Your favourite names (in any language)

[Levo]

'Réka' sounds a little like 'Rekha', which is a female name in India.
Hmmm...I also love Hungarian names. 'Ákos' and 'András' are probably my favourites - they sound really cool and exotic to me.
I once met a German guy named Mirko - I thought that was the coolest name ever! I believe the name is originally South Slavic, right?

Nice to meet you, I'm Levente

Szia Levente!

I second linguanima - your name rules. I've heard a similar Turkish name, Levent, and I'm wondering if it's at all related to your name. Cause I know of a few Hungarian names with Turkish origins, such as Zoltán and Ákos. Hope you don't mind me asking.

And yes, I'm in love with the Hungarian language, and am currently attempting to learn it. Don't ask me why I chose that one, of all languages, especially given that I'm not Hungarian myself, nor have I ever been to Hungary. (I'm Canadian, orignally from India, and people already think I'm weird because I speak German)

In that meaning we're all weird over here at unilang.

As for my name, I've already heard about the Turkish Levent as well, but my name meant 'being'/'existing' in ancient Hungarian since it came from the word "lenni" - "to be". And our word "lenni" comes from Finno-Ugrian origin ("olla" in Finnish, but all infinitives end with "-ni" in for example Komi language as well as in Hungarian, so their word for "to be" must be more obviously similar than the Finnish one)
So, it means, my name comes from Finno-Ugrian origin.
Note that our conquistador, Árpád who lead Hungarians into the Carpathian-basin around 895 had a son called Levente.
By the way my brother's name is "Endre" and Turks have "Ender" but again, his name comes from András, which came from Germanic "Andreas".
It would be really interesting to know the origins of the two mentioned Turkish names.
Sorry, it was pretty long.

P.S. I'm glad you are interested in learning Hungarian. I help you pleasantly.

[linguanima]

By the way my brother's name is "Endre" and Turks have "Ender" but again, his name comes from András, which came from Germanic "Andreas".

I always thought it had something to do with the Ancient Greek word ανήρ (gen. άνδρος) though. Are you sure it's Germanic?

[Hunef]

By the way my brother's name is "Endre" and Turks have "Ender" but again, his name comes from András, which came from Germanic "Andreas".

I always thought it had something to do with the Ancient Greek word ανήρ (gen. άνδρος) though. Are you sure it's Germanic?

Andreas must be Greek. Indeed, it comes from Ανδρέας ('the manly one').

NB: The Mainland Scandinavian version of the name is Anders, though Andreas/Andréas and André exist in parallel as well. (A diminutive form is Ante.)

[Levo]

By the way my brother's name is "Endre" and Turks have "Ender" but again, his name comes from András, which came from Germanic "Andreas".

I always thought it had something to do with the Ancient Greek word ανήρ (gen. άνδρος) though. Are you sure it's Germanic?

Of course, but to Hungarian it came from West, from Germanic-speaking (probably German) territories and not directly from Greece.

[Steisi]

When I was younger I really liked the name Nikolai and was verging on keeping it as a future baby name. But now,while I think it's cool, I think it would be weird to name a non-Russian baby nikolai

I associate favourite names with names for my future child(ren) (I guess it's the hormones?). Since I've been commanded by my mother to "name it something I can bloody well pronounce" I like the following names in Finnish: Anneli, Annikki/annika, Annukka, Janna, Jonna, Suvi, Sini for girls and for boys I like Janne, Juhani, Ilari, Lauri and perhaps Sami or Tommi. (I'm governed by what "colour" they are though, as I'm synaesthetic.)

My mum prevents me from naming my kids such wonderful things as Yrjö or Jyrki

I don't really like English names, in fact I hate my own because it refuses to decline in any language and sounds so unbelievably foreign when I speak Finnish or German etc. Also, no one can say it properly

[Levo]

When I was younger I really liked the name Nikolai and was verging on keeping it as a future baby name. But now,while I think it's cool, I think it would be weird to name a non-Russian baby nikolai

I associate favourite names with names for my future child(ren) (I guess it's the hormones?). Since I've been commanded by my mother to "name it something I can bloody well pronounce" I like the following names in Finnish: Anneli, Annikki/annika, Annukka, Janna, Jonna, Suvi, Sini for girls and for boys I like Janne, Juhani, Ilari, Lauri and perhaps Sami or Tommi. (I'm governed by what "colour" they are though, as I'm synaesthetic.)

My mum prevents me from naming my kids such wonderful things as Yrjö or Jyrki

I don't really like English names, in fact I hate my own because it refuses to decline in any language and sounds so unbelievably foreign when I speak Finnish or German etc. Also, no one can say it properly

Gipsies use to have the weirdes foreign names (Kasszandra, Jennifer, Jessica...) but I have never heard about any Sztészi or Stacy in here.

[Steisi]

Gipsies use to have the weirdes foreign names (Kasszandra, Jennifer, Jessica...) but I have never heard about any Sztészi or Stacy in here.

WOW!

[Caileh]

Names I like

Sara
Lydia
Isabel
Diana
Lucia
Marian
Eva
Leyla

Alexander
Léon
Nicolai
Elias
Adrian
Aron
Simon
Nathan

[Spaceboy]

My favourite names:

Léon
Ari
Sami
Adrian
Liron
Amir
Yousuf
Jack

Leila
Tali
Iraja
Lali
Tarja
Sini

[Anesthesia]

Male: Vanja, Nemanja, Einar, Josh, Joshua, Isak, Kjetil, Aleksa, Strahinja, Jakov....
Female: Candace, Ida, Lea, Begoña, Natalija, Ingrid, Chantal, Katie, Selma, Chloe...

[Hunef]

Female: [...] Ingrid

Oh, that's a boring name.

[Wildfire]

Male:
Александр / Alexandr
Виталий / Vitaliy

Female:
Ирина / Irina
Мария / Maria
Снежана / Snezhana

BTW I used to associate female names with their owners.. i.e. if I fell in love with a girl I started liking her name as well. Now it's hard to determine my preferences as nobody attracts me and I find common Russian names to be equally beautiful. The name Snezhana sounds prettiest to me, but this name is rare (I've never met girls with such a name)

Favourite non-Russian names:

Male:
Ryan
Florian
Lucas
Salvatore
Giovanni
Alessandro
Francesco
Ricardo

Female:
Camilla
Katelyn
Dolores

[Anesthesia]

Female: [...] Ingrid

Oh, that's a boring name.

Well, I'm not used to it as much as you are.

[Lada]

I like outdated Russian names, or those which are gaining popularity now, being revived from 19th century:

Male names:
Данила [Danila]
Тимофей [Timofei]
Матвей [Matvei]
АРСЕНИЙ [Arseniy]- my favourite name

Female:
Ульяна [Ulyana]
Ярослава [Yaroslava]
Надежда [Nadezhda]
Арина [Arina]

Non Russian names:

Male:
Ilyas, Teylor, Werner, Sebastian,
and all compound names, like Juan Carlos, Jean Marie, Luis Roberto, Abdul-Ghaffar, etc.

Female: Isabelle, Sabrina, and probably some others, but compound names for sure as well

[linguanima]

АРСЕНИЙ [Arseniy]- my favourite name

Is it from the Greek word αρσενικός which means 'masculine'?

[Hunef]

Female: [...] Ingrid

Oh, that's a boring name.

Well, I'm not used to it as much as you are.

It's just that only women born prior to the 50's have it here. The name Ingrid makes me think of some old aunt or something. (I have an aunt with almost that name, in fact a short form of it.)

[Alejo]

I also like the name Anthony. A lot ^_^

[Sappho]

A name I've heard recently and which I quite like is 'Soetkin'.

It's a Flemish/Dutch name, but apparently a lot of people seem to think that it's a foreign name, like Turkish or something. I must say that surprises me, since to me it seems that you can obviously recognise 'zoet' ( = sweet) or zoeteke (something you could call your girlfriend or something a mother could say when talking to her child) in it. But it isn't a regularly heard name, so maybe it's because of that.

Other names I like are Sven, Katrien, Yelena, Anastasia, Thomas, Lore and Iris.

Soetkin is een naam die ik nog niet zo lang geleden heb gehoord en die ik best mooi vind.

Het is een Vlaamse naam, maar blijkbaar denken vele mensen dat het een buitenlandse naam is, Turks ofzo. Dat vind ik eigenlijk wel best verrassend, omdat ik daar toch 'zoet' of 'zoeteke' in herken. Maar de naam komt niet veel voor, dus misschien komt het daarom.

Andere namen die ik mooi vind zijn Sven, Katrien, Yelena, Anastasia, Thomas, Lore en Iris.

[dorenda]

Soetkin also sounds like a Russian last name.

Did you read Tijl Uilenspiegel? There's a Soetkin there.


Soetkin klinkt ook wel alsof het een Russische achternaam is.

Heb je soms Tijl Uilenspiegel gelezen? Daar komt ook een Soetkin in voor.

[Sappho]

Yes, I have read Tijl Uilenspiegel, but that was a couple of years ago. But I just looked in the book and you are indeed right that a Soetkin is in there. I didn't even remember that.

Ja, ik heb Tijl Uilenspiegel gelezen, maar dat is al een paar jaar geleden. Maar ik heb net even gekeken in het boek en je hebt gelijk dat er een Soetkin in voorkomt. Ik herinnerde me dat niet meer.