What American name can be said in both English and Spanish the same way?

I don’t have an example right now, but Joel wouldn’t be pronounced the same in Spanish – the Spanish J is like a hard H (for lack of a better explanation).

Brad. Yes, of the Pitt-Jolie fame. That’s all I can think of right now.

@Seelix , My cousin’s name is Joel. My family is Puerto Rican. Our whole family says his name with a “J”. Not with the “H” sound because then it sounds like Hole. No, Joel is and american name that you can say in both languages.

@blueberry_kid – All right, well, that’s news to me. I’ve never heard J pronounced as soft G in Spanish. (shrug)

@Seelix , I totally see what your saying though. Like, I know the J sounds like an H. Like jalepeno. I just wanted to clarify with you.

I think you will have a very hard time finding a name like that. There are a few that are pretty much spelled the same way like Gilbert and Martin, but they would be pronounced Hilbert and MartEEN. Ron could work, but that’s really short for Ronald. Something like Valentino (which is a Latin-origin name, rather than a British/American name) would work. Alan, is not a Spanish/Latin name, but it would be prounounced pretty much the same in both languages, as would Mark. Albert could work. So could Vincent or Brandon or Shawn.

I think finding phonetically identical names between the two languages isn’t going to be easy because English is not as phonetic as Spanish is. Daniel though spelled the same is pronounced differently, It sounds like Dañel. Samuel sounds like Sa-muel; and Joel is pronounced Ho-él since the J sounds doesn’t really exist in Spanish.

I think a good way to weed names out is to not use biblical names since they are guaranteed to have equivalents. But how do you define an “American” name? We don’t really have along enough history to have our own unique names as most of what we consider common names are biblical or tied to other Anglo cultures.

My name is Rigo, which is pronounced phonetically the same across both languages. If you’re concerned about preserving the english pronounciation, then you probably should be looking into non-traditional and non-latin based names like Sage, Skyler, and things of that nature.

Or you could use some names that are American names, that are less Anglo-Saxon influenced like Jamal or Shawntay.

I like Willy but I’m biased.

None of the names you listed are pronounced the same way in Spanish and English.

One name that comes to mind is Kevin.

You could always go with a Spanish name that’s easily recognizable in English and easy to pronounce correctly, like Marco, Roberto or Antonio.

@Seelix In my personal experience, seemingly easy to pronounce Spanish names can get butchered by English speakers :(

@bob_ – I guess that’s true with any name that’s not Anglo, but I’ve never seen anyone mess up Marco ;)

@bob_ That is why I need help! Spanish names sound awful when you try to say it in English. Like Javier. In this case @Seelix the J is pronounced as an H. My uncles name is Javier. In English, some annoying people say it Ja-vieer. It’s really annoying and I hate that.

I understand the Spanish pronunciation of J and G – I studied the language for 4 years in university. I actually did a little research and found that Yoel is a traditional Spanish name – in some areas where Spanish is spoken, Y and LL are pronounced as a weak soft G, so I’m guessing that the Spanish name Joel is an evolution of Yoel.
All right, I’m done.

@Seelix , Chill. I’m just making a point.

I’m not unchill, just making a point of my own.

@Seelix Yeah, Marco doesn’t do as bad, probably because of all of the Italian immigrants.

@blueberry_kid Your best bet is to use an English name that would be easy to say in Spanish. Like Kevin.

@bob_ That was my point! Thanks