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.

How does Agnes sound with a soft g ?

[quote DacwMamYnDwad]@Beentee, you can say it however you like, but you are saying i is Welsh and pronounced in a way that doesn't conform with Welsh pronunciation.

It's the equivalent of me saying "I have a DD called Michelle, it's French and pronounced Mitch-ellie' or 'I have a DS called Eoin, it's Irish and pronounced Ee-o-in'[/quote]
Your right, i agree with you. I know what you mean. Believe it or not i say it like its english but then i also say it how its supposed to be said as you mention earlier

This is how you say Teifion

Oh, Eoin is like Owen, and Michelle is like Mish-elle.

The male Norwegian name Odd, for obvious reasons.

Aurelia. Doesn’t stop anyone though.

Inês
Marta
Benedita
Sebastião

All lovely in my native language, terrible sounding with English accents.

I have a Dutch friend called Saskia. Definitely not Saarskia. That is how you would say it if trying to be posh but failing.

I used to work with a Danish man called Bent-Willy. That’s not good in any language!

I have Hungarian family. None of the women have pretty sounding names. Eufrozina sounds like an ointment. Ildiko is awful too.

Weird all the kerfuffle over Saskia. I always think of it as quite a good and safe "Euro-name" as the pronunciation is pretty similar in all European languages.

I like Javier / Xavier in Spanish but it sounds slightly brutalised with the Ex-AY-veer pronunciation in English

I have never heard Xavier pronounced like that in English. I know one who pronounces it Zay-veeyer. And another who pronounces it the French way, so Zaveeay.

I thought the Arabic name Rafia was lovely but then I suddenly realised it's basically 'raffia' and it wasn't so appealing. Shame!

@mammmamia

I have never heard Xavier pronounced like that in English. I know one who pronounces it Zay-veeyer. And another who pronounces it the French way, so Zaveeay.

X Men? Anything popular like that filters through.

I know a Danielle, very common in the UK.
But her parents pronounce it Dan yell.
Ruins it for me.

@LadyEloise in French its pronounced An yes.
If you think of the gn in lasagne then it gets a similar treatment in Agnes.

Oneeyeopen, if you hear an italian say lasagne it isn't quite lasahnyuh.
The g is almost imperceptible - it's sort of swallowed.

I love the name Lenor but it doesn't work in English, not due to pronunciation difficulties but due to fabric softener

I haven’t heard Lenor but I think Léonore works in English

I know a Lenore, and it's fine.

I can’t hear Lenore without thinking ‘ Once upon a midnight dreary...’ squawk!!!

The next queen of Spain will be Leonor, for what it’s worth.

Elif. I think it’s beautiful.

And Nicolas (French, male) and Nicola (Italian, male) are pronounced the same.

Are they? I always thought that Nicolas was stressed on the first syllable whereas Nicola is stressed on the second.

But the Spanish queen is Leonor, not Lenore. They’re different names. One sounds like a fabric conditioner, the other doesn’t.

Thank you @Oneeyeopen
So I've been pronouncing the shop ( called after its owner ) AgnesB all wrong for years.
It's An yesB not AgnesB

How do you pronounce Keir ?
Is it Keer or Kerr ?