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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

How do these names sound to English speakers?

29 replies

javotte · 17/08/2012 18:49

Hello. I'm French but my Dad is English, which means I have lots of English-speaking relatives. I'm expecting DC3 (girl) and I would like to be sure that the names I have shortlisted are OK for English speakers, i.e. : are they easy to pronounce / are they chavvy (no debate please, you all know what I mean!) / are they old ladies' names / etc.

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Lannie33 · 04/09/2012 14:50

Here's my take. First of all, all of them are very easy for english-speakers to pronounce so that's not an issue.

Lucile-old-lady (but fits into old-lady chic names that are coming back as a trend)
Aimée-LOVE it
Madeleine-love it
Cécile-like it pronounced the French way, don't love it in English
Clémence-don't really like
Adrienne-Love it
Daphné-OK
Gabrielle-not a fan, don't know why, everyone else seems to like this name
Eloïse-like it

If I had to choose, it would be Aimee, Madeleine or Adrienne. PS What about Vivienne or Clara or Juliette?

NarkedRaspberry · 04/09/2012 13:32

They're all lovely. And if you're French and live in France you don't reallly need to worry too much. They're can all be pronounced quite easily by English people.

whatsoever · 04/09/2012 13:10

Not so keen on Adrienne (will inevitably get wrongly pronounced Adrian) or Daphne (I can only think of Daphne from Neighbours in the 1980s, Daphne from Scooby Doo or the short lived appalling pop duo Daphne & Celeste).

However the others are all lovely & not tricky to pronounce in English. Aimee (or Amy) is very common though - I don't mean common like chavvy though, just popular.

reallacecurtains · 04/09/2012 03:28

I love Daphne, I have a 15-month-old one and we know no others. We think and have been told it's a very classy name. Daphne's only loved by those in the know and those that don't like it aren't. Wink

mathanxiety · 19/08/2012 00:18

Lucile -- lovely
Aimée -- lovely but how are you going to pronounce it?
Madeleine -- lovely
Cécile -- beautiful but a bit too French; prepare for 'Cecil?', 'Cess-isle?''
Clémence -- will be mispronounced (emphasis on the Clem part) but is beautiful as a French name
Adrienne -- a bit meh and will be mispronounced with A as in 'hay'
Daphné -- lovely
Gabrielle -- lovely - but will be shortened to Gabby
Eloïse -- lovely but pronunciation issues will arise

I love Daphne, Lucille and Madeleine

mybootsaremuddy · 18/08/2012 20:49

Lucile - ok
Aimée - ok
Madeleine - quite pretty
Cécile - realy like this
Clémence - not keen
Adrienne - ok when prn correctly - awful if not.
Daphné - I realy like this one
Gabrielle - Love it, my fave from your list
Eloïse - quite like

javotte · 18/08/2012 17:20

Hi MadBusLady
Yes, Aimée is Ay-may in French. Adrienne is Ah-dri-enne.
Eloïse is Eh-low-eez (with the umlaut the two vowels are pronounced separately).

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MadBusLady · 18/08/2012 16:00

I LOVE Lucile! Long overdue a revival, I think. I think these are the three that might sound a tiny bit different.

Aimée - do you say this "ay-MAY"? English speakers would say "AY-mee"
Adrienne - I think this most people would say this "AY-dri-enne" rather than a short, sharp (and much nicer) "A-dri-ENNE"
Eloïse - I think most English speakers see this as "Eh-loo-EEZ". Is that right? I'm not sure what effect the umlaut has I'm afraid Blush. It won't be "oise" as in "oiseau".

Nancy66 · 18/08/2012 14:39

I like them. I'd say that Eloise possibly nudges the chav-o-meter

Ephiny · 17/08/2012 21:50

I agree with Lucile and Daphne seeming a bit old-fashioned/dated. The others are all fine though.

Clemence is the only one I can think might be difficult to pronounce for some English-speakers, shouldn't really be a big problem though.

scaevola · 17/08/2012 21:46

Lucile - probably not good because of association with the song 'You picked a fine time to leave me Lucile',and sounds rather dated
Aimée - like
Madeleine - fine
Cécile - like
Clémence - like, but doesn't work as wellin English as the others
Adrienne - fine
Daphné - sounds a bit dated
Gabrielle - like
Eloïse - lovely

YoullLaughAboutItOneDay · 17/08/2012 21:45

If you live in France, I don't think you need to worry much about English popularity or whether English people find it easy to spell (relatives can make the effort, surely!).

I think that they are all lovely.

Ham69 · 17/08/2012 21:42

Love;
Lucile
Cécile
Clémence
Daphné
Gabrielle
Eloïse

MrsJohnDeere · 17/08/2012 19:19

Love Lucile, Cecile, and Eloise

garlicnuts · 17/08/2012 19:18

Are there only two of us who think Daphne's due for a revival?

thegreylady · 17/08/2012 19:17

All lovely-my favourites are Eloise,Madeleine,Daphne and Gabrielle

LackingNameChangeInspiration · 17/08/2012 19:14

DS has an Aimee and an Amy as nursery nurses, and there are a couple of little girls in his group with variations of it too

javotte · 17/08/2012 19:12

Thanks for your feedback. I can't believe there are so many Aimées in the UK, it's not even in the French top 1000!

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IfElephantsWoreTrousers · 17/08/2012 19:10

Don't go for Adrienne - although it sounds nice when pronounced properly, as the female version of the male english name Adrian (a name that has quite a lot of negative connotations, possibly because of the Adrian Mole books or perhaps they predate those) I think it would often be mistaken and possible be a source of teasing.

I'd advise going for one of the ones which can be spelled properly in French without the use of any accent, grave or other embelishment on letters - so my favourite is Gabrielle.

gut feelings on the others:
Lucile - a bit old-lady-ish but ok
Aimée - would be perceived as an over-pretentious spelling of Amy, avoid.
Madeleine - OK
Cécile - old-lady-ish again, more so than Lucile
Clémence - nice but sounds a bit 'masculine' to me
Daphné - OK
Eloïse - comes across a little pretentious.

lisaro · 17/08/2012 18:57

A particularly lovely list.

VintageNancy · 17/08/2012 18:56

All beautiful names - love Eloise.

MelanieSminge · 17/08/2012 18:55

and Daphne sounds a bit dated

TerrariaMum · 17/08/2012 18:55

All absolutely lovely names.

MelanieSminge · 17/08/2012 18:55

agree there are way too many Aimees about, but all the others are lovely, and I wouldn't see any pronunciation problems.
Might avoid Madeleine.....

LackingNameChangeInspiration · 17/08/2012 18:55

Lucile - loose-eel nice
Aimée -aim-ee nice
Madeleine mad-el-een McCann
Cécile -se-seal nice
Clémence cle-mawns mmmm not keen, I guess a bit "poncy" but wouldn't think poncy if the child was french IYKWIM, only on an English kid
Adrienne awdree-en(like hen) not really keen, its okay, a bit dull and drab!
Daphné daf-knee bit of a middle aged woman name
Gabrielle gab-ree-el nice
Eloïse el-ow-eese too "now"ish for me