Here's one for you, Duana.

Ever notice that couples' names "go together"? ex. my folks, Don n Mimi (Mimi n Don.) Works. All my coupled friends: Shawn n Sherry. Roy n Angie. Chris n Meaghan. Mary and Dave. Sue and Terry. On and on it goes.

NOTHING sounds right with Lianne. Over a bottle (or 4) of wine we figured out...this is why I am single now. My name doesn't 'go' with anyone.
Find me a name, I'll find me a man. So ladies out there, do not curse your daughter with the name Lianne. It sounds lovely but its cursed I tell ya, cursed. (ps. thank you Robert Mondavi, we enjoy your wine.)

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Oh…wow. 

No…most couples’ names don’t “go together”, actually. It’s one of the great joys of  coupledom that I enjoy.  Think about wedding invitations:

Please join Agniezka and Mark/Parminder and Kristy….for that matter, um…Jacek and Elaine.

Names don’t ‘go together, until they do. Until you’ve heard them so many times that you think of them as a set.  

What you’re actually reacting to, I think, is the repeating sounds in “Lianne and”.  It blends together. Liannean.  So of course it sounds a little funny.  But there’s nothing wrong, at all, with Gregor and Lianne. Colin and Lianne. Jeremy and Lianne. Dave or Peter or Michael or John and Lianne. No problems there. 

I can think of one name that doesn’t go with Lianne, and that’s Landon.

LandanandLianne might be a bit much. This also guarantees that you will probably meet a Landon within the next three weeks. 

But – and I’m making allowances for the wine, here – this is, of course, not only a self-fulfilling prophecy, but the thinnest one I’ve heard in a long time. You think your name – which, let’s be honest, is basically much of your persona – is incompatible with men? Well, that’s convenient. It will also be as true as you make it. I know you didn’t send this letter in total seriousness, but it sounds a bit worrisome.  There is no actual onomastic reason why you don’t “sound right” with someone else, and it’s not cursed, in case some parents out there are hearing this.  I know many a happy Lianne.

So listen, we do the followup request with most letters.  Goes double for you. Write in and tell us about the dates with the guy whose name you thought was never going to work, and then you realized it actually doesn’t matter if his name is Ottavio or Benjamin or Holt, and we won’t even smile and say we told you so.

(Lainey: this is Lianne La Havas. If you haven’t before… LISTEN. Pretty sure her name doesn’t get in the way.)