It works, yeah - not well. Better than
Happy works, but not as well as
Joy works. It works mainly because of sounding so much like
Mary.
Merry sounds pretty much the same in my accent as
Mary, but the vowel's a tiny bit shorter and weaker ... a difference is probably not detectable but I "feel" I'm saying it differently.
I'd pick
Holly. I like the sound of
Merry but not that it's a word.
I think Merrily is bad, because it's an adverb.
Kirrily,
Romilly,
Beverly,
Cecily,
Kimberly don't sound like adverbs. But
Everly and
Amberly do, and Merrily actually is one... way too wordy. Also evokes rowing your boat gently down the stream. Merrilee or Merelie seems nicer to me by far.
Even Merraly would be better than Merrily.
If I wanted
Merry I'd use
Mary or spell it
Meri, to get away from the word. The word merry, in my mind, slightly alludes to drunkenness or silliness ... merrymaking, merriment are partying and laughter. So it doesn't just connote joy, it's more akin to mirth ... like something you deliberately choose to "make" rather than it being a blessing. It lacks the reverence of
Holly,
Grace, and
Joy. That doesn't make it bad, but I just feel differently about the word as a name.
- mirfakThis message was edited 11/26/2023, 2:45 PM