International boy names
This list is built on one principle rather than a mood: every name below is the same name as one of five English classics, translated into another language. Five roots, twenty-two passports.
John: Yahweh is gracious
Hebrew Yohanan is the most widely translated personal name on earth. Latin Iohannes seeded almost every European language, while Ethiopia took its version straight from Greek. English John is #23 in the U.S. and its medieval clipping Jack is #15, so the family is doing better in America than it looks.
- JuanHWAHNSpanish
God is gracious. Latin Iohannes reduced hard in Spanish, down to one syllable and an initial H sound that the spelling does not admit to.
- Ivanee-VAHNRussian
God is gracious. Church Slavonic Ioann became Ivan, and the name went on to be borne by six Russian rulers, Ivan the Terrible among them.
- SeanSHAWNIrish
God is gracious. Irish did not take John from Latin but from Norman French Jehan, which is why it begins with a sh and not a j.
- Giovannijoh-VAH-neeItalian
God is gracious. Four syllables where English has one, and the source of Gianni, Vanni and the surname-forming di Giovanni.
- Yohannesyo-HAH-nesAmharic
God is gracious. The Ethiopian church took the name straight from Greek rather than through Latin, and Emperor Yohannes IV ruled under it in the 1870s and 1880s.
James: the name that split in two
One Hebrew name, Ya'aqov, forked inside Latin. The learned form Iacobus stayed close to scripture and gave English Jacob; the spoken form Iacomus travelled into the Romance languages and gave English James by way of Old French. Every name below descends from one prong or the other, which is why Jacob and James are cousins rather than strangers.
- JaimeHIGH-mehSpanish
The Spanish James, from the colloquial Latin branch. Jaime I of Aragon took Valencia and Mallorca in the thirteenth century and is still called the Conqueror.
- GiacomoJAH-ko-moItalian
The Italian James, the heel-holder. Giacomo Puccini wrote Tosca and La Boheme under it.
- SeamusSHAY-musIrish
The Irish James. The Nobel laureate Seamus Heaney is the reason most English speakers can now pronounce it.
- JakubYAH-koopCzech
He grasps the heel. The Czech and Polish form, and the one that stayed closest to the Hebrew original.
- Thiagotee-AH-goPortuguese
Supplanter, or may God protect. Sliced off the end of Santiago, Saint James, and now a name in its own right; #50 in the U.S.
Michael: a question, not a statement
Hebrew Mikha'el asks who is like God, and the question mark survives every translation on this list. Michael was the number one boy name in the United States from 1954 to 1998, and it is #21 today.
- Miguelmee-GELSpanish and Portuguese
Who is like God? Miguel de Cervantes wrote Don Quixote, which is a reasonable claim on the name.
- Mikhailmee-kha-EELRussian
Who is like God? The everyday short form is Misha, which sounds nothing like the full name and confuses everyone the first time.
- Michelemee-KEH-lehItalian
Who is like God? A men's name in Italy, spelled almost exactly like the French women's name Michelle, which catches out English speakers constantly.
- MikkoMEEK-kohFinnish
Who is like God? Finnish takes Mikael and doubles the consonant, which is what Finnish does.
Peter: a translation before it was a name
The Gospels record Jesus renaming Simon with the Aramaic word kepha, rock. The writers then translated it into Greek as petros rather than transliterating it, so Peter arrived in the world as a common noun in disguise, and every language since has kept the meaning visible.
- PedroPEH-drohSpanish and Portuguese
Rock. The filmmaker Pedro Almodovar is the best-known modern bearer.
- PietroPYEH-trohItalian
Rock. Italian keeps the Latin vowel and breaks it into a glide, and the same name gives Pier and Piero.
- PetroPET-roUkrainian
Stone, rock. The Ukrainian form, distinct from Russian Pyotr in a way that matters to Ukrainians.
- BoutrosBOOT-rossCoptic
Rock. The Coptic and Arabic Peter, worn by the Egyptian diplomat Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who ran the United Nations in the 1990s.
Joseph: he will add
Yosef belongs to three scriptures at once: the patriarch of Genesis sold into Egypt, the carpenter of the Gospels, and the prophet Yusuf whose sura the Qur'an itself calls the most beautiful of stories. Joseph is #29 in the U.S. and has never left the top hundred in living memory.
- Josého-SEHSpanish and Portuguese
He will add, may God add another. #95 in the U.S., and the J is an H, which is the single most-missed pronunciation on this page.
- Yosefyo-SEFHebrew
He will add. The original, unchanged since Genesis and still the standard Israeli form.
- YusufYOO-sufArabic
He will add, may God increase. The Qur'anic prophet, whose sura the text itself calls the most beautiful of stories.
- YoussefYOO-sefEgyptian
The same Arabic name under the French-influenced spelling used across Egypt and the Levant: one name, two passports' worth of vowels.
Choosing a name across two languages
The first question is not which form is prettiest but which one survives contact with the country he will grow up in. A form travels well when the receiving language can produce it without being retrained: Juan, Pedro and Nico cross into English almost unchanged. Others lose something permanently in transit. The nasal diphthong at the end of Joao has no English equivalent, the fada in Sean is dropped by every American form, and Mikhail is routinely flattened to two syllables. None of that is a reason to avoid them; it is a reason to decide in advance whether you will spend his childhood correcting people, and to be at peace with the answer.
The second move is the split, and emigrant families have used it for as long as there have been emigrant families: put the international form first and the local form in the middle, or the reverse. Giovanni Peter and Peter Giovanni are the same compromise pointed in opposite directions, and both give him a name to hand over at customs and a name to hand over at school. Two smaller checks before you settle. Watch for a surname that doubles down on the same country, because Giacomo Giordano is a lot of Italy in one line. And if both sides of the family speak different languages, look for a name whose forms are cognates rather than translations, so that relatives on both sides recognise it without having to learn it. There is more on the pairing in the middle names guide, and the full set of national lists lives at names by origin.