Reading about this kind of tradition got me thinking: do anyone name their children with phonetic names? I mean, names that can be read the same in several languages. For example: English-Spanish, French-English, etc. Is there a tradition on that?
I was named Roland because it exists in both Romanian (my mother's family) and Hungarian (dad's family). It's not pronounced exactly the same (the a is different), but it's easy enough for all grandparents. And I even learned both languages, much to the relief of my grandparents.
But I was almost named Julian, because my dad had the idea for Roland only when checking me out from maternity.
Yep, this is something my fiancé and I are actively planning for at the moment.
In her culture and language, having a native-sounding name provides an individual with all the societal advantages as a default. Conversely, possessing a non-native name, regardless of citizenship status, invariably leads to the perception of being a foreigner. This results in assumptions about language proficiency and a constant exceptionality.
So, we are deciding on names for our future children that would resonate as "native" in both English and her mother tongue.
