See the results of this poll: Which spelling do you prefer?
Respondents: 36 (This poll is closed)
- Mey-Rin : 1 (3%)
- Mei-Rin : 18 (50%)
- Meirin : 16 (44%)
- Meyrin: 1 (3%)
I’m not a huge fan of any of them, sorry, and would strongly prefer this name without the [name]May[/name] in front. It sounds like [name]Myron[/name] or [name]Marin[/name] County. If you plan to call her [name]Rin[/name], why not name her that? It doesn’t sound boyish to me at all. Most people will be more thrown off by an unusual prefix, making life for her more difficult, not easier. Especially with the hyphen. “Meirin”, I wouldn’t know how to pronounce. “Meyrin” looks trendy. “[name]Mei[/name]-[name]Rin[/name]” is the cutest, feels like it has an [name]East[/name] [name]Asian[/name] origin. “Mey” seems unnecessarily convoluted, when [name]May[/name] and [name]Mae[/name] make more sense in English.
I don’t like [name]Mae[/name] - it looks misspelled to me (I know its not, but I am other nationality than English, so in my eyes it doesn’t look right) and [name]May[/name] it won’t be for reasons stated above.
I don’t see how [name]Mei[/name] or Mey can be pronounced as My or Ma. Have to admit… 
The name is [name]Asian[/name], so that’s probably why it looks [name]Asian[/name] 
Wait Tiggerian… Are you saying [name]Asian[/name] as in Mandarin? Because… what is [name]Rin[/name] in [name]Asian[/name]?
In Mandarin, there is [name]Mei[/name]-[name]Ren[/name]… 美人，as in beautiful person… but no [name]Rin[/name]. Was this the sound you heard? [name]Ren[/name] is pronounced R- e (as in fErvor)-N.
Is this helping?
No - I just wanted a vote on which way to spell it/stylise it is best. lol.
And it’s used in Japan, albeit very rarily. It’s also used in Indonesia.
[name]Mei[/name] and [name]Rin[/name] are both Japanese names. Meiko means either bright child or a bud, dependent on which source I use. [name]Rin[/name] means Dignified.
To clarify, I meant that they’re close enough in sound that they become associated, and therefore non-distinct, from more commonplace names in the States – in the same way that [name]Jaden[/name], [name]Aidan[/name], [name]Braden[/name] all sound the same, even though they’re clearly all pronounced differently because of the varying first letters. “[name]Marin[/name]” is pronounced muh-[name]RIN[/name]," which doesn’t sound far off from [name]Mei[/name] [name]Rin[/name] to me. [name]Said[/name] quickly, almost identical.
Also, it’s not unheard for “ei” to make the long “i” sound in English and Germanic languages, as in [name]Stein[/name]. So, for example, “Meirin” looks like it could be pronounced Mee-rin or My-rin. [name]May[/name]-rin wouldn’t look like a likely pronunciation contender for me, if I were seeing it for the first time.
My vote would be to ditch [name]Mei[/name]/Mey/etc altogether if you don’t plan to call her that, but if you’re set on it, [name]Mei[/name]-[name]Rin[/name] seems most on point with what you’re looking for and gets my vote.
[name]Ah[/name]… Thanks for the explanation. 
My vote is for Meirin… because [name]Mei[/name]-[name]Rin[/name] looks more Chinese than Jap… I don’t know… I’ve never come across a Japanese name that is hyphenated in its anglocized version, but I could be wrong.
Well to clarify - although the name is Japanese in origin, we are not japanese ourselves.
My partner is British, but I am not - I come from a Scandinavian country. Therefor spelling, pronunciation and difficulty has to be taken into account of both my family and my partners family. [name]May[/name]-[name]Rin[/name] does not have the desired pronunciation in my language, where as [name]Mei[/name] does.
As for ditching the [name]Mei[/name]/Mey- part, when airing the name for family and friends, no one thought of it ([name]Rin[/name]) as a girls name, but all asked us if that wasn’t very masculine/boys name - but when putting [name]Mei[/name]/Mey in front they suddenly did and thought it was very pretty and cute. Although She’d only be called [name]Rin[/name] by family, the [name]Mei[/name]/Mey bit is more as a helping hand for her in the future. Ok the spelling is alternative, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s just different and there’s no reason to be afraid of ‘different’.
No reason to be afraid of different, I agree, and maybe I was being too US/English-centric in my concerns regarding pronunciation. Since your original post specified only “Western”, I was pointing out that here (in the States), at least, [name]Rin[/name] is not unfeminine or un-cute at all, and would be likely to recieve fewer raised eyebrows than the same name with the prefix added. Since you said that you wanted to “help her out”, I thought it was pertinent to mention how adding [name]May[/name] might be doing just the opposite. If it’s fine in [name]England[/name] and Northern Europe, though, then go for it! I think [name]Rin[/name] is gorgeous.
Oh it’s completely fine. All comments are definitely being taken on board and considered if we haven’t considered them before.
The problem mainly arises with my own family as [name]Rin[/name] is pronounced very differently to english (think it’s closer to [name]Ren[/name] in my native tongue actually). And [name]Mei[/name] in my language is pronounce [name]May[/name], where as [name]May[/name] isn’t. Bit difficult to explain I think my family would probably end up pronouncing [name]May[/name] [name]Rin[/name] as [name]Maren[/name] (Mah-[name]Ren[/name]) which is definitely NOT what we’re going for!
I dislike all of them, sorry. I have a Chinese heritage (and I read Japanese comics), so I’m familiar with all of those names and spellings. Mey-[name]Rin[/name] looks very wrong to me. [name]Mei[/name]-[name]Rin[/name] is actually fine, but it doesn’t look like a japanese name or chinese, none of them. A bit lack of identity (again, it’s just my opinion, sorry).
Meirin… I don’t know. Sounds cute but the spelling bothers me. Meyrin… no, just no.
I think you should stick with [name]Rin[/name]. It sounds the same as [name]Wren[/name] in my opinion and thus it is unisex, meaning it could be boy or girl, but all of the [name]Wren[/name]'s I know are female. (I live in the US)
I am half Chinese and [name]Mei[/name] is a Chinese word that has different meaning depending on pronunciation, which could be troublesome. To me it looks really funny since it wouldn’t be Chinese or a Japanese name, it would appear, imo made up or someone who didn’t know that the languages are different. Sorry, I’m not trying to be mean, just want you to know that if you ran into someone who know both Chinese and Japanese, they would find it… odd…
So just stick with [name]Rin[/name], that’s what you plan on calling her anyway.
Mey-[name]Rin[/name] looks off, and the others make me want to say it like [name]Maren[/name]/Marren
I voted [name]Mei[/name]-[name]Rin[/name], because I think that’s the only one guaranteed to get you the pronunciation you want in an English-speaking country.
In all honesty, though, I would just stick with [name]Rin[/name]. For all the reasons others have mentioned. (Mainly, [name]Mei[/name]-[name]Rin[/name] being a weird smoosh of Japanese and Chinese on a child that is neither = weird.)
I really think you should just use [name]Rin[/name]. It’s cute.
I understand that you’re worried [name]Rin[/name] could be assumed masculine, but these [name]Mei[/name] + [name]Rin[/name] combinations open up the potential for mistakes in spelling, pronunication, and even ethnicity. It seems like the “cure” you’re trying to apply is worse than the original problem.
[name]Just[/name] use [name]Rin[/name]. I would agree with he statement that the “cure” is worse than the original problem. Or find a different name that will be recognized as undoubtedly feminine if you have such a problem with the name being perceived as masculine. I’m from the US so I think of [name]Rin[/name] [name]Tin[/name] [name]Tin[/name] but otherwise [name]Rin[/name] would be a cute name or nn.
If you’re worried about [name]Rin[/name], have you considered [name]Rinna[/name]? It might be perceived as more feminine.
I would just use “[name]Rin[/name]”. It sounds feminine to me.
If you like [name]Rin[/name] then just use that. I think it is lovely. So far as I know [name]Rin[/name] is not commonly known in English speaking countries and to my ears is not specifically masculine or feminine, so people would not necessarily assume either way. [name]Rin[/name] is easy to spell and pronounce which is half the battle with unusual names so I think it would be fine just as is.
If you want to hyphenate the name to make it more obviously feminine then I would add something to the end of the name instead; people usually take the first half of a hyphenated name as ‘dominant’, so this way people would probably more naturally call her [name]Rin[/name] (rather than [name]May[/name]/[name]Mae[/name] etc). Not sure what the second name would be though… [name]Rin[/name]-[name]Ray[/name]/[name]Rae[/name], [name]Rin[/name]-[name]Lee[/name], [name]Rin[/name]-[name]Rose[/name]…not sure what would work, but maybe worth exploring?
This might be a little out there, but [name]Rinoa[/name] is the name of a character in one of my favorite video games, and I’ve always adored the name. It could get you the [name]Rin[/name] that you want. [name]Rinna[/name] is also a good choice, but I think that adding [name]Mei[/name] up front looks very strange.
Other suggestions:
[name]Erin[/name]
[name]Karen[/name]
[name]Caterin[/name]
[name]Catherine[/name]
[name]Corrine[/name]
[name]Lauren[/name]
[name]Sabrina[/name]
[name]Sharon[/name]
[name]Trinity[/name]
They’ve all got the ‘rin’ sound that you’re looking for.