Alma & Inès

[Clucie]

DH and I are expecting twin girls. DH is French but they will be raised mostly in the UK. Our favourite names right now are Alma & Inès.
What's everyone's thoughts?
Full names we are thinking Alma Manon and Inès Maria.

I like Ines but Alma is very old fashioned in a Brenda or Maureen type of way - I'm not keen on it.

Interesting I think its actually in the top 20 in France!

I really don't like Alma Manon, either together or apart. To many 'm's and not an appealing sound.

Sorry to say but I'd feel she had drawn the short straw as I love Ines.

Any other options?

Hm not for first names, we love Alma, in fact it's our favourite over Inès. Maybe for middle names we could find something else. Or any suggestions?

I love Alma and Ines together. And I think Alma is more ‘current’ than some other old fashioned names… doesn’t sit with Brenda in my opinion, I think it sits with a name more like Hetty or Elsie.

I love Alma and Ines! I think they are lovely individually and sound nice together too, I love that they both have four letters, start with different letters and have different endings. They are both not overly used in the UK. Alma does sound more vintage to me in comparison to Ines, which I haven’t heard used here until recently - probably not important to you, but that’s probably why people are commenting on Alma being a more “old fashioned” style to Ines maybe?

Ines is beautiful. Would you consider Alba as an alternative to Alma?

Both are beautiful

I love Alma, it's a beautiful name in French and English! I like Ines too but wanted to speak up for Alma. Nicer than Alba. I agree Alma Manon is a bit of a tongue twister in English

Alma and Inez are well suited for twins.

Alma Manon is too tongue twisty when said aloud.

Ines Maria is sweet.

Alma Caroline
Alma Costeen
Alma Harriet
Alma Charlotte
Alma Zoe
Alma Gretal
Alma Louisa
Alma Lilac
Alma Genevieve
Chloe Cosette

Others..
Amelie
Jean
Sabine
Alexandra
Rachel
Rose
Clementine
Sophie

Both very beautiful names

Alma is beautiful as is Inès - great twin names. I'm less keen on second names but only because I don't know them

Lovely!

I like both Alma and Inès. I actually think Inès Manon and Alma Maria might flow more easily for English speakers, although I cannot quite put my finger on why.

The issue I have with Ines is the accent
UK keyboards aren't that easy on accents and the accent also changes on different languages so can get confusing

Inès
Inés (Spanish)
Inês (Portuguese)

Both nice names - Alma is definitely popular for toddlers around east London and Southwest London, although I still struggle to see it as a young name personally.

Poor Alma has really drawn the short straw, what other options do u have?

Ines (with the accent that I can’t find) is great
Alma is very old fashioned sounding in the UK
Alba is better

Great, if you love Alma, go for it and enjoy!

Middle names, and this is just my taste, I think it would be nice with something with a bit of auditory pep in the initial sound like a plosive /TPBDGK/ (or hard 'c'), or voiced consonant like /V/ /J/ for a contrast to all the softness in Alma.

Not sure if they're you're taste but I like Gaelle and Tiphaine

Alma and Alba have very different meanings though! (In case that matters to you).

Alma = soul
Alba = white

Ines Manon and Alma Maria flow better I think .

What about Alma Madeleine?

Both are really lovely and Alma might be old-fashioned but it's in the good way IMO.

I love both your first name options, they work really well together. I've never met an Alma and lived in London all my life so to me this doesn't sound old fashioned at all and is quite fresh. Maybe it's a regional thing?

I agree with others that Alma Manon doesn't flow that well, although if you love it it doesn't matter that much because no one really knows middle names. Did you like that Manon is the same root name as Maria and that's why you chose it? If so you could choose a variation of Catherine, which means pure, a very similar meaning to Inès to link the twins and both very classic names. I think Alma Catherine and Inès Maria sound lovely together.

Alternative ideas:
Alma Margot and Inès Maria
Alma Suzanne and Inès Maria
Alma Nadine and Inès Maria

I think Alma's lovely and Inés is ok but as you can see on this thread few of us know what accent to use or where to find it, which might be annoying for her

I love Alma and Ines.. I don't like Alma Manon at all though it sounds like a tongue twister with Ma Ma