My wife and I have agreed on a baby girl's name, but we disagree strongly on the spelling.
Our child will be Italian American and have my Italian surname, and therefore, I prefer Giulia. Also, my wife and I both have names that start with G, so I think it would be neat if our daughter's name started with G too.
My wife is strongly opposed to Giulia but is 100% on board with Julia. She argues that people will not be able to pronounce Giulia, and my surname is difficult enough as it is. She also feels that Giulia is too unconventional for an American child (albeit one who is of Italian descent, who will attend Italian language school, and who will hopefully spend a great deal of time in Italy).
I prefer Julia. I think it would be very annoying to have to continually correct people and spell it correctly for them. I do like the thought of sticking with her Italian heritage though.
Just like our Joseph will be Joseph rather than the German Josef. I don't want to set my child up for a lifetime of correcting the spelling of an otherwise common name in America.
I vote Julia. I have 2 children with unusual names and people destroy their names constantly, even though you can just sound them out. In retrospect i would have given them easier names. Giulia will have that same problem, i would pronounce it Gee-ooh-lee-ah ? If i read it.
As someone with a name that has stumped people my whole life, in both spelling and pronunciation (it's Chelsea...not hard, you'd think!!) go with Julia. People in general, unfortunately, just don't understand the difficult spelling and will butcher it her whole life.
Hi! I'm going to say that you should go with Giulia. I am Nigerian American and I fully intend on giving my child an Igbo (my tribe) name that Americans may find "hard to pronounce." Celebrate your culture and go with your gut instinct. There will be people who are smart enough to say Giulia, and considerate enough to ask politely how to say it if they don't kniw. If you were living in Italy i bet you would not be having this conversation with your wife. Culture is too important - don't choose the way you spell your child's name based on what [some] Americans can and cannot say. If an American can say Schwarzenegger or Tchaikovsky, they can say GIULIA!!!! ❤❤❤❤
Hi! I'm going to say that you should go with Giulia. I am Nigerian American and I fully intend on giving my child an Igbo (my tribe) name that Americans may find "hard to pronounce." Celebrate your culture and go with your gut instinct. There will be people who are smart enough to say Giulia, and considerate enough to ask politely how to say it if they don't kniw. If you were living in Italy i bet you would not be having this conversation with your wife. Culture is too important - don't choose the way you spell your child's name based on what [some] Americans can and cannot say. If an American can say Schwarzenegger or Tchaikovsky, they can say GIULIA!!!! ❤❤❤❤
True, it only takes being corrected once to remember how to pronounce it, it's not hard to say, I had a client who's name was spelt that way and I just said "how do I pronounce your name" because I had no clue, it's not that hard. once you know you know.
We my husband and I were deciding on names and spellings if one person was strongly opposed then it was dropped. It has to be a compromise since it is their child too. If one parent is adamantly opposed that should be respected, and move on to a different name or spelling.
Re: Julia versus Giulia
Just like our Joseph will be Joseph rather than the German Josef. I don't want to set my child up for a lifetime of correcting the spelling of an otherwise common name in America.
DD2 8.22.13
MMC 1.4.17 at 16w
Expecting #3, EDD 1.29.18
older siblings: ds 16 dd 14 ds 13 dd 11 dd 7