AIBU - using the name Madeline

[Argealanlea]

First pregnancy and DH and I so far can only decide on one name for a girl - Madeline. We love it and it goes really well with our surname.

Issues are:
Madeline McCann. Is it too associated with her to use? We actually live in Ireland not U.K. so there is maybe less of an association but could still be there? For me already saying the name in my head with our surname lessens the connection so maybe it’ll be the same for all our family and friends?

Second issue - Madeline the books/movies which feature a red head Madeline. We actually have a 50% chance of having a red head. Would this be bad then to use the name and risk teasing or am I overthinking it and kids don’t read those books anymore anyway and the movie is old!

Cant decide if we’re being unreasonable to consider it - we both really like it!

@MrsAvocet haha thank you for the family poll!

I’m currently pregnant with a DD and love the name but can’t get past the sad association. Others feel differently though and it’s personal choice.

There’s a Hanson song called Madeline and they pronounce it Madelyn - never considered it could be pronounced any other way so this thread has been enlightening

I'd say it the French way!

I reckon the Maddie mcCann story would have been much less of a big story outside of Europe tbf

I can't speak to that but it was definitely a big story over here at the time it happened. I doubt that very that many people are still thinking about it 15 years on though ...

@MrsAvocet

I'm Madeline pronounced Made-lynn and it's very rare that someone will try to pronounce it as Made-line. (Again though, I am in the US and mostly go by Maddie anyway.)

Beautiful name. The Madeleine McCann story really got under my skin at the time, and is certainly on my radar, but wouldn’t occur to me in connection with another small Madeleine. I can say this with certainty as a friend had a baby called Madeleine last year and I just thought “what a beautiful name.” My seven-year-old also has a friend called Maddie and I never think of it in relation to her.

In terms of the books (which I grew up with, read to my own children and love) I’d have thought it’s just a nice connection rather than something to be teased about. I deliberately didn’t give it to my friend’s baby because it’s spelled differently but she said lots of people gave it to them as a baby gift (though the misspelling wound her up a bit!). It’s not like being called Harry Potter. And I’d never noticed she had red hair - most of the pictures are just yellow and black.

There’s a Kaye McCann on Sky News
I worked with a Sarah Payne years ago
Names are just names

I think it's fineto use hut I do think of McCann

Madeleine is pronounced Mad-e-lane, it's French

No it isn't pronounced like that in French. It's pronounced Mad - e - lenn. (French teacher here).

And I'm pretty sure that regardless of how you spell it, the usual British English pronunciation is usually Mad - e - lin or Mad-e-len. Never heard anyone called Mad-e-line with an 'eye' sound in real life.

Hi OP,
I'm a Madeline living in Ireland. I've found that most Irish people say Mad-eh-leen, or they used to, maybe for either spelling, not sure about that. In recent years the Mad-eh-LINE pronunciation has become more popular, especially among younger people, so I often get called this at appointments etc.
I checked it out.
It's a French name, the French version of the name Magdalene.
The French say Mad-eh-leen for Madeline, and Madeleine is more Mad-eh-lehn. You can google it, sorry, can't do links.
But I think there's a good chance you'll get either Leen or Line in Ireland, from strangers anyway. Maybe it depends on spelling but I don't think many will be aware of the differences. My 90 year neighbour is Madeline (leen) too, so it's been that way a bit here. The line version is newer.

Nobody has ever mentioned Madeleine McCann to me with reference to my name.

I know about 4 Madelines/Madeleines in total by the way. They're all older, all Mad-eh-leen. I don't know any younger ones and as I've said I've seen a shift in pronunciation recently. Not to your preferred version, but that's just my experience.

@Maddiehere thanks for your reply! How do you pronounce your name? So if I wanted the mad-e-lynn pronunciation I’d have to go with Madeleine not Madeline. I don’t mind either other way of saying it but mad-e-lynn goes best with our surname.I’ve actually never met a Madeline/Madeleine in Ireland!

I would also pronounce Magdalene as mag-da-lynn maybe I’m pronouncing them all wrong

Yes,that's how I say Magdalene too.
But the French spelling Madeline = Mad-eh-LEEN, Madeleine = Mad-eh-LEHN (can't write it properly but you can google).
I'm Mad-eh-leen, spelt Madeline.
Some of the other Mad-eh-leens I know spell it Madeleine. I think for a long time the Mad-eh-leen version was the default in Ireland, but now people are starting to use the LINE version too.
I never use Maddie, but some friends did at school, I didn"t mind at all.

Sorry, to answer your question, the Madeleine spelling would be best for your preferred pronunciation. I just don't know if you'll get it all the time.

Also, I DID use Maddie for my username but never in real life I mean!!

Thanks for your reply! I’m not surprised it gets different pronunciations- there doesn’t seem to be a clear cut one way to say it. When I looked it up it told me Madeline can be pronounced two ways - mad-e-Lyn or mad-e-line no mention of mad-e-leen

I wonder if it’s an Irish-ism and maybe leen is how it would be pronounced in the Irish version someone posted above so that’s how Irish people say it.

I now am not as worried about my initial OP questions but how to spell it is now an issue!!!

Sorry see pic

Irish here OP, I think v few would go to MadeLINE, I think of that as more American sounding and to rhyme in the book, though I know it is probably 'correct' I don't think you'll get many actually thinking that's how it's said. I have known just one Madeleine in Ireland! It was my first pic if I'd had a girl.

When I read the headline. Neither of your points even occurred to me.

Catherine
Corrine
Jacqueline
Jasmine
Gwendoline

LOADS of names ending in “ine” are pronounced “Lynn” not “line.” My Madeline had never been pronounced to rhyme with “wine,” but sometimes people write it Madeleine and think it rhymes with “lane,” so in our experience Madeline is the easiest spelling. Also for us it distanced it a little from the McCann case (although I was still a child when that happened!)

You see, I would naturally pronouce those as Coraleen and Adaleen too. I don't think Irishism as such. I think we retained the French pronunciation of Madeline for longer and the other spelling got confused with it. Maybe it helped that we have lots of other een names all right or maybe just a quirk that it happened that way.

What way did your Madeleine say her name @HeyGirlHeyBoy?

Personally I would use it.
Your child will ' own" her name and people around you will associate the name with her.
My first thought when you said it was because of McCann was what about all the other high profile cases. I wont name them out of respect. Names dont need to be archieved because something bad happened to someone with that name.