Lately, I’ve been playing a video game where one of the main characters is named Agnès. I’ve fallen in love with the name. It’s the [name_m]French[/name_m] version of [name_f]Agnes[/name_f], and it is said awn-YES, which I think is lovely. However, I live in the US, where people would rarely know how to pronounce it. Also, having accents on letters is rare on official paperwork (and on computers as well- I just saved myself the trouble and copied the name Agnès from BTN.)
So, though I love Agnès, I’m stuck with the option of keeping it guilty pleasure, using it as a middle or just spelling it differently. Now, I normally hate misspellings, but would making up a phonetic spelling (i.e. Aunyesse) be better than just using the accent? Or, would it look made up?
I definitely prefer the french prn. I say that if you want to use it, you should retain the original spelling. It’s a very established name, so I would not mess with it – not to mention that’s a huge liberty (not quite like replacing an “i” with a “y” or something). The phonetic spelling looks incredibly complicated though, and would probably still have to deal with mispronunciations not to mention misspellings!
I think it’s best to either be willing to correct someone or use it as a middle name, with traditional spelling, where it won’t be an issue (many legal documents only require the middle initial and we rarely use our full names anyway).
Yeah, I can’t see it being pronounced the [name_m]French[/name_m] way in the US. I mean, you could tell people, but she’d be correcting people all her life…and it would weird if you aren’t [name_m]French[/name_m]-speaking (I don’t know if you are?)
Misspelling it just ruins a beautiful name, in my opinion. People will still be confused as to how to pronounce Aunyesse, since it’s not even an obviously familiar name and you could still feasibly read that in several different ways, and you’ll just add confusion over spelling in addition to confusion over pronunciation. I’d say use it as a middle name, or a pet. Or just go with the English pronunciation of [name_f]Agnes[/name_f], which is perhaps less elegant and exotic but just as lovely…I actually prefer it, because I think the [name_m]French[/name_m] version with some American accents might sound unfortunately similar to anus, but with the English [name_f]Agnes[/name_f]’ hard g sound, that problem is completely eliminated. [name_f]Aggie[/name_f] and [name_f]Nessie[/name_f] are adorable nicknames.
There’s also the Welsh variation, [name_f]Nesta[/name_f], which is darling. Or the [name_m]French[/name_m] (and Dutch?) variation of [name_f]Anne[/name_f], [name_f]Anouk[/name_f], which is so sweet and has a similar feel to [name_f]Agnes[/name_f] with a much more straightforward pronunciation.
Agnès pronounced the French way is lovely. Unfortunately, no one in the US would pronounce it that way and official documents don’t like accents. Changing the spelling would take away all of the charm of the name. Either keep it for a mn or as a guilty pleasure.
I have a real fondness for the [name_m]French[/name_m] prn of [name_f]Agnes[/name_f], but it’s my confirmation name and I tried - to no avail - to get people to use the [name_m]French[/name_m] pronunciation when I picked it (I mean … I was 10, it seemed like a good idea!). I just use the English prn now. Like the others said, misspelling it ruins it.
Another form of the name, [name_f]Ines[/name_f] (Ee-NEHS) is popular in [name_f]France[/name_f], more accessible, and to my ears, just as lovely.
Or the [name_m]French[/name_m] (and Dutch?) variation of [name_f]Anne[/name_f], [name_f]Anouk[/name_f], which is so sweet and has a similar feel to [name_f]Agnes[/name_f] with a much more straightforward pronunciation.