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Halcyon / Alcyone
What do you think of Halcyon (HAL-see-un) and Alcyone (al-SYE-oh-nee) as female names? Do you pronounce them differently? Do you see any difficulties with them? I like the idea of "halcyon days" meaning "calm and peaceful," but Alcyone looks more like a name to me. Then again, I like the pronunciation of Halcyon better. Which would you pick?
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Alcyone sounds pretty.Halcyon kinda puts me off, though. Maybe it's because of the pill Halcion?

This message was edited 10/8/2012, 6:24 PM

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I love Alcyone! It's so under-appreciated. However, I don't really think of Halcyon as a name, since that is legitimately an alternate name for the kingfisher bird. For me, it is a poetic word rather than something a person should be called. Alcyone, though, is lovely.
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I would pick Alcyone, but to be honest I don't care for any of them. They sound like prescription drugs to me.

This message was edited 10/8/2012, 7:19 AM

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I love Alcyone. I would consider it as a middle name. It isn't my real name, so I can't comment on real life experience, but as a first name, I think it might be somewhat difficult to have due to spelling and pronunciation issues where I live.I agree that Alcyone seems more like a name. I think of the word "halcyon" when I encounter Halcyon. I like Halcyon, but I prefer Alcyone because it seems more like a name.
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It's no secret here that I adore Halcyon with the nn Hallie. Would I be brave enough to use it? Hard to say since it doesn't complement the names of my other children at all. Would I love to see it used? You bet!With Alcyone, I do pronounce it differently (al-SEE-oh-nee). I automatically pronounce names that contain the letter y with a long e sound. I don't know if that's right or wrong but since it's an uncommon name, I could probably get away with it, LOL. Difficulties: They're both uncommon which means you'd have pronunciation and spelling issues. Also, I think there's a prescription named Halcyon (not sure). OTOH, I've seen names which were much more problematic.

This message was edited 10/7/2012, 5:30 PM

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Halcyon: The name of a sleeping pill. She should have sisters named Lunesta and Ambien.Alcyone: Yes, I see a problem here. Hard to pronounce and spell and not get it mistaken for Allison somehow.
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Oops. Good point about the (Halcion) sleeping pills.

This message was edited 10/7/2012, 4:05 PM

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Geez. I could have written this. I'm torn between the pronunciation I prefer with Halcyon (although it feels more masculine than feminine), but Alcyone seems like more of a name for a person and is all female to me. On balance, I'm leaning towards Alcyone today. It's hard to pass up really "Greek-y" names for me. :-)
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