I'm not sure how Alais is pronounced - is it like uh-LACE? ah-la-EES? I don't like it either way, but especially the second way. It's just too hard to enunciate all those vowels as separate syllables!
Gervase is okay, but I'm a little surprised to hear that you see as it old-fashioned because I've always thought of it as a quite modern name that would be primarily used by black Americans. Admittedly, I don't know the history of its usage, but that's my first impression.
Annie &
Lennox (after
Annie Lennox) - Is
Lennox on a boy or a girl? Either way I don't like the name too much.
Annie is cute as a nickname for
Anne,
Anna,
Annabelle, etc., but I wouldn't use it on its own. Here, the
Annie Lennox connection is pretty obvious, and that's a little over-the-top.
Alice &
Emma (
German woman rights activist and her magazine) - Classic names that work well together.
Linnea &
Linus - Too similar to each other.
Hedwig &
Minna (two
German feminists) - For me,
Hedwig is too associated with
Harry Potter's owl to be usable. Of course, this may not matter nearly as much in Germany if
Hedwig is still a commonly used or at least a familiar name. Nevertheless, I rank
Hedwig right up near the top of my list of world's ugliest names.
Minna is cute.
Rosa (Rozalie) &
Clara (
Rosa Luxemberg and
Clara Zetkin, founders of the "Internationale group" later: " Spartacist League) -
Rosa and
Clara are adorable together.
Rosa and
Karl (
Rosa Luxemburg and
Karl Liebknecht, founders of the "Internationale group" later: " Spartacist League) -
Love Rosa, don't like
Karl so much. They're fine for twin names.
Rosa (Rozalie) &
Mathilde (
Mathilde was
Rosa's helper and friend) -
Love it!
Mathilde is so much nicer than the English
Matilda.
or
Rosalie and
Mathilda "
Rosie and
Tilly" - Nice, but I still like
Mathilde better.
Rosa &
Parker (
Rosa Parks) - Dislike
Parker.
I think the
Annie /
Lennox twin set is too obvious, and I dislike obvious twin pairings. Twins shouldn't be lumped together in tailored sets when they're already going to have people referring to them as a singular unit irritatingly often.
I can't really comment on how obvious a lot of the sets are because I'm not
German. The only name familiar to me is
Clara Zetkin, so I don't see any running theme in the sets of
Rosa and
Clara,
Rosa and
Mathilde, etc. In general though, using first names in sets is less obvious - or at least less annoying - than using the famous person's first name for one personal name and the last name for the second twin's personal name. I'd much rather see brother and sister
Ronald and
Nancy than
Ronald and
Reagan. Not that I would like to see brother and sister
Nancy and
Ronald, but at least then you can pretend it was a coincidence if you don't want to be connected with the Reagans . . .
This message was edited 9/19/2006, 11:38 AM