A reader named Tamara is expecting a baby boy in May. She writes:
We are a bi-racial couple…he is Mexican and I am American (white), and are looking for a Spanish name for our little boy. Unfortunately, I don’t LOVE a lot of the Hispanic boy names, and we are having some trouble finding the perfect name.
So far, she and her fiance Oscar like the names Tiago and Gabriel…but here are the issues:
We need a good middle name to go with Tiago. And we haven’t gotten a lot of positive feedback on the name. And I feel like Gabriel is overused and doesn’t hold its own when paired with our daughter’s name, Nadia. And the two names don’t exactly flow well together, so pairing them up isn’t an option for us. Any suggestions? Middle names for Tiago? Or just different first names all together?
Here are some thoughts on Tiago and Gabriel:
- Nicknames (e.g. Benji, Topher, Xander) sometimes loose their charm when used as standalone names, so people might like Tiago more if it were a nickname for Santiago. Santiago is currently ranked 200th, but I don’t think it will rise too much higher.
- How about Diego? It’s not as hip as Tiago…but it’s got a similar sound, and, because it’s more familiar, it’ll probably get better feedback. In terms of popularity, Diego seems to be plateauing just outside the top 50.
- I think Gabriel sounds fantastic with Nadia, personally. But it’s become popular recently (i.e. over 10,000 babies have been named Gabriel every year since 2001) and my hunch is that it will remain popular for a while to come. So I can understand wanting to avoid it for that reason.
Let’s see, middle names for Tiago…I think iambic names like Ramón, Raúl and Noé sound good after Tiago. I also like longer middles (e.g. Antonio, Mauricio).
Here are a few other ideas for first names:
| Armando Arturo Elías Iván | Lorenzo (Enzo) Marcelo Mateo Rafael | Renato Silvio Ulises Víctor |
What other advice/suggestions would you offer Tamara?
I was just thinking this morning that I really like the name Rafael/Raphael. How about some others that might feel comfortable to Spanish ears but a little more interesting to English ears:
Adrián
Alejo
Andres (stress on e)
Carmelo
Cesar (stress on e)
Eladio
Leandro
Matias (stress on i)
Pascual
Rainerio
Teodoro (Teo)
Some of these work as a mn for Tiego, e.g., Tiego Cesar, Tiego Pascual.
FWIW, I also like Gabriel with Nadia.
I really like Mateo.
Tiago Alejandro
Tiago Alexavier
Taigo Luis
thinking give him Cortez means “conqueror”.
Gor The name Miguel a derivative of Michael, meaning “to know God”.
regard
Aluk Care
Hi, all! I posted this post back in March of 2009, so it’s been over 3 years now so I thought I would update with what we actually named our son, . . . Tiago Gabriel. At first, as mentioned above, I did not like the two names together but as we got to the hospital for delivery we still did not have a middle name but knew that his first name would be Tiago! I wanted to name our son Tiago Alexander but my husband liked Tiago Mateo, so we comprimised and chose Gabriel, afterall it was the second choice for his first name. It all worked out great we still love his name! We do have some problems with people pronouncing his name wrong, mostly it’s people calling him Tee-Ay-Go or Ty-go (go figure).