Manon for our second daughter?

[CeceSL]

After Anouk... Manon? Is it a nice name?

Don't use Anaïs in the U.K. people here constantly mispronounce it a "Annay".

Manon is lovely. It's also a Welsh name meaning "beautiful queen".

Honestly I wouldn't because I predict come teenager years she will be hearing a lot of "Manon likes to get a man on" type remakes

I had some idea that it is pronounced man-noh but to be honest most people would say man-on.
Also English people saying man-noh won't sound as lovely as a french person saying it.

I think it is lovely!

Love it! Know a couple of Manons

It’s pronounced exactly the same in English as it is in French.

Well, apart from the fact that very few English speakers appear to be able to pronounce the nasalised final 'on', so it will be pronounced 'Man-on'. A bit like the difference between 'Brienne' and 'rien'.

It’s ok. It makes me think of Jean de Florette.

Well, apart from the fact that very few English speakers appear to be able to pronounce the nasalised final 'on’

Seriously?

I don’t know anyone who couldn’t pronounce Manon and wouldn’t know how to pronounce it tbh.

Seriously. Even look at the number of people up the thread who've asked how to pronounce it. Or the strange vocal contortions Anglophones put themselves through saying 'croissant'.

Use Anais is lovely.

For anyone saying you can't use a name because it's not anglicised.... Get a grip. There is so much arrogance that everything needs to be anglicised because if a name is remotely foreign sounding/spelling how dare they! It means I'm actually going to have to learn to pronounce a new name which isn't an English one

I’ve already commented on the demographic here.

In any U.K. city you live among people from all over the world with all kinds of exotic names. Manon is nothing.

I'm not from the UK and live in London, with my non-phonetic-to-English-speakers' ears name. It's mispronounced by virtually everyone. It will depend on the OP whether that bothers her.

Yes it's lovely, unusual but not one of the stupid ones. It's a very sophisticated name for an adult too.

It's mispronounced by virtually everyone.

Depends on the people you know, I don’t know anyone who struggles with unusual names.

Depends on the people you know, I don’t know anyone who struggles with unusual names

@Tatiana, many people believe themselves to be pronouncing such names entirely correctly. This does not always correspond with the truth.

Ime it depends on the intelligence and education levels of the people involved.

Pronouncing a name incorrectly repeatedly does not indicate a high level of intelligence.

@TatianaLarina
“Depends on the people you know, I don’t know anyone who struggles with unusual names.”

Of course you don’t dear

Violaine?
Camille?
Mathilde?

@TatianaLarina, I came to this country on an Oxford scholarship and stuck about to do postgraduate work, so while many of my friends and colleagues are no slouches, educationally speaking, I have not actually attempted an IQ cull on my neighbours, casual acquaintances etc.

You do seem to have rather a bee in your bonnet about this.

Happy mother of a Manon here.

I find it ludicrous that people may find a name like this difficult, or think it might be a struggle as she grows older. She’s a teenager. She loves her name and has never encountered nastiness or difficulty. She gets asked if she’s French or Welsh. She answers. Nobody mentions football or cult films or mangles pronunciation, once told.

Anouk is a gorgeous name: Manon too. You have perfect taste OP.

I am French and the name would be great there but in the UK, it’s read Man on and when she’s older she’ll be teased. Esmé works well. Bonne chance 👍🏻

Merci

Thank you for so many responses! I like quite a few of your suggestions but nothing more than Manon, Ninon and Inès (my other favourites, but I feel like our reasons not to use are valid).

We get some strange pronunciations of Anouk already and it doesn’t really annoy me, but maybe Manon it’s more embarrassing, possibly? Lots of people here have said it sounds like something bad... We will reread all these comments and talk about it.

Pronouncing a name incorrectly repeatedly does not indicate a high level of intelligence.

It's literally nothing to do with intelligence. It's about being able to hear (and then pronounce) sounds which are not in your native language. I have a perfectly normal English name which no American I've met (and I lived there for 2 years) can pronounce. Whenever I introduced myself it was misheard as another name, and even when they were corrected, it was still mispronounced because it contains a vowel sound that just is not part of their way of speaking.

Perfect with Anouk. Lovely names.