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I'm not really agreeing that Melisanthe is a variant of Melisande, if you're pronouncing it Meli-SAN-thee like Xanthe. -anthe is Greek, I thought. Doesn't matter, really.

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IMO Melisande prn May-lee-SAWND is the variant of the name for French speakers, not so much for English speakers. It doesn't come over to English very gracefully.

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Saying May-lee-SAWND for me is like saying Coyt-HLEEN for Caitlin. The accent required is enough effort to do, and it's likely enough that I'll say it wrong, that the name (on a fellow American) seems to put on airs. You could give people who have no French a speed lesson in French pronunciation, but obviously that'd be obnoxious. Or you could put up with the name being pronounced wrong a lot. So alas, I would never use Melisande, even though I think it's a beautiful name in French. I wouldn't choose to name a kid Angela pronounced "ANN-juh-luh" if I were raising her in France, for approximately the same reason.

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You could pronounce it Mell-ih-SAUND rhyme fond. That's better, but I still think it's stilted with the stress on the final syllable, and I think I would still tend to move more stress to the first syllable when I became comfy with it.

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One of the English variations would enthuse me, though. Millicent has had many forms. It does not have to be Millicent. My preferred version of the name is Mellisant or Melisant (sounds like Millicent except with a MELL sound instead of MILL).

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Mellie is a nickname I love.

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- mirfak