French Baby Names - how would you pronounce them?

I don't know the surname but Desombre pronounced Desomb is a bit like the English surname St John being pronounced Sinjun, or Magdalene college being pronounced Maudlin. It's a quirk of pronunciation, not how you would normally pronounce it in that language, which would be de-sombre, with sombre pronounced like the word 'sombre' (dark) is in French.

I would say Desombre as De sombruh without the uh. Similarly Lay-andruh without the uh
or Sartre as SaRtRuh without the uh, but I'm not English
R to represent the trilly french R

The first name was a nature noun and I said it would look like Noun of Gloom.
Must be me.
;

Without googling or reading the thread, my first thoughts would be:

• Léandre : Lee-on-dray
• Hilaire. : hil-air-ree
• Jacques. : zh-a-cks

I teach so used to coming across various names. I always ask the children first.

Thanks Wyf. It was on another thread and when I suggested that the surname would be pronounced like de sombre (som-ber) I was told I was criticising the surname. OP said it was Desom. Her name, obviously she will know better than me.
I was trying to explain that UK people would say it like the English word.
Full name was Noun Desombre.

I'm also French. Hilaire sounds like he's stepped out of a 19th century novel and Léandre will get called Lélé if you ever move back to France...

How would you say Desombre? I believe it is a french surname.

de-zom-brr is my best attempt at putting it in English!

If you put it into Google Translate (French) and click the speaker button, it will read it to you. I've just checked and it seems to read it correctly.

• Léandre - Lay-Ohnd and a short r on the end
• Hilaire - Ill-air
• Jacques - Zhak

Lay-andR
Ill-air
Zhack

I think you will hear
Lee-Andrey or Lee-ander
Hillair or Hilary
Jakes

@OP, How would you say Desombre? I believe it is a french surname.

I would say it as Dussombr or de sombR. Am i wrong?

How would others sayit?

Hilarie is now my favorite if a pp has sounded it out correctly.

I just used youtube to hear how they should sound- and I was way off!!! I'd stick to something more common to English speakers.

• Léandre- initially would think was a female name. Maybe because I have a friend called Leanne, and on first glance it looks similar. I too thought it might be Lee-Ondrey (Peter Andre) or LeAnn-dree

• Hilaire- Also thought this was a female name, as looks like someone wants the name Hillary, but wants to spell it in a 'trendy' or different way. I could see it being pronounced Hill-r-ee, because it ends in E.

• Jacques- immediately thought of Jacques Cousteau, and had no problems pronouncing it, and knowing it was a male name.

Hi! Do you live in France or the UK?
My DH is French and I'm fluent, so I'd pronounce them all correctly.
But... I don't like them - sorry!
Hilaire makes me think of hilarious. It's also close to Hilary which is a girl's name in England.
And Jacques is an old man name. Our parents' generation and older.
Léandre is ok but if you live in the UK, I'd choose something that English speakers would cope better with.

Lay-arn-druh

Yep, that’s definitely a better written version of what I was trying to say.

NB I appreciate you're not asking for suggestions but I love the name!

My DF continues to be disappointed that I didn't call my DS Didier so that would get my vote.

I agree with posters above.

Jacques will be the most versatile, converts to English easily (should he want to) but also quite easily pronouncible for English speakers.

Hilaire in English is quite feminine sounding. Nothing wrong with that, but just letting you know.

Leandre... English speakers find it very very very hard to pronounce 're' - it just isnt a sound that exists in English, I have tried many times myself and it never sounds natural! Most people would pronounce it Lee-an-dray.

Good luck deciding!

Lay-arn-druh
Thank you! This is pretty much what i was trying to convey with Lay-ondr (though in my accent I would probably put ahn) but couldn't work out how get across how I would pronounce it.

Jacques is probably your best bet if you want people to pronounce it vaguely frenchily.

Hilaire (1) is very dependent on the vowel sounds - I'm not convinced I'm doing it properly and I'm trying hard; (2) is going to make everyone (even those of us who have heard of Hilaire Belloc) think of Hilary which is now considered exclusively a girl's name.

Léandre has that back-of-the-throat r that English people find tricky, and will be Leander (with the first syllable Lee) by the time he's six. This may not bother you - it's quite a nice name, I think.

My DH is French and I'm a French teacher. We live in England.

The 're' at the end of Léandre is hard for a lot of English speakers to pronounce. In my experience even fairly good students tend to struggle with words like 'prendre' - and in the middle of an English sentence, people are unlikely to switch to use a French R, even if they can.

Jacques is fairly well known in the UK (Jacques Costeau, Jacques Brel, Frere Jacques). I wouldn't be surprised if he got called Jack a lot though.

Our DC have names which are quite popular in both the UK and France. We decided this would make our/their lives easier than choosing beautiful French (or English!) names that they would have to explain every time.

Johan is lovely.

Although I also love Axel but definitely not with the English pronunciation.

Lay-arn-druh
Ill-air
Zhack

I think this thread has proven anything but Jacques will be mispronounced. I also think Hilaire is too feminine for English speakers. Leandre - people have already shown you they think this ends is dray so don't do it.

1. Lay-ondr (not quite Lay, but would pronounce it as an e with an acute accent)
2. Ee-lair
3. Zhak (zh is French way of saying J)

How about Etienne so gorgeous, I wanted this name and Johan so much.

Jacque is easiest for UK pronunciation.