenate it with something English, I think people will be less likely to notice the fact that he shares a name with a TV character... what do you think?
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Well, I don't watch soaps (...except for Coronation Street!!!---)I really don't think the shared name matters a bit in this case.-Why not?
Because... A: Currently, only a percentage of individuals you (or this child) will encounter in life will know about this soap character/talk show host's hubby.B:On the show that character will inevitably...

1.Be kidnapped by an evil twin
2.Die in a fiery crash
3.Be shot to death by an obsessed stalker
4.Disappear somewhere over the Bermuda Triangle
5.Get a sex change and become Matea (...or all of the above! :P )At any rate, "Mateo Santos" will be long forgotten when the character is written out of the script.
Trust me!--The fruit of your womb, however,
will exude such wonderful influence in the lives of friends, loved ones and co-workers, the name will soon become synonymous with one character and one character only
...Your future son!That said,
in the event pop-culture has ruined the name for you,
go ahead and combine Mateo with an english name from your list.
It is such a gorgeous name, and will flow with almost anything, in my opinion...Here are some I personally love:Mateo Sebastian Santos
Mateo Jude Santos
Mateo Elijah Santos*I could list all day...it is just such a gorgeous name.
I have that name on my own fave. list, but alas...
my babies are so fair haired/fair skinned they are almost albino!
If they had dark hair,or a more exotic heritage I would have loved to use that name.
...to me, is just a name way more suited to a person with brown or black hair(*I feel the same about the name Luca ). ****Oh yes!
BTW,
I too, appreciated your response to MY comments!
Have a GREAT day!!:)
Behind every Bush is a terrorist...

This message was edited 11/9/2005, 8:33 AM

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You are a RIOT, girl! lol... I think the character has died, come back to life, and placed in the witness protection program! (In which case, they should have CHANGED his name! hehehe) I saw "Luca" for the first time today, somewhere on this forum... I love it! I think you and I have similar taste in names, as I love all your combos... I think Mateo Sebastian is my favorite combo :)
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Stick with the spanish roots. It is a very beautiful thing to do for a child. I LIKE:
---------
Victoria for a girl.
Mateo for a boy
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I have a closet hyphen fetish (sshh! don't tell anyone here or I'll be mocked, lol), so I think your names are pretty cute. I came up with a couple of combos you might like (although I personally am not into trendy surnamey fns).Elena - Logan, nn Laney (FYI, I actually knew a girl whose fn was Delaina & it has that hispanic "feel" to it; you could play with spellings until you found something you like -- although you didn't hear that from me, lol)
Tristan - Aubrey (could work for either sex as I know girls w/the names Tristan & Aubrey)
Ariceli - Peyton
Clara - Ainsley
Lidia - Bailey
Lourdes - Avery
Melania - Sydney
I know you said you liked Aidan, but Adrian is Spanish & sounds very similar; would you be open to using that as a fn?
Adrian - Connor
Donato - Quinn (I just prefer it to Diego-Quinn)
Diego - Mason
Mateo - Brennan
Solomon - Brady (Don't ask me why, but I really like these two together)
Jose - Emerson (Again, I don't know why, but I like these together & Jose wasn't even one of your suggestions)
Anyway, I hope you can come up with a combo you both love. :o)
edited: formatting
"I can't say I was ever lost, but I was bewildered once for three days." -Daniel Boone, American explorer

This message was edited 11/8/2005, 11:53 AM

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Yay! Someone who shares the admitted hyphen fetish! Feels good to be out of the closet... I replied to someone else's post a few minutes ago, fully taking responsibility for having a guilty pleasure concerning a certain punctuation mark... lol.Love your combos... I do really like Bailey. I don't know how that missed my surname list! I love surnames, but not super-overused ones like Taylor, Jackson, McKenzie, etc... but in combination with another name and a hyphen, I am considering names like "Paige" and "Brady," which wouldn't normally strike my fancy on their own. ALSO, I will have to run "Delaina" by my hubby tonight! THAT is BRILLIANT. Delaina sounds quite Spanish... I mean, I know his relatives could pronounce it... I just MIGHT be able to get away with naming a girl "Delaney" if I tell my husband that he and the other Spanish relatives could call her "Delaina." I mean, my name is Noelle, but they have trouble saying it, so the call me "Noelia" and it doesn't bother me at all.
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Ezmerleda I like that name
"I want to drown you in all the tears you swore i'd never cry"

Melanie


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I'm with your husband. The Spanish names (or other traditional names) will stand the test of time. The trendy ones will be as stale tomorrow as Wendy, Arlene and Bambi are today. ~~shudders~~Are there any other Spanish/traditional names you might like? Perhaps a traditional name with a cute, more trendy sounding nn. Some of my favorites:Esperanza, nn Espie (I know one. The nn fits her to a tee.)
Maria, nn Mia or Mimi
Elena, nn Lanie
Mercedes, nn Mercy or Sadie
Rosa, nn Rosie
Josefina, nn Josie*
Jacinta, nn Jacie*
Alicia, nn Allie
Celia
Cecilia, nn Cece/Cici
Lourdes, nn Lulu
Lucia Kate, nn Lucy (why torture Lucia with a contrived Paige stuck on the end? A separate mn like Kate works much better.)
Estella, nn Ellie
Lilia, nn Lily
Leonor, nn Nora
Caterina, nn Cat
Catalina, nn Cat or Lina
*I know, the Spanish "j" is different, but I'm looking for a happy middle ground here.)
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LOVE Celia, but he hates it! :PI like Lourdes... Madonna's girl's name is Lourdes, and she is called Lola for short. I think that's precious.Lucia Kate is wonderful... I've seen a lot of people leaning toward that combo.Someone also gave me a suggestion for Catalina Spencer, nn Cate. Now that is precious...Like you, I think some trendy names wear out their welcome... I guess I kinda see it like this. Trends die, but surnames are classics also. I think some surnames can be too "cutesy," but I also believe that some will stand the test of time, just like first names "Elizabeth" or "Matthew."
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Thanks for the feed back. It's so much nicer when people respond as you are doing.
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I forgot about the boy namesI like Diego, Mateo and Tristan. I didn't know that Tristan is a Spanish as well. Thanks for the info.Others you might like as well: Adrian, Joaquin, Enrique, Marco, Javier / Xavier, Francisco.
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Hope this helps you! :)First of all,I love Lucia-Paige for a little girl, it's so cute! I'm not fond of Diego-Quinn but I like the Quinn part so I'll play with that a little. I love the name Aidan for a boy!Adriana-Paige is very cute, or what about Adriana-Kate?
Lidia-Paige is so cute! Lidia-Kate is als cute. Victoria-Paige? is Victoria considered Spanish/Latino? Hmm...come to think of it, is Lidia? Nadia-Kate? Clara-Paige?Tristan-Quinn is really cute for a boy! Mateo-Quinn is also really cute! Spencer-Mateo, Spencer-Diego? I like Spencer for a boy more than for a girl! Brady-Diego? Aidan-Diego, Aidan-Mateo, Aidan-Donato?
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Well, a lot of these names are taken from other languages (namely Italian) and they are commonly utilized as Spanish names... this makes sense, since Spain is so close to Italy! A lot of these names are spelled the same both in English AND in Spanish, but pronounced quite differently. Like you, I LOVE Lidia. Nadia is my fave, but I'm scared to use it because one of my (non-spanish) girlfriends already did-- only she spells it "Naudea" (GROSS!!! lol) Thanks for your help! I really liked your name combos!
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That is a problem...don't you hate you can't just name your baby what you'd like...you have to compromise. Yuck! :)I like: Adriana, Lucia, Natalia, Olivia
Diego, Mateo, Tristan*I don't think any of the girls names are so Spanish you need to hyphenate. I really don't care for hyphenated names and feel like it's a bit pretensious...like people are trying to squeeze in 2 names they love so much they can't just pick one and it comes off sounding a bit too much.*I have met a couple Diegos and I kind of like it. Mateo and Tristan are probably my favorite and "less Spanish" and less unique in most circles so might be understood and accepted a bit better.*I think the best thing is to either pick a Spanish first name you agree on (or middle name) and a trendy one you like and use it as first/middle instead of hyphenated.With that said, some of the names on your list I like are: Aidan, Aubrey, Brennan and Mason*While Lucia Paige sounds pretty I don't like them hyphenated and squished together. I'd rather see it as fn/mn. Like Diego Quinn...fn/mn. Just not liking the hyphens.
***I think you've got some GREAT options that work together...I just say skip the hyphens and figure which you like best for the fn and use the other as the mn....speaking as a mother of a 2.5 year old...trust me, you'll get lots of opportunity to call out both names, not just the first name! :)
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You caught me! I have a fetish with hyphens! I have 2 middle names (as do my 4 sisters) but they are not hyphenated. I always wished they were, because having two middle initials was always so much trouble! (You run into SO many more problems than could be imagined, and having a hyphenated middle name would have solved a lot of the problems!) I also live in the South, and I've noticed that hyphenating is kind of the "thang" down here. Katie-Jane, Gracie-Ann, Laura-Jean... but now that you mention it, I could kinda see how hyphenation could seem snooty...I am REALLY greedy when it comes to names-- I love so many! I want at least one of my children to have three names because it is a family tradition.... at the same time, I don't want to seem stuck-up, so maybe I'll sacrifice and go with two names (F&M) lol...
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Hmm.... perhaps you could go with Catalina nn Cate or something of that nature? Catalina Spencer nn Cate. Or Elena nn Laynie (similiar to Delaney, in many ways).Hmm... boys, you could always just go with Tristan or Adrian, or anything name that sounds very English but is technically Spanish, too.Arcadia
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LOVE Catalina Spencer... Cate for short! Thank you!
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I think that a lot of the Spanish names that you like are perfect just the way they are without hyphenating....I like:
Adriana
Lidia
Lucia
Nadia
Natalia
Olivia
Diego
Mateo
TristanProud Mama to Phoenix, Nolan, and coming soon baby Wyatt!
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You're right... I just have to find one that REALLY jumps out at me... I have a lot more time to look!
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