Your immediate thoughts on Anwen?

[CoalCraft]

Just that really - Have you heard it before? What do you associate it with, if anything? Do you like it?

Would ALS really appreciate knowing what region you're from if you don't mind sharing.

Thank you!

@FontyMcFontface, they don't. Arianwen is 3 syllables not 4.
Think of how you say Marian or Arian - they are not Marry-Ann and Arry-ann.

Vowels next to each other form diphthongs in Welsh, and the stress is always on the penultimate syllable.

I’m Welsh living in England and I really like it. Not come across any in England.

I loved the snow spider trilogy and that's what the name reminds me of. Sounds romantic and mysterious.

[quote KirstenBlest]@FontyMcFontface, they don't. Arianwen is 3 syllables not 4.
Think of how you say Marian or Arian - they are not Marry-Ann and Arry-ann.

Vowels next to each other form diphthongs in Welsh, and the stress is always on the penultimate syllable.[/quote]
Interesting. I do indeed say Marry Ann, and would say Arry an wen. (I'm a gog)

Anwen is a lovely name.

I also loved the snow spider and even met the author once. I recall her being lovely. How exciting to have her as your friend's mum!

A lovely name, I assume Welsh. I am SE.

Really lovely name. I'm familiar with it from where I grew up in NW England.

I prefer Arianwen
It does scream very welsh- but that’s not a bad thing obviously!

@KitchenWarrior, Do you speak Welsh?
The Arianwen said as Ari Anwen sounds awful to me.

KirstenBlest absolutely true, you’re right. In my accent they do sound the same as I automatically run the syllables together somehow. So ar-ee-an sounds the same as ‘ar-yan’. I have to think really hard about how many syllables there are but if pushed I would say there are two syllables in Arian as you say.

Arian is definitely 2 syllables not 3, otherwise it would be Ar-EE-an.

Arianu, Ariannol and Ariannog are 3 syllables, not 4.

Similarly Cariad is 2 syllables, Cariadon and Cariadus 3.

[quote KirstenBlest]@KitchenWarrior, Do you speak Welsh?
The Arianwen said as Ari Anwen sounds awful to me.[/quote]
A little Welsh. Not native.

Lived in Manchester for a while and everyone called my dd "Elizabuff", I appreciate how annoying different pronunciations can be!

Fanks.

I don't understand why someone would give a child a welsh name but say it in the english way, e.g. Tomos but saying it as Thomas, or Huw but saying it as Hugh.

I’m bilingual and ar-ee-an sounds the same as ar-yan to me!

At least, I have to try really hard to make it sound different! Sitting here with a first language Welsh speaker both of us saying it different ways! And she is also confused by the syllables! Must be a local accent thing.

@FontyMcFontface
It's not due to local accent. The i and a run into each other so sound like ya not ee-a.

As I posted previously, if Arian was 3 syllables, it would be Ar-EE-an

A comparison might be Daniel.
It's 2 syllables. DAN-yel not Danny El.

KirstenBlest

To me, Daniel has three syllables and Dan-yel doesn’t sound different from Danny-el.

I’m going to stop derailing now, hope the debate hasn’t put you off, OP.

Hmm. Definitely only 2, Fonty. I know a Daniela and she is Dan-yel-a not Danny-Ella.

Anwen is a lot easier. Go for it OP.

No.
would not recommend.
it's not horrible, but you asked for immediate reactions, and mine is no.