Forums Raising Bilingual & Multicultural KidsNaming our baby has turned into a whole family debate lol

Naming our baby has turned into a whole family debate lol

17 posts

I’m due in June and my boyfriend is Haitian, I’m Mexican-American, and we’re stuck on baby names already. We want something that works in both families, but every name we like seems to get weird reactions from somebody. His mom wants something clearly Creole, my dad keeps pushing for a Spanish name, and we both just want something our kid won’t have to explain every five seconds. We live in Chicago, so I know kids here hear all kinds of names, but I still worry about pronunciation and whether we’re setting them up for a lifetime of corrections. We’re also thinking about using both grandmothers’ names somewhere in the middle name spot. Did anyone else have this big of a mess when choosing a name? How did you land on one without upsetting everybody?

Mar 13

118

2 replies

connor odeaVIPADMIN

#1 · Mar 13

Yep, went through this in Houston and it got weird fast. My wife is Filipina and I’m Black, and both families had opinions for days. We ended up choosing a first name that was easy in both languages and gave our son two middle names, one from each side. That honestly saved us because everyone felt included, even if they didn’t get their top choice. One thing we did was test the name out loud in different accents and with the full last name, not just on paper. Some names looked great but sounded clunky once we said them out loud ten times. Also, a name that people may mispronounce once in a while isn’t the end of the world. Kids get used to correcting folks way faster than adults do.

Chris Tanaka

#2 · Mar 14

I’m probably in the minority, but I think it’s okay if the name leans a little more one way, as long as you’re intentional about the rest of the identity stuff. My daughter has a Swahili first name and a very Irish last name, and people always ask questions. At first I hated that, but now I kind of like that her name opens the door to talking about both sides of her family. If you’re worried about the grandparents, maybe frame it like the name is the first of many traditions, not the only one. We did a small naming ceremony at my aunt’s house in Miami with both families on video call, and that made people feel included even though they weren’t getting the exact name they wanted. Sometimes the emotional part matters more than the actual syllables.