My husband and I have started looking at baby names, we’ve narrowed it down to our favorite girl names and our favorite boys names…However, I’m foreseeing potential issues despite my love for these names.
For a daughter we chose [name]Ella[/name] [name]Mary[/name]. [name]Mary[/name] is my middle name and my husband’s grandmother’s name and I love how timeless [name]Ella[/name] sounds.
For a son we really love [name]Fionn[/name] (pronounced “[name]Finn[/name]”) [name]Michael[/name]. [name]Michael[/name] is also a family name for both sides. [name]Both[/name] my husband and I have Irish ancestry and my name is spelled in the Gaelic Variation ([name]Caitlin[/name]) so I love spelling [name]Fionn[/name] with that same variation. However, being a [name]Caitlin[/name] I have spent my entire life telling people how to spell my name and I’m afraid of [name]Fionn[/name] not only spelling his name for people but having to pronounce it as well.
The other issue is that together the names are [name]Ella[/name] [name]Fionn[/name] or [name]Fionn[/name] [name]Ella[/name] which my mother was quick to point out sound like elephant or vanilla…
These problems definitely bother me more than they do my husband so I’m asking if these concerns are warranted or if I should just let those concerns go and remember why we chose the names in the first place.
[name]Ella[/name] [name]Mary[/name] is really pretty… [name]Fionn[/name] is just asking for problems like you mentioned spelling AND pronunciation. I couldn’t stop reading that name to sound like [name]Fee[/name]-own or [name]Fee[/name]-on. Still at the end of your email I still couldn’t read the name to say [name]Finn[/name]. I am on my third pregnancy and each time I have a child my name choices and likes change. The names I lived 6 years ago are much different from my list now for this next baby. 
[name]Ella[/name] is one of my choices if this ones a girl so I’m partial to that name even though it’s pretty popular!
I love the name [name]Finn[/name], but I agree that depending on your location it will likely cause problems with pronunciation and spelling.
Is it absolutely out of the question to go with [name]Finn[/name]? What about [name]Phineas[/name] (Phin?) or [name]Finnegan[/name]?
I don’t think it’s a problem that the kids names together sound a tiny bit like elephant–it’s actually kinda cute. [name]How[/name] often is that going to be noticed? I doubt it will ever truly matter unless they become pairs ice skaters or something
I love [name]Finn[/name] and [name]Ella[/name]. I would spell [name]Finn[/name] that way so he doesn’t have to deal with the headache of having it misspelled his entire life. I hate constantly having to fix the spelling of my name.
And the names will probably never be pronounced without an “and” or some other word in between, so I don’t think that matters.
[name]Ella[/name] [name]Fionn[/name] (I see elephant now) or [name]Fionn[/name] [name]Ella[/name] (does not sound like vanilla to me at all). What about Fianne? (fian, fiane,fiann)