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Baby names

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Original poster

Ettienne

55 replies

WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 25/06/2015 12:46

Love it?
Hate it?
What names would you expect his siblings to have?
Heard it the other day in the playground. Decided I loved it.

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GreatAuntDinah · 04/07/2015 09:55

There's a female Etienna lives down the road from us.

NinjaLeprechaun · 04/07/2015 09:49

It would be very odd to name a girl Etienne. Not unlike naming a boy Susan.

Purplehonesty · 04/07/2015 09:46

I like it, for a girl though.

And depending on where you live it could be pronounced strangely. Imagine a Yorkshire accent...
Ettyun anyone?!

NinjaLeprechaun · 04/07/2015 09:33

Ruby I'm actually in the US (the statement could probably still stand) although I'm not actually American. I love Canada though, and have 3 cousins who were born in Montreal. (Anglophones, obviously, as their mother is English.)
It's only been fairly recently though that I really discovered that there's more than one dialect of French in Canada, even though it makes sense that there would be, just like there's more than one dialect of English.

rubyinthedust · 04/07/2015 08:45

Ninja - got to say I'm quite impressed that someone in the UK has given more than two thoughts to the French Canadian dialect! :)

This might be interesting to you (sorry, others!): the French Revolution is the main reason the Canadian and French dialects are so different. Basically, pre-Revolution, we spoke in the same way (apparently French visitors to Canada would comment on how intelligent the people sounded!). Back then it was fashionable to aim to speak like royalty. Obviously post-Revolution this wasn't the case in France anymore, so the people there began to try sounding like the bourgeoisie. No one in French Canada cared about the Revolution so we carried on speaking like the kings!

So now, the French sometimes make fun of our accent, and talk about how archaic it is - little do they know they should be bowing to us! :D

Bellejournee · 04/07/2015 08:23

Love it! I know a Nathaniel Etienne - not French in the slightest either.

Candycoco · 04/07/2015 07:35

Love it

GreatAuntDinah · 04/07/2015 07:30

Nana is a brand of ST in France'

AvaCrowder · 04/07/2015 01:38

I like it. Siblings called Claude et Nana. Surname Lantier/ Copeau

NinjaLeprechaun · 04/07/2015 01:34

"Ninja - French Canadians put s's after t's if the following letter is an i or a u. Pre-French Revolution pronunciation quirk that we've retained, nothing to do with swapping letters around."
Thanks Ruby. So it is an archaism, just not in the way I had parsed it.

(I'm fascinated by dialects, and have sometimes run across French examples in my study of them, but I've only retained about a dozen words of French, and an equal amount of grammar, from 3 long-ago years of school French. Which does make it slightly harder to convert specific details into practical terms.)

rubyinthedust · 03/07/2015 19:36

Ninja - French Canadians put s's after t's if the following letter is an i or a u. Pre-French Revolution pronunciation quirk that we've retained, nothing to do with swapping letters around.

That said, Etienne is a boy's name, only has one t, and Etiennette sounds incredibly archaic - from 4-5 generations ago, when it was fashionable to make up female names based on male names - Paulette, Georgette, etc.

Somebody asked - Etienne should be pronounced ett-yen.

NinjaLeprechaun · 03/07/2015 12:12

"The old form of the name is Estienne, the s has disappeared over time."
That's interesting - in Canada Etienne is (sometimes?) pronounced Etsienne. There is a tendency in some Canadian French dialects to swap letter sounds (for instance, je is sometimes said as ej). I wonder if this (the pronunciation of Etienne) is an example of an archaism.

I love the name, with either pronunciation, incidentally.

MayoforSam · 02/07/2015 17:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Ludways · 26/06/2015 15:39

Fanjo, Etienne Stott is the gold medalist. We met him at the games and my kids have held his medal. We love him in our house. Lol

I like the name but not so much actually out of France.

SwedishEdith · 26/06/2015 15:37

I love this name. It was on my list of names I'd never get to use Someone did assume it was a girl's name before I explained it wasn't. I don't think it's too hard to pronounce either

JinglyJanglyJungleBigGameTours · 26/06/2015 15:36

Absolutely love it, if I could persuade DH we'd have one ourselves.

pickwickcrocus · 26/06/2015 15:33

I love it. I would have loved it for ds but dh didn't like it sadly. I know one Etienne and his brother is called Jude, which I also love very much but couldn't use for other reasons!

Mygardenistoobig · 26/06/2015 15:29

I really like it.

springbabydays · 26/06/2015 07:07

I love it and I knew it was a boy's name.

Mitzy that's a big generalisation. My name is French and it works perfectly well in the UK.

Asleeponasunbeam · 26/06/2015 06:38

KenDodds, are you me? I had a football top too. And LOVE the band (still).

I love the name. Was completely obsessed with a floppy fringed Etienne at school. He cultivated such an aura of cool (smug git!)

KenDoddsDadsDog · 26/06/2015 05:59

The band but I had a green St Etienne retro football top for some reason .

CrystalMcPistol · 25/06/2015 23:23

The band or the team?

KenDoddsDadsDog · 25/06/2015 23:22

I love it ! Was a if fan of St Etienne back in the day .

Original poster
WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant · 25/06/2015 23:21

I would spell it etienne, as stated earlier.
I am not based in France, but do have family there. We do visit! We are mostly uk.
If I was lucky enough to have a ds to give this name to, his big brother has a welsh name, and big sister has a Hebrew name.

OP posts:
Iliveinalighthousewiththeghost · 25/06/2015 22:06

How is it pronounced.