Nice or awful

[babyno2pending]

Okay so I've loved this name ever since I was a girl for my first daughter, but absolutely everyone I've said it to despises it😂

Nala Carmen

First and middle name.

Nice or awful?

*the

Narla is terrible. Knarled springs to mind.
Carmen is nice.

Not keen on Nala but Carmen is beautiful!

Nala/Narla is a common cat and dog name.

How about Carla? Though it doesn't go with Carmen.

Nala is pretty but too obviously Lion King for me, I've never heard any other reference. Carmen is okay, although I'd some assume Spanish heritage.

Maybe Naia or Mara instead?

I've never come across a human nala.... plenty of dogs, and they are usually gnarlers!

I prefer the Nahla spelling. Think Nahla Carmen is nice.

Nala...I don't know what it is, but I don't like it so much. I feel the same about Nina. Just not keen on that organisation of letters.

Nia is similar and lovely imo. It is Welsh. There is also Neveah, which I quite like, (v unpopular on MN though)!

I love the name Nala.
Assuming it's the same pronunciation as Nala from the Lion King

@ParisJeTAime

Nia is similar and lovely imo. It is Welsh. There is also Neveah, which I quite like, (v unpopular on MN though)!

Nerea is very similar to Neveah.

I know 2 lovely nahlas.
One is a great big soppy dog.
The other is a very clever sweet kind teenager.
So I would be biased there.
Good choice
Not sure I would pair it with carmen.
Unless carmen has a personal meaning for you?

Sounds a bit sing songy to me. Although I quite like Nala.

There’s no ‘r’ in Nala. How could it be pronounced Narla?

@nimbuscloud it just is, it's originally Swahili I believe

@nimbuscloud it's a silent r unless you have a rhotic accent.

No , don’t like Narla even for pets as made up name for Lion king . Carmen is a very strong name & only suits females who are Spanish/ Brazilian / black in my mind .

Oops just seen Narla is a Swahili name , still don’t like it .

Nala just sounds.... nothing-y - random, made up, down market. So no.

Carmen is ok.

But I would think again. There are a lot of beautiful names out there..

Showing my age but I can only think of carmen as in the opera or Carmen Miranda with a giant fruit bowl on her head ..

I love Carmen, so strong and elegant.

Nala is too Lion King. You could spell it Nahla, then you'd get the pronunciation you want.

Nala Carmen is fine. I would pronounce Nala as you do and I don't think you should change the spelling. It's not particularly my taste, but there's nothing wrong with either name. I thought Nala was fairly well recognised as a name because of Lion King, so the responses surprise me a little.

Nala is very Lion King (and pronounced as you want it)

But despite the feline association, there are several young dogs called that round here

I also heard ‘gnarl’ with Nala and don’t think it’s nice although I picked up the lion king reference. Nahla is a bit softer especially with the quite strong Carmen.

I know a baby Carmen who is white and it’s nice on her. Made me think of Carmen Sandiego.

Nala is Alan backwards. I like Carmen, though.

This is what Wikipedia says about the name (with all the usual caveats that come with getting info from Wiki):

Nahla is of Arabic and African origin meaning first drink of water or water in the desert. In Sanskrit it means stem, hollow reed. In Swahili and other languages spoken in countries of Africa it means Queen, lion and successful woman.

Another variant is Nala. This means 'gift' in Swahili.

A descendant of the Arabic, "Naħla" means Bee in the Maltese language.