Twins with very different names

[FirstTimeMumOfTwins]

DH and I have very different taste when it comes to baby names. Before I got pregnant we talked for years about what we might one day call a baby, and could never find one name we both liked! We ended up having identical twin girls and eventually found two names we both love, although they are certainly not matchy. One is very English and the other is an old Scottish name (I am half Scottish). The only thing is that they both have the same number of syllables. Everyone keeps commenting on how they don't match Does it matter? My response is usually that they are identical, so it's nice for them to have names that are very different. But it is starting to bother me and I kind of wish they had more similar names. What do you think?

Michel is the boy's name, @Thisismytimetoshine. Michael in French.
Ignore them OP. People seem to want twins to be identical, even if boy and girl, and expect them to have matching names like Evie and Ellie or Henry and Harriet or something.

Michel, I imagine.
How is it pronounced? My point was actually that one was a very stolid English name and the other wasn't.

@Thisismytimetoshine

Michel, I imagine. How is it pronounced? My point was actually that one was a very stolid English name and the other wasn't.

Exactly the same as Michelle. It’s the French form of Michael.

Ok... But the point of my post still stands 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes, it does. It seems an odd combination.

Perhaps they were set on the combination of George and Michael until someone asked if they were Wham! fans and they had to change one at the last minute

Ha! Possibly

Mum of twins here. Why do names need to match? I would deliberately give them non-matching names (we did). In fact DP chose one and I chose the other!

"But they don't match?"
"Yes, that's because they are individual people".

Surely better to have 2 names that you both love and mean something to you than calling them Milly & Molly or something equally as twee just because they are twins

It makes things easier for others if the names are significantly different too, teachers & friends are much less likely to get the girls mixed up if their names aren't too similar

Cerys and Rosie (or equivalents) are fine. Different enough, but also compatible enough in 'feel'.

The names of the Sweet Valley High twins work in a similar way - Jessica and Elizabeth (IIRC).

I agree that it's mostly on TV that twins have very similar names. (Also that on TV, non-identical twins are nearly always boy and girl rather than same-sex, but that's another debate.)

Remember also that it can be very inconvenient if siblings have the same initial. Which "J Smith" would it be?

No it doesn't matter they are different people. If you both love them and they are nice names why does it Matter that they don't match. I think sometimes people just want something to say and just say the first thing they think of. They probably don't mean anything by it.

Nothing wrong with having non-matching names, although I probably be a little surprised if one was unconventional, and one was normal. Ie. Phoenix and Peter. However, if there was two regular names, that will be fine.

Like some other PPs have said, I would be surprised at any sibling set names being completely different as in one very frilly and one plain, one “out there” and one very common but other than that I wouldn’t expect them to go. It’s not about the names matching so much as the person naming them having a particular style of name that they like.

To me Cerys and Rosie, as in the example, are similar in that I can imagine the same person liking both.

My best friend gave her boy/girl twins matchy names (same initial and almost rhyming). I'm not a fan, but obviously have never said anything. I remember when she announced the names, thinking "oh christ, really?!?" But kids grow into their names, and it isn't such a think.

I think non-matching names are much better than overly-matching names. I'm trying to think of all the twins I know (not many). I don't think I would call any of their names particularly "matching". I think Cerys and Rosie are a lovely combination and don't see that they don't go together.
I know a:
Benjamin and Aaron (both Biblical I suppose)
Rosie and Amy (a bit too twee imo)
Alice and Katie (go well but not especially matching?)
Molly and Milo (too matchy!)
I know several pairs who have "non British" names and I think they sound lovely together but I have no way of knowing if other people would think they were odd combinations....