Ilan
It's a boys name, means 'tree' in Hebrew
I've posted (sporadically) about our name issues before: I'm Jewish and DH is hispanic. Our last name is hispanic. We're struggling with names that reflect both of our cultures. He actually came up with this one and loves it. I like it, but don't love it. I think he's just going to say it so often that I eventually give in!
Re: How would you pronounce this?
TTC#1!
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I would say EE-lahn
I know a lot of people with hispanic last names who have Biblical first names. Maybe look at the names from the Torah? Or look up the names of Sephardic Jews (from the Iberian peninsula)?
ETA: https://www.gaminggeeks.org/Resources/KateMonk/Europe-Western/Spain/Biblical.htm
From that site I like Adan (Spanish Adam), Josue (Spanish Joshua), Mateo, Elia
Exactly like the Top Chef winner!
Biblical names are definitely on the list -- Eli, Elijah, Elias, Isaac -- to name a few. If I could only convince him to like Rafael/Raphael!
I've looked at some sephardic or Ladino names, but I don't love any of them. I feel like none of them look like me -- they all somehow still look only like DH. The baby will always carry his hispanic last name. I'd like the first name to look a little more american-ized. And DH is ok with that. He just doesn't want the first name to sound ridiculous in Spanish (or with the last name). For example we could do a biblical name but not something like Parker (first name that came to mind -- I know someone who just had a Parker).
A lot of my Latino students have Spanish proper names, but go by an Americanized version (Azucena is Susie, Gerardo is Jerry, Marcos is Mark, that kind of thing). Possible compromise?
I love Raphael. My student goes by Rafa. (so that's sort of the opposite, a Biblical name with a more Spanish sounding nickname). I also like Tomas, Lucas, Noe, Ruben and Moises, which all have English counterparts you could use. Saul is spelled the same way in English and Spanish, but is pronounced differently.
I know a lot of hispanic Davids.
LOVE Elias.
To be honest, I had NO idea how to pronounce Ilan. And it's been a loooong time since I've seen a name that I didn't know how to pronounce.
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I'm not familiar with this name, so just my guess would be eye-lann.
Ee-lann sounds nice, too though!