Xanthe or Ianthe?

[CalamityJess]

What do you think of these names and which do you prefer?

(Pronounced ZAN-thee and eye-AN-thee)

Actually the parents don’t get to choose how to pronounce a name from a different heritage IMO

Quite a naive stance.

(How do you pronounce Xanthippe then?)

Names have a different impression in different countries. If the OP is not in Greece it doesn’t matter if Xanthe is dated there. It sounds fresh to UK ears. Rosa is popular in the UK but it’s dated and granny-ish in Italy and Spain. Paul is dated here but it’s very popular in Germany.

Wow, this got ugly!

I didn’t realise these names were all that “out there”. They’re on the unusual side, yes, but there were 50 baby Xanthes in 2017 and 66 the year before, so by no means unheard of. And I went to school with an Ianthe and know of one other who’s a friend of a friend, so again not that unusual.

Arya While it’s interesting to learn about the authentic Greek pronunciation, that’s not really going to work in the UK. As pps have pointed out, we don’t say lots of other foreign-origin names in the “original” accent/language (Genevieve, Magnus, Ramona, Theodore, etc.)

Thanks for all the feedback!

Xanthe is lovely. Also Iolanthe!

Ffs74 not odd at all. You have missed my point, the names discussed here aren't unpronounceable, I have met more than one of each. Your special surname is irrelevant here

Xanthe. I think it’s nice and I don’t give a shit whose culture it ‘belongs’ to. I find that kind of attitude ugly and nationalistic. Names should belong to all of us. It’s a lively sign of cultural mixing. Don’t be snobby and conservative about names.

Lovely. But also lively I guess if this thread is anything to go by!

Xanthe is lovely. I think the Ianthe spelling puts me off as some may misread the uppercase I for a lowercase l, iyswim

Oenone is just gorgeous.

Of your two suggestions OP I prefer Xanthe - the X is very satisfying.

Actually the parents don’t get to choose how to pronounce a name from a different heritage IMO. They make efforts to pronounce correctly or give another. It’s quite insulting to give a name from another heritage & not know how to pronounce correctly.

What about Penelope? All the Greeks I know pronounce it Penny-lope-ee and everyone else Pen-elle-o-pe

Alternatively Lalage is a name we don’t hear enough of these days.

I like both. I have known several Xanthes in my life but no Ianthes so on that basis would consider the latter to be be unusual. I yon't think either are particularly odd or difficult to spell/ pronounce though and I am usually quite rigid about saddling children with difficult names.

Oenone is just gorgeous.

Bit too close to onanism to me.

My DC has Greek heritage and is called Xanthe, so I'd say go for it. MIL did say it was dated in Greece, but we don't live in Greece, so meh.

Oenone is just gorgeous.

I worked in a call centre and that’s how I first heard the name. Lovely elderly lady and we had a chat about her name - she did warn me not to call my child that as it’s a bit of a nightmare 😂

Gosh. Bit agro on here.

I wouldn't use Xanthe because I prefer the Greek pronunciation to the British. Plus it's an area in Greece so feels weird to me. Like Larissa. Ianthe is nicer I think and translates better. The problem with Greek names is that they mostly sound better in Greek so I do find it difficult to love them in English.

That said, I know my child's name will be pronounced every which way and mine is always a stumbling block for English speakers. When my child is in Greece their middle name (DH's super Anglo Saxon surname) will cause all sorts of confusion and when I'm England I'm sure people will complain about the spelling of the first name and surname. I don't mind though and I would raise my child to be caring and tolerant of others stumbling as they try to work their way around the names. It's part of being multicultural. What a dull world it would be if we were all only called names that Northern white Europeans felt comfortable with. Interestingly, when I'm not in the UK people don't struggle with my name. English not being a phonetic language is what causes most people's confusion. I see it a lot as my DH learns Greek.

I too work in a school. Most kids I've met are patient and work with adults to get the pronunciation right. But then most adults I work with ask the kids for help and want to learn how to say names properly.

As an aside. Penelope in Greek is Peen-e-lo-pi not Penny....

How is this thread more ‘lively’ than the thread suggesting the name ‘tree’ ?! You humans do confuse me

I prefer Xanthe

Xanthe. I didn’t know how to pronounce Ianthe and I also read it as Lanthe

Oenone is just gorgeous.

O-when-no-knee?
Wee-nun?

How on earth do you pronounce that?!

So because one person with Greek heritage doesn't like these names, we should all stop using them 🙄 I was going to name my daughter a french name, should I somehow do a poll of the French public to check that the vast majority of them 1) approve of the name and 2) think I pronounce it properly? If you don't like the names, don't use them. Simple.

OP, I think they're both gorgeous but as I said before, I prefer Ianthe. I can't believe people would struggle to pronounce this name? I know a Xanthe and she's never had an issues (mid thirties now and no problems whatsoever).

I'm actually stealing Ianthe and adding it to my shortlist as I think it's so gorgeous

Oenone I've heard pronounced ee-NO-nee

should there be an accent for Xanthé ?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanth%C3%A9_Mallett

No accent. It’s not a French name so no need for a random acute accent.