My middle name...

Girl Names
1

Hello, Nameberry!

I would really appreciate some input concerning my middle name, [name]Arianne[/name], which I plan to use when I go to college in a few months. But…I fear pronounciation problems. ): My family pronounces it “[name]Air[/name]-ee-anne” or “Airy-anne”, like [name]Mary[/name]-[name]Anne[/name] without the M. I know some people say Aw-ree-ahn, Airy-ahn, [name]Ah[/name]-ree-ah-nee, etc.

My only fear is that everyone will mistake it for “[name]Aryan[/name]”! D: This really worries me, because I don’t want people thinking that either myself or my parents were some crazy white-supremist [name]Neo[/name]-Nazis. I went by my mn in second grade, where it wasn’t a problem because the word “[name]Aryan[/name]” just wasn’t in our vocabulary. The only person to ever bring up the similarity in sounds was my (Mexican) cousin, who has mentioned it, like, twice…but then I hear that other people with this name have experienced the same issue… Argh, it just bugs me because the emphasis in the word “[name]Aryan[/name]” is in the first syllable, but my name is equally stressed: Airy-[name]Anne[/name]. [name]Arianne[/name].

Please help! I think my name is pretty in theory, but is it doomed in practice?

2

I immediately pronounced it the way your family does when I saw it. [name]Aryan[/name] didn’t even occur to me. I don’t think you’ve really got much to worry about.

3

Thank you very much. :slight_smile: I was beginning to feel self-conscious saying my own name!

4

I know nothing about the nazi connection, so I would simply think “What a beautiful name”. Its absoloutely gorgeous and I doubt most people would see it as anything other than a pretty name.

5

Oh, thank you, thank you! It means a lot. <3

I’m probably just stressing out over nothing, but I just wanted to be sure before I adopted my middle name as my primary name. Thank you, again!

(And if anyone out there can’t shake the negative association, feel free to tell me. I’d really like to know, maybe get some kind of ratio of yea to nay. I probably should’ve done a poll, heh.)

6

I don’t think it’s bad. The spelling is totally different-- I’ve heard of girls named [name]Arya[/name], which I think is too close, but [name]Arianne[/name] is fine. I first pronounced it ah-ree-ahn in my head, though.