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I like Nan. It's sweet. I don't know about it working in the UK, I can hardly imagine it working in the US, but I would still take the chance. My Nan combos are Nan Marguerite, Nan Belinda, Nan Bidelia, Nan Odelia, Nan Mathilde, Nan Lucretia, Nan Eudora, Nan Rosalie, Nan Lucille, Nan Mehitabel, Nan Georgette, Nan Estelle. For siblings, I put her with maybe Sadie, Jeanne, Honor, Julie, Victoria, Vita, Laura, Catherine, Kathleen, Mary, Helen, Agnes, Violet, George, Edmund, Jules, Frederick, Peter, Francis, etc.

Personally, I don't really like the sound and I would say it isn't really usable in the UK, due to the fact, as others have said, that it means grandmother. Non is even less usable. I really wouldn't want to be called "No."

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I actually don't mind the name Nancy but I dislike Nanette.

I don't think it's usable in the UK due to the grandmother connection.

I don't think Nan is at all useable - too many people use it as a nickname for their grandmother. To me, it would be like calling a kid Granny or Grandma!

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I call my great-grandmother "Nan", and she's 88, I can't see it working on a child.

I kind of like it as a nickname. But not on its own. Definitely not.

I can't see Nan as a name for a child, because of just think of somebody's Nan, I think people in the UK would think the same, rather than seeing it as a name

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I like Nanette and think that could work, but still not with the nickname Nan

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I dislike Non too

I love Nan! It's so sweet, and I love its etymology. I'd use it as a nickname for Anne, which is part of the reason I got myself to love Anne as much as I do now. Meh, I like archaic things and the reason I like Nan so much wouldn't apply if it wasn't a nickname for Anne I guess.

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Non has a nice sound, but in an English-speaking place I'd say it's totally unusable.

It works as a nn, but feels incomplete on its own. Not into Non at all... esp. w/ Fr. being a well-enough known language in the UK that it would prob'ly result in its share of issues...
Sisters:
Jessica
Rayael
Charissa
Michelle
Laurelle
Mavelle
Joelle
Joy
Faith
Lisa

I get the appeal of Nan, but I know that I definitely wouldn't want to be called Nan, and that makes me hesitant to put it on a child. I do think that the grandmother connotations make it a poor fit for a given name. I think that it could be cute as a nickname, and then if the wearer decided that they didn't like it they could drop it. Maybe Anna called Nan or Hannah called Nan?

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I actually think that I like Non slightly better than Nan, but again I think it would have to be a nickname.

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This might be a it of a stretch, but perhaps Non could be a nickname for something like Manon, Rhiannon, or Shannon?

I knew a Nan once whose birth name was Nancy. She grew up in Frome, must be in her 70s by now, I suppose, and much preferred Nan. Cheerful, efficient, pleasant; green-eyed blonde. A good advertisement for her name. I don't mind it at all, though I prefer Nancy; the only possible problem in the UK might be the grandmother connection, though I had a gran instead of a nan so it didn't bother me. Oh ... also baby milk, I think!

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I agree that Nan-for-Ann is too much of a stretch, though I do know an Anna (in her early 50s, named after Mrs Karenina!) whose mother calls her Nan occasionally.

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Non just gives a negative impression, however hard I try. Nonna might just work: apart from the "nun" meaning, it's still used in Afrikaans though not very often at all nowadays. It used to be a term of address used by the servants to the daughter of the house, like "Missy" or "Young Madam", and the more relaxed form was the diminutive, Nonnie. The o is like RP aw, which might baffle our American readers but should work in a Welsh environment, I imagine.

I was in a shop recently and heard a mother calling her toddler Nanny. It's what I called my grandma! I don't like it or Nan as a name.
I used to work with someone called Noni. I believe it was her full name. It struck me as odd. She had a Welsh surname, incidentally.

This message was edited 2/1/2012, 4:02 AM

it's ok as a nickname, but it is used for Grandmother so often in the UK I would find it odd as a given name. Dislike Nancy and Nanette.

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Non is not usable.