French baby girl - Isaure or Zélie?

[Moopsy]

Hi,

3 weeks away from our lo being due and after many many lists and discussions (ie arguments...ahem...) the 2 names my dh and I have settled on are Isaure (Ee-zor) or Zélie.

I am French and dh is British. Our dd is called Joséphine.

I would love your views on those names so we can finally get a winner! They are both French names. I think Isaura is the English version.

Thanks!

[WookieWoo]

Both are beautiful! But if I had to pick one I'd go for Zélie. I just love saying it!

[KentuckyFriedChildren]

I think that she would be constantly correcting Isaure which many people would pronounce eye-sore which of course would not be a nice thing to be called. Zelie (can't do inflections on phone) is lovely.

[SchrodingersMew]

Zélie is lovely. :)

[MagdalenaAlec]

I love both but would probably pick Zelie because of the "eye-sore" thing.. Isaure is too close to Iris for people not to go with the "eye" pronunciation at their first attempt.

[FriggFRIGG]

Zélie is absolutley beautiful!

[Gugglebum]

I vote for Zélie! It is lovely.

[tigrou]

Zélie is beautiful, and works equally well in both languages, whereas Isaure doesn't work as well in English. Zélie also goes perfectly with Joséphine.

[Mindy101]

I prefer isaure I think it sounds lovely.i also prefer names that are higher up in the alphabet.she won't always be waiting till last to have her name called out!

[Badgerina]

Isaure is my fav of the two.

[marjolaine]

Ooh, Zélie is lovely! Not heard it before but like it a lot.
Isaure is nice enough in French but agree you will get lots of "eye-sore"s.

[MadBusLady]

Another Zelie vote here, very pretty. Isaure made me think of the sound donkeys make (which I learn courtesy of The Internet is "hihan" in French as opposed to English "hee-haw/eey-ore").

[DialMforMummy]

I think Zélie is too close to Josephine if shortened to Josie.
Isaure is pretty cool.

[shoobidoo]

Isaure is beautiful and gets my vote.

Also agree that Zélie is rather similar in sound to Josie (Josephine).

[shoobidoo]

Why on earth would people pronounce Isaure as eye-sore?!

They don't say Eye-sabel for Isabel or Eye-sadore for Isadora.

It would honestly never occur to me to pronounce Isaure as anything else but EE-zor.

[squoosh]

Never heard of either of these names before but they're both gorgeous.

Think Zélie wins it by a whisker.

[talkingnonsense]

I would say eye- sadora? Is that not right? Is it is- adora, like Isabel? Luckily I've never met one!

[Pasiphae]

Zélie is lovely, French but easily workable in the UK.

Isaure will suffer from "funny" jokes with Dinosaur links.
I'd would pn it Ee-zor too.

[shoobidoo]

I would assume Isadora = Ee-sadora like Isabel = Ee-sabel or Istanbul as Ee-stanbul.

[talkingnonsense]

But I say izz for Isabel, and iss for Istanbul! Short I bothe times though! Ee would be like electric?

[mathanxiety]

'Why on earth would people pronounce Isaure as eye-sore?!'

Because the 'Saure' element suggests that. And because people are mischievous and they can and will poke fun.

I vote Zelie. A gorgeous name imo.

[mathanxiety]

Isadora/Isabel/Istanbul = short I for me.

Electric = short E both times.

[Gwennan]

I would choose Zélie.

Isaure sounds too much like Eeyore (Winnie the Pooh) to my ears!

I think the problem is, you've chosen a very mainstream French name for your first daughter (i.e. Joséphine, a name which is sometimes used in the UK by British parents) so Isaure and Zélie look extremely exotic next to it. Both present their own pronunciation difficulties for English speakers but I think Zélie sounds the best in an English accent. I think Isaure sounds a little ugly in English although I imagine beautiful in French (much like the name Agnes).

[anamaria22]

I like them both but prefer Isaure. Isaure and Josie sounds lovely together imo.

[Polkadotfanatic]

Sorry for being the ignorant one of the post but what is the pronunciation of both of the names (short E, long E arguments aside?)

Is Zélie - to rhyme with Nelly? Or is it Zee-Lee, or with the accent Zay-lie to rhyme with Kayleigh?

confused head

:)

[Yika]

Both lovely names. You can't go wrong, whichever you pick.