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.

My 5 year old has a set of twins called Ines & Alma in her class. Beautiful names! I think they go nicely together.

True, I think Alma might be better with a different middle name.

Alma is lovely! Not sure about it with Manon but the full name is so rarely said it doesn’t matter that much. Ines is also nice but so so popular where I live!

I love them both. Great choices OP.

I really like both. Alma was on my list for my second daughter.

I'm Swedish, DH English, and Alma is MEGA popular in Scandinavia. I find it really funny how people here still call it frumpy or old lady. It is definitely doing a comeback in the UK too, know two babies with very cool parents. Both names are so gorgeous, go for it!

Also just to add that around 4 years ago everyone here was so against Alma and now most people love it. So I don't think people at MN are usually the most on trend😆

I think they go beautifully together

I like Alma, but not with Manon. I think it needs a name with more plosive consonants to balance out the soft vowels in Alma:

Alma Colette
Alma Delphine

I like both. I think Alma is definitely making a comeback in the UK!

I think Alma is really lovely and not at all dated.

Alma Celine
Alma Juliette
Alma Coralie

I absolutely love Alma. Would have been on our list if DS was a girl.

I absolutely love them both. Perfect!
congratulations on your twins!

I think they're both gorgeous names! I wouldn't worry too much about what others think of the middle names as no one gets called by all their names and I always think middle names are quite personal.

Ines Maria has the best names.

Alma is not nice.

Both are beautiful names
Congratulations!

Is it eye-nez or ee-nez?

Either way I think they are both old fashioned and not very nice, sorry.

I like them both. My 6 year old has twins Inés and Luisa in her class, and Alma and Alba are very popular in Spain now. I would not pair Alma with Manon (another friend of my dd) because it is too much M sound.

I agree with this. Ines is a beautiful name but I have no idea how to type a grave accent on a UK PC keyboard (a bit easier if you're on a Mac). It's not a reason to not use the name but maybe something to bear in mind.

I'm not a fan of Alma at all.

I'm biased but I love Inès. Alma is nice too, although I prefer Alba.

Other French/bilingual girl's names I like:
Adèle
Daphné
Luna
Mia

As for middle names... are you English? Will the children have your surname (with or without your DH's surname)? I would want to give them a middle name from your side of the family, something that reflects your heritage whatever that is, and something more English, especially if they will only have DH's surname and not yours. For that reason I wouldn't use Manon (and I don't like it much anyway, because it contains "Man" and "non")

Love your name choices

I think you need a middle name for Alma which doesn't start with Ma as that's how Alma ends - you have mama in the middle when you say them together

Celine
Delphine
Nichole
Suzette

It is very old fashioned in England, I only know Almas in their 70s and 80s - but still a lovely name

I like Alma, I've never known one of any age so not dated for me. Nice sound.

Manon doesn't flow with the middle name. Maybe more Catherine, Genevieve, Clemence, Natalie, Louise etc.

Ines I get confused with the pronunciation, I think after watching Hairspray too many times (where it's eye-nezz). I think with French pronunciation it's more ee-ness? That's nicer.

I love both Alma and Ines!

I agree that Alma Maria and Ines Maria are easier to say; however, I quite like a slightly clunky middle name and I think Alma Manon is also nice!

Interesting that people are commenting that Alma is frumpy, yet names like Eliza and Elsie seem very popular on here. Alma is reasonably popular where I am, so I wouldn’t think it was unusual.

Both lovely 😊