Too French?

[Pleatherandlace]

We are a French family living in the UK. We are weeks away for the birth of our (final) child, another girl, but are really struggling with names.

Both of our older two girls have French names but ones that are easily spelt, pronounced and understood here. We really love Anais this time but aren’t sure if this is a step too French? Will we be subjecting our daughter to a lifetime of having to correct peoples and spelling it over the phone? Will she hate us forever? For reference we also have a difficult “foreign” surname.

What do people think? Thanks.

It’s one of my favourite girls names! I do think people may struggle with pronunciation though. Lots of people pronounced the perfume Anais Anais as Anay Anay.

Yes it does depend how you pronounce it. If properly with the accent An-eye-ees. Fine. Lovely name.

But Anay just makes you sound uneducated.

I have a foreign first name and surname, as does my son, and unless you are the sort of person who is upset when a dental receptionist mispronounces your name, or that people on first meeting will need to be told, often, how to pronounce it and I'm not it's fine.

I concur with the pp that a lot of British people's context for the name Anais is the perfume, and that they often pronounced it AnAY-AnAY, which I could see getting annoying quickly. It's a lovely name, though.

Thanks, I was also thinking about the 80’s perfume connection!

It's lovely and been around long enough for people in the UK to have had time to get to grips with it
Congrats

Oh god I would say 'A-nay'
Yes she might have to correct people but it is a pretty name and if you love it go for it.

People will very frequently mispronounce it and leave off the diaeresis, I’m afraid. It is beautiful though if you can live with this.

I think it's pretty well known in the UK, one of the Gallaghers has one if I remember correctly.
You will get some mispronunciation but no more than with Aoife or many other names.

Anaïs is lovely!

I think a lot of people won’t know how it is pronounced and find it difficult to say. I have heard people call the perfume ‘Anay.’

I would be guilty of saying AnAY too . How is it pronounced?

It's an-eye-eece.

I think the confusion partly arises from the fact that is should be spelt Anaïs, with a diaeresis over the i. Many people will leave this off and spell it Anais, which if it were a name would be pronounced an-ay according to French pronunciation conventions.

It’s not that unusual here. It’s beautiful.

I like it pronounced the french way but have heard English people pronounce it A nay iss.
There was the daughter of a rock star called this who was a children's tv presenter and her co presenter pronounced it A nay iss so maybe that's how she pronounced it

Just checked and it's Noel Gallagher's dd. Was thinking it was Mick Jagger or someone

Very pretty

I've never heard it pronounced without the -is at the end ! Always An ah is.

I prefer it pronounced the French way "ees" at the end than "is"

If you love it, you should use it. Yes, you will have to tell people how to pronounce it but I think that's a minor irritation. Once she's at school her friends and teachers will remember once you've told them. There are lots of gorgeous non traditionally British names being used - we are used to it and it would be a shame to miss out on using your favourite name for the sake of having to tell some people how to pronounce it.

I think it’s lovely and totally doable here in the UK, especially since you’re actually French. I would know how to pronounce but I do speak French and have never heard of the perfume

50% of the people in Britain will mispronounced it and 50% will pronounce it correctly. I choose a french name for my boy and my main consideration was a name that couldn't be shortened. I hate the way every names is shortened in this country (even names like David or Peter!). Anais might be shortened in Ana or An by people to lazy to pronounce it.

Anyone who is tortured by many many episodes of Gumball and Darwin will pronounce it as they do (An eye ees I think) Lovely name.

It's a gorgeous name and yes she might have to tell people how to spell it but that's a silly reason not to choose it.
I have a have a pretty common (though maybe not in my generation), boring, british name and I still often have to clarify the spelling.

Lots will pronounce it wrong but I think it’s gorgeous anyway

A French family I knew had a daughter called Alban which I thought was sweet & easy to spell & say here

If I was French I’d be fully utilising the excuse to pull of a beautiful French name - Bastien / Manon / Camille / Louis & Anais is one of the best - the French have all the best names