Odd. I just realized
Miriam and
Raphael have the same number of syllables and yet
Raphael seems longer. I wanted to use Miri as a nn for
Miriam but I have a niece named
Mira. A few people tried to call her
Mimi but that's what my mom uses instead of grandma!
My last name is a boring, Irish name. My maiden name would sound great with
Raphael but with my married name sounds like you're trying to pass of glass as a diamond.
In the end though, who knows? We had always planned on using
Margaret as a first name. I liked
Miriam, my husband never did. Two months in we had settled on
Miriam.
I'll just add to the list for the time being.