Nimue and Vivienne and Ninniane, Niniane, Lenore

[JessieIsabelle]

I love Nimue and Vivienne. Ninniane and Niniane are other alternates for the "lady of the lake" and Lenore is her mother.

I wanted to know what you think:

Nimue - nim-oo-ay, we would consider this, but not sure we're brave enough

Vivienne - we're considering this, emphasis on the last syllable

(Ninniane, Niniane - wouldn't consider this, but interesting)

(Lenore - I like it, but not enough to use)

Love them all, especially Nimue, how interesting. It will be mispronounced often but that isn’t a big deal - look at Irish names like Maire and Niamh!

Lenor is too well known as a brand but I also like Leona and Leonora.

If anyone tells you that your baby’s likely name is “AWFUL” you should probably ignore them as that’s a pretty horrible thing to say to someone.

Ellenora?

Nimue by miles, I thought I’d heard them all, it’s lovely, Nimi is adorable, I can’t imagine a baby/toddler called Vivienne but it’s an elegant name for an adult. Agree about having a uncommon name being a good way to detect people who can’t cope with things they don’t already know, husband and DD have very unusual names and he says the same thing.

Vivienne is lovely but you don’t get a chance to dictate how people pronounce it.

I always think it’s a bit naff when people try to say a really common name is pronounced differently

Other names are awful- don’t do it.

Vivienne is nice.. the rest are hideous. Why would you want a name that has ‘ninny’ in it? They all sound made up and you’re basically asking for your child to get made fun of.

Lenore is awful, it’s a fabric conditioner but Leonor is nice. Good enough for the Spanish royal family!

Leonora?

I also love Nimue and Lenore. My pick would be Nimue.

It doesn't really matter there have been several pronunciations already, it's non issue. In case someone can't pronounce it, you ignore it, you don't make every single person pronounce your name.

Have you read The Mists of Avalon?

I love Vivienne but it’s popular now, if that bothers you?

If not then Lenore is nice, and I don’t think the soap thing is a huge issue.

Nimue is a great reference, but the reality is it sounds wet, like Lilou or Loulou. Niniane is too close to ninny.

Igraine
Morgaine
Iseult / Isolde / Esylt / Isotta / Ysella
was their an Olwen?

The spelling and the name Nimue only exist in one late version of the Arthur legends. In older versions you get Viviane, Ninniane etc. And those names seem like scribal copy errors - someone mixed up V and N, or U, or M.
The name Imogen is a copy error for Innogen, for comparison. With Imogen, the similarity to Imagine and the straightforward phonetics make it a popular name.
Nimue isn't standard spelling in any language ttbomk. It does sound warm that's why I suggest Nimwen which is an easy spelling to read.

@oldnorsesaga , it's not a non-issue. You might not care but Nimue might mind. Imagine being Nim-oo-ey, Neemu, Nimway, Nim-ewe, Neem-oo-y, Nimmoo etc and it would be a PITA.

I have a completely phonetic name that's easy to say (about as easy as Tom), and I mind when people get it wrong.

Here's the catch - she might care or she might not care. We don't know and you don't know.

I'd avoid it on that ground. I think if it was a Soph-ee-a/Soff-ya/Soph-eye-a type name, then I probably would say use it, but maybe not if some of the ways people might say it are not pleasant sounding.
With Nimue then I'd say avoid.

Nimwen just looks wrong.

Nimue? Awful.

Vivienne would be shortened to Viv which is not good.

Nimue is a skincare brand. I like Vivienne the most.

If anyone tells you that your baby’s likely name is “AWFUL” you should probably ignore them as that’s a pretty horrible thing to say to someone

-My baby is called Balonz
-What an awful name!
Horrible

-I'm pregnant and going to call the baby Balonz
-What an awful name!
Horrible

-I'm dithering between Tom, Dick and Balonz for my baby what do you think?
-Tom's lovely, Dick is OK, Balonz is awful
Not horrible

Wonders idly if Ninniane is "an inghean" (Early Irish meaning "daughter", apparently from French "ingenue" meaning young woman with semantic overtones of innocence, naivety etc.)
But I am not an Arthurian scholar. Sure this is Mumsnet so one will be along shortly to enlighten us.

There's a River Ninian in Brittany.
How is Inghean pronounced?

Inghean in Early Modern Irish would be "inyan", it was shortened to "iníon" in 1958.
Ninian was a man's name used for a long time.

I like Nimue ( Nimmi) also Viviane. A friends daughter Vivienne is known as Vivvi rather than Viv, if you are thinking about nicknames maybe that might work?

I really liked Nimue after watching Cursed while pregnant with DD, but as much as I like it, I’m glad I didn’t go with it. We went with a Welsh name which we constantly have to spell and pronounce for people, a name like Nimue would have been too much.

I love Vivienne though, that was also on my list.

Vivienne and maybe back to the King Arthur drawing board for another name.

My experience, with an Irish name working in the UK is that it takes a lot of people a lot more than one hearing to get an unusual/foreign name. I have had lots of experience of my name being mangled, and for those who are happy to ignore people who can't pronounce their unusual names, this isn't possible with colleagues and clients.

I LOVE both Nimue and Vivienne!! Really beautiful