How do these names sound to English speakers?

[javotte]

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.

Here are the names :

Lucile
Aimée
Madeleine
Cécile
Clémence
Adrienne
Daphné
Gabrielle
Eloïse

Thanks for your help.

All beautiful to English speaking world IMO although I know a gazillion aimees now . But all very pretty and I can't see any problems with pronunciation . Fwiw my fav is adrienne

I think they'd all be fine.

Aimee, Madeleine and Gabrielle are my favourites

I love the names Lucile & Gabrielle, but they all sound fine to me except Daphne which I think is a little old fashioned/due a revival.
I don't think any of them are problematic for English speakers.

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

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.....

All absolutely lovely names.

and Daphne sounds a bit dated

All beautiful names - love Eloise.

A particularly lovely list.

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.

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!

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

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

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

Love Lucile, Cecile, and Eloise

Love;
Lucile
Cécile
Clémence
Daphné
Gabrielle
Eloïse

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.

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

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.

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

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 . It won't be "oise" as in "oiseau".

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).

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

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