Ayn

Perfectly nice. Could also work as a nickname for Ainsley. Obviously pronounced like "cane" without the c. Never heard any other, including while discussing Anthem+The Fountainhead+Atlas Shrugged for school. (And no, there's no reason to dislike Rand.)

I like this name, it sounds like the kind of name of someone who is intellectual and probably likes books. The downside of this name is that people always pronounce it wrong and say "you mean like Ayn Rand" and have perceptions about your politics before they even know you.

It's probably based on Aina or Aino? Those are nice names. This name looks kinda incomplete, even without association of Ayn Rand. And there's also no way to escape the association ever considering she made it up... though looking at the beyond statistics Ayn seems to have gotten a decent amount of use, which is interesting. 2,464 little girls were born with this name in it's most popular year on the chart and it just charted last year.

The fabulous actress Ayn Ruymen makes me really love it. I dig the pronunciation and the simplicity of this unusual name. ♥.

I made Ayn part of my youngest daughter's first name, AcaciaAyn, and is like Maryann in its pronunciation. I felt that Ayn was more romantic and feminine looking when written. Now she usually goes by Caci or sometimes CaciAyn, but has initial necklaces with both A and C and custom made name necklaces.

I think the name Ayn sounds and looks pretty cool. I read somewhere it is derived from "Ann." I'm a libertarian and a fan of Austrian economics. I like Ayn Rand's fiction. I don't consider Ayn Rand a sophisticated economist or someone to take ideas from. The way I see it this name is probably going to be ranked by whether or not you like Ayn Rand, and by few other standards. If you don't mind the constant association, go right ahead, it's a unique and cool looking name.

Ayn Rand was a horrible author and philosopher. Putting that aside, the name might look sort of cool written down, but it isn't so pleasant spoken or heard. This is certainly not a name to actually bestow on real people.

Only Randroids, that is, people who actually share the heinous views of Ayn Rand, would use this rather ugly name on their daughter. If you have a daughter with this name, I'll know to avoid you and your social Darwinist views. It just screams ''my parents are cult member types''.