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Louis?

25 replies

royaljames · 20/04/2011 11:18

What do you think?

OP posts:
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randomimposter · 20/04/2011 12:01

I always assume Louis is Louee? Which is not the pronounciation I prefer.

I like Luis, but not Lewis.

HTH!

evamummy · 20/04/2011 12:04

The English (and German and Spanish) pronounciation is Lou-is. Like the town St Louis.

The French wouldn't pronounce the s so they'd say Lou-ee.

Bucharest · 20/04/2011 14:16

I think you have to be quite posh to carry it off well.
Otherwise it sounds awful. (the Louis pronunciation)
Lewis is just awful full stop.

cece · 20/04/2011 14:24

Depends how you are going to say it. Don't like the Lewis way of saying it but like the Louie way of saying it... But it is fairly popular.

chocadoodle · 20/04/2011 15:55

Like it if pronounced Louie
Don't like it if pronounced Lewis

rachel1970 · 20/04/2011 16:10

In an English speaking country, I'd spell it Lewis. If you spell it Louis, there will always be the question as to whether to pronounce it the French of English way.

rachel1970 · 20/04/2011 16:11

Or spell it Louie - no ambiguity there Smile

MrsvWoolf · 20/04/2011 16:21

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tammytoby · 20/04/2011 16:27

The English (and Spanish & German) pronounciation would be Lou-is like Louis Armstrong or St Louis. Yes, you could pronounce it the French way but why?

caz05 · 21/04/2011 08:53

There is a Louis in my son's class and when I first met him I did think it was Lou-is but they do in fact pronounce it Lou-ee (but his Dad is French).

I like it and once people realise it is pronounced Lou-ee I don't think you will have any problems.

If you like Lewis then I would go for the spelling Luis (also one of these in my son's class)

clearsaint · 22/04/2011 19:02

Love it, Louis is our top contender for a boy. We would say Looee

singersgirl · 22/04/2011 19:04

We know loads of Louis's here in posh SW London (acceptable use I think of the apostrophe for a non-standard plural) and they're all called Lew-ee. I know a few Lewises too.

pickler · 22/04/2011 21:14

I've never heard of it pronounced Lewis before. Lovely name. Classy and regal.

poppydaisy · 22/04/2011 22:12

The Louis I know pronounces it Loo-is, like the US town of St Louis.

Sure, you can pronounce it the French way if you want (Lou-ee) but don't expect people to automatically pronounce it that way.

If you're set on the Lou-ee pronounciation, why not spell it Louie - no ambiguity there Smile.

mayanna123 · 22/04/2011 22:24

Louis is fairly popular in Germany (top 10) where it s pronounced Loo-is. In Spain it is spelled Luis, again pronounced Loo-is.

Yes, in France it is pronounced Loo-ie but why should we English pronounce it the French way? In English we pronounce our 's' so it should be Loo-is.

brittan76 · 22/04/2011 22:31

Louis is pronounced Lou-ee because it's a French name and that's how it's pronounced. I have never met a Louis pronounced Lewis.

Wonderful name !

mayanna123 · 22/04/2011 22:38

From Wikipedia:

Louis (pronounced [lwi] in French, /ˈluːiː/ in British English or /ˈluːɪs/ in American English) is the French and English form of the German given name Ludwig[1]; another English variant is spelt Lewis. The German name is composed of the words for "fame" (hlūd) and "warrior" (wīg) which may be translated to famous warrior or "famous in battle

mayanna123 · 22/04/2011 22:40

sorry that didn't come out very well... I'll try again:

Louis (pronounced [lwi] in French, lu-is in British English or /luɪs/ in American English) is the French and English form of the German given name Ludwig[1]; another English variant is spelt Lewis. The German name is composed of the words for "fame" and "warrior" which may be translated to famous warrior or "famous in battle

brittan76 · 22/04/2011 22:41

Exactly!

lu:i in British English! lu:i = Lou-ee!

brittan76 · 22/04/2011 22:43

You have fiddled with it. It does not say "Lu is" it says "Lu i" in British English.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_(given_name)

Thissideofchannel · 22/04/2011 22:46

I've heard both: Lou-is and Lou-ee and I think both are acceptable in an English environment. The Germans and Spaniards for example don't pronounce it the French way either, so there is no need for the English to do so Smile. Lou-is is perfectly acceptable in an English speaking environment imo.

brittan76 · 22/04/2011 22:47

www.askoxford.com/firstnames/louis?view=uk

And we can't argue with The Oxford Dictionary.

usualsuspect · 22/04/2011 22:48

I have heard both ..does it matter?

Its just a name

Thissideofchannel · 22/04/2011 22:48

Unless you're posh and want to pronounce it the French way Grin.

clearsaint · 22/04/2011 23:04

I thought Looee was just the most popular way of saying it? We're definitely not French or posh.

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