Names you love that don’t work in English

[MangosteenSoda]

A name on another thread made me think about this...

I love Manon in a French speaking environment and I like Belen in Spain, but think neither work well in an English speaking environment.

Are there any names you feel like this about? I’d occasionally come across a name in my expat (and childbearing) days and think YES, then, oh no.

I love Manon

Babette is so pretty but I think English people might just hear baguette when she introduces herself

I also loved Dayanara but then realised it sounds quite similar to diarrhea

I love Fia, but sounds too much like fear...

Quite a few Indian names. Eg. Ruhi- it sounds delicate and light when said in the proper accent but awful with an English accent. There's more but that's the one that springs to mind immediately.

Agnes - but in French. English hard ‘g’ makes it so ugly in comparison.

I love Kofi, but as I was having a planned CS on a Thursday and the name means born on a Friday, it just wouldnt have worked

Geneviève
Madeleine

@EugeniaGrace I had a university friend called Agnes who pronounced it with a soft g. Very pretty name.

I love James (pronounced Ha-mez) for a boys name but not James (pronounced James)

I like Agnieszka though.

I love the name Anaïs, with the French pronunciation, but really dislike the English way of saying it.

YY to Indian names. Anal is pretty in India, not so much in the UK

I remember a thread from ages ago about the Hungarian (I think) name Boglarka which was super popular in Hungary, but less good here.

I'm trying to think what word has a soft g?
Trying to figure how Agnes sounds different.

Tiago. Such a lovely name. Sadly I’m not Portuguese.

Anastasia - the English mispronunciation is awful.
Saskia- much prefer the Dutch pronunciation.
Maren - sounds lovely in German, but it doesn't rhyme with Karen!

Sheherazade. Lovely name but no one knows how to deal with it in English.

Cinzia.

It’s my perfect Italian name but sounds awful when people don’t know how to pronounce it!

Valentine

Amelie
Elodie

Camille in French. One of my favourite names. Mimi for short. (Sounds like Camee, you don’t sound the “l”)

Whereas I really dislike the English pronunciation

I like a lot of these names a lot!

How is Saskia pronounced in Dutch?

How is Benon pronounced op? I once worked with a Benon, but we only interacted by email so I never heard his name said out loud. I always wondered if the way I pronounced it in my head was correct. I read it as Beh-non.

Oops just realised the name in your op was Belen, so ignore me!

lockdownbear Agnès sounds a bit like Anyes in France.

I live in France and wanted my kids to have names that were sort of close in pronounciation in English and French... it was actually very tricky! One example - I like Arthur in French but not English... and Mathieu... and lots more!

When discussing names with my Fanish husband, I really liked the Danish girls name 'Line'. In Danish its pronounced sort of leena. In the uk everyone would call her line as in straight line. I still really loved it and desperately tried to convince myself it would be ok. Then we had a boy anyway.

Fanish? How'd that even get through autocorrect?

My sis lives in Belgium so kids needed names that worked in both languages. She nailed it with Beatrice/Bèatrice and Freddie/ Frédéric but had a brain fart with Ralph, which in French sounds like someone being sick