Arianwen?

Love it [hgrin] I know an Arianne and an Anwen but I do live in S. Wales and speak Welsh so that's probably why. The Arianne I know gets called Ari which I like as a nn.

No matter if you're not Welsh - I have an ancient Greek name and I'm neither!

I like Anwen or Arianne better. I do, however, feel that anyone who has the chance to call their daughter Angharad should seize it with both hands A truly heroic sounding name.

Eirwen?
I have an aunt called that.

Love love love it.

I think it's lovely. The snow spider was one of my favourite books, and the sequel, Emlyn's Moon. DD loves them too.

It's interesting that it means white/fair silver, I always assumed it to mean white spider, maybe because arian seemed quite similar to ariadne.

I am on holiday looking at the black mountains at the moment and feeling quite nostalgic about the book now! I used to stare at the cover with the girl's white blonde sparkly hair for hours.

I think it's a lovely name. I have never heard of it before but read it right straight away and I am not welsh.

My daughters name is Arianwen. We shorten it to Ari mostly, but she gets pet names right from Ari-wen to Azi.

She absolutely adores her name. We dont tend to get many problems with pronunciation (although we do live in Wales ). She gets numerous comments on how beautiful her name is and I couldnt have made a better decision for her, it suits her perfectly.

Its actually a very old, traditional Welsh name, but, in my opinion, absolutely beautiful (even if I am biased.) The name is believed to be the name of one of Brychan Brycheiniogs' (Famous 5th century king) numerous daughters.

It's my daughter's middle name. I'm from wales but my husband is English. I insisted on her having a welsh name as one of her names. We live in England and she thinks its unique for here.

OP - I love your name

Very pretty, I knew an Arianwen and always liked the name

I quite like the name but think you could have a few problems with prounciation. Ds and I used to go to a baby sign class and there was an Arianwen there. We all introduced ourselves and our babies and when it came to Arianwen there were a few puzzled faces. All of us mums forgot or misspronunced her name for months on end and this seemed to really annoy her mum (understandably so)!

I think if you live somewhere where welsh is widely spoken and people have a good grasp on the language it would be fine but we live in s.wales and people really struggled with it.

I like it but wouldn't choose it, both mine have welsh names (probably because we are Welsh ) I've yet to find anyone english who can pronouce DS name but his Korean cardiologist can. It does annoy him a bit even thoug he's only 4. Its harder to pronouce than Arianwen though so I think you could get away with it outside Wales

Hahaha, I'm Welsh and don't like it. Sorry! It's just a personal thing - sounds too wishy-washy and fairy for me. So I stress, it's just me, I like a more traditional kind of Welsh name. I don't hate it, just wouldn't use it myself.
Queen of the elves by Tolkien was Arwen - also made up.
It means arian = silver and wen = fair/white (fem form), but Gwen/Gwyn doesn't have to refer to a fair child, it can be the purity aspect of it.

Don't use 'wen' - it's nasty. Doesn't it mean a boil or growth or something?

Never come across this name before, but if pronounced as suggested upthread it is gorgeous, perhaps one of the most beautiful names ever

I think it's beautiful. I really liked Arianne when pregnant but just didn't feel right once she was actually here.

I know an Arianwen (I'm in Wales) and think it is lovely, as does everyone else. Not sure how it would go down outside of Wales though.

absolutely love Arianwen.....love most welsh names.....I say go for it!

I think Arianwen is a lovely name, it makes me think of The Snow Spider by Jenny Nimmo too (I loved that book as a child).

I have a dark haired sister called Bronwen, so don't let the fair haired bit put you off. Although Bronwen is actually the Welsh for Weasel whch gave me hours of amusement as a child...

I have a Welsh name, and it drove me mad when I went to university in England that nobody could say it properly. But people do eventually get used to how to say it!

It's lovely and not hard to say at all.
Why shorten it to some non descript mono-syllabic name if you want to call her this?

The lack of effort peopel put into pronouncing names properly is staggering.I knew a Geraint who had lived in England for years and lt everyone call him 'Grant' because apparently 'they couldn't say Geraint'.

I'd make bloody well sure I answered to nothing but my name in such a situation.They woud soon get it.

I like it, but then I am welsh
you could shorten it to Ani (Annie) maybe if you wanted to. agree with JackieNo that Ari sounds a bit like a cockney Harry

I think the girl I knew, when she shortened it, shortened it to 'Ari', but that might sound a bit like 'Harry' .