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I think Magdalene would work better with Miriam. You could still call her Magda. Now with Anastasia, the feel is different from the more down-to-earth Miriam, however, if you called her Anya, it would work. Re: the pronunciation, right before my youngest was born, I did sort of toy with Anastasia with the pronunciation your dh prefers. I ruled it out due to being concerned that no one would pronounce it that way and honestly, an-uh-STAY-zhuh reminds me of anesthesia. :-(

I like Anya, but I don't like Magda. I like Anastasia, but not that pronunciation. Too much of a mouthful.

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I think Miriam and Anya could be sisters, or Miriam and Magda, but not Miriam and Anastasia. To me, they just don't match in any way. Miriam is subdued and periwinkle blue, Anastasia is flashy and glittering. JMO.

I like Magda better (something interesting about how it sounds both harsh and pretty) but I think Miriam and Anya go together better. They're still a bit of an unlikely combo, but if it doesn't bother you, I doubt anyone else will give it a moments thought.

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If going with Magda, unless you hate Magdalene I would just use it to make him happy because if you call her Magda I doubt the full name would often get used. Magdalene is a mouthful so I predict even if you two don't shorten it, others will!

I'm with your husband with prefer Magdalene over Magda, though I prefer Magdalena overall nn Maggie rather than Magda, Magda just sounds ugly to me, I think its the da part as Magdie would be cute

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I like Anastasia, but dislike Anya so I'm with you on that one. I prefer Annie or Stacey

I really dislike Magda. It sounds like an elderly maidservant's name or so, sorry.
Same with Anastasia. Makes me think of the singer. Also very Russian/Slavic.

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Anya may be better than Magda, but I'm not too crazy about it.

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I like Miriam though. I don't think that Magda would be a good match for Miriam since they both start with M. And they both go back to Mary. I think it's weird to give them both Mary names.

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So what about those?

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Miriam & Adina
Miriam & Amira
Miriam & Eliana
Miriam & Joanna
Miriam & Junia
Miriam & Liora
Miriam & Rona
Miriam & Talia
Miriam & Yara

I think both names would work with Miriam, but I don't like either one.

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Magda is very old fashioned where I live. You probably won't find any Magda's under the age of 55. I have to agree with your husband, Magdalene is better.

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Same thing goes for Anya. Though it's a bit less old fashioned, it's still not a name I'd use for a little girl.

Anya and Magda are lovely, though of course being mentioned together immediately brings to mind the characters from Marvel Comics (they're mother and daughter). I prefer the full Magdalene to Magda as well, for the record, though Maggie is a nice nn for either. :)

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I really love Anastasia, and while I pronounce it An-ni-stay-zuh (or something like that), the An-ni-stas-ee-a pronunciation doesn't sound wrong or bad to me. It does add another syllable, though, which might be important when considering the flow of a full name.

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Anya Miriam is quite lovely, imo. :)

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I love Anya as a standalone name, but you could get creative with it and make it a nn for something else:

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Hannah
Annette
Annika
Anita
Annabelle / Annabella
Lisanne / Lysanne
Leeann / Leanne / Leanna
Luanne
Anamaria / Annemarie
Marianna / Marianne
Rosana / Rosanna / Rosannah
Angela / Angelica
Rhiannon / Riannon
Alexandra
Andrea
Andriana
Adriana
Georgiana
Joanna / Johanna
Breanne / Breana

This message was edited 7/15/2015, 1:59 AM

Magda is so clunky. It basically isolates the least appealing part of Magdalene / Magdalena. I'm not digging Miriam and Magda together. They're matchy, they make each other seem really frumpy, and Magda looks incomplete next to Miriam. Magdalene and Miriam together strike me as EXTREMELY religious...like, fanaticism level. Which is a shame, since I like Magdalene a lot.

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I love Anya but only as a nickname. It's never used as a full name in Russian and it irks me when English-speakers do. Like Magda, Anya seems especially incomplete next to the stately Miriam. I'd expect Anya to have a sister named Mira, not Miriam. Are there any other An- names you both like? Annabel, Anneliese, Annika (which is also a nickname but often used as a given name in Scandinavia)...

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There's also Anja, which like Annika is a nickname with a long history of freestanding use in Scandinavia. But you might run into some pronunciation issues.