How would you pronounce the name... ?

[june2013]

...Salome? or Salomé as we're planning to spell it (we're both francophone).

We say Sa - low - may (with equal emphasis on syllables). I don't mind if people don't know how to pronounce it the first time, but would if they don't get it at all. I have an Irish name which can't be guessed from spelling, but is easy to pronounce once I've told people what it is. So second time around, most people know my name. I'd be ok with that for Salome.

People seem to say Sa - LOW - Mee. I really don't like that... But I wouldn't mind if future daughter just shortened it to Sal or Sally.

If you know history of the name - any issues?

I would pronounce it as Sah-Low-May

Definitely Sah-Low-May, you can make it more obvious by using the accent over the e.

Could you not have put the name in the thread title?

Sa Lo Mee.

Sounds too similar to salami for my liking.

Sah-loh-mee, with the emphasis on the loh. Sorry!

Salome was the biblical character who demanded John The Baptist's head on a plate.

Don't know if that counts as an issue but there it is.

Sa-loh-may. And yes, I know who she was, and would regard it as an extremely inappropriate name to give a child I'm afraid!

Sal-o-me

Why do you say it 'sallow'? Knowing what that means that doesn't seem like a great name. The pronunciation of Salome is well known due to it being a biblical name. I can understand people mispronouncing an unusual name but what you're talking about is telling your child the wrong way to say her name and setting her up for a live time of 'correcting' people.

If you want to call her 'sallow' call her that rather than Salome.

Hmm, Salome did a sexy dance and got Herod so horny he promised her whatever she wanted and she demanded the head of John the Baptist on a plate.

Suitable name for a lap dancer would be my thought. A bizarre choice for a baby.

SAH-luh-may ish. But I wouldn't feel confident about it.

Sal- loe -mee.

I would wonder why you named your daughter after the Biblical equivalent of a lap dancer, to be honest.

Thanks for this!

Strange We're not thinking sallow - there's the 'may' bit on the end... We've had people pronounce it wrong, including people who knew the name from the Bible. And people who couldn't get it right after I suggested it was said sa-lo-may rather than sa-low-mee which does indeed sound too much like salami.

As for it being inappropriate - Salome the temptress is best known biblical character, but there's also Salome the Saint and the meaning of the name is peace, which we quite like. But so few people know this, it might indeed be a problem!

Please just don't.

Sa-low-may. Strangeglue, I didn't understand your post at all. The OP doesn't want to call her DD Sallow, she wants to call her Salome. Pronounced correctly.

Sa-LO-Mee, emphasis on the LO.

I worked with a women named this, she introduced herself as Mimi (mee-mee) which became Mims (to rhyme with hymns) because she hated her name. She was raised in London, but had a french mother and apparently spent her entire school days being called Salami.

I really wouldn't go with it.

X-posts, as usual!

Sa - low - may

Ahhhhh! Misread the op and totally didn't see the 'may'

This makes so much more sense now! Sorry

suh-LOH-mi, with stress on the 2nd syllable, is a widely used English pronunciation of this name - you'll find this pronunciation cited in current pronouncing dictionaries - so it's not 'wrong' in general, although it could of course be wrong in terms of an individual's preference. Other pronunciations (suh-LOH-may, SAL-oh-may) are cited too, but if you don't like the "salami" version, I'd choose another name TBH, because you'll hear it a lot.

Sah-low-me

It also makes me think of John the Baptist so not a name I would choose myself for a DD although I believe it is becoming more popular so it may not be so unusual when your DD is older.

I don't think there's a right way or a wrong way to say it, there's a slight difference between the English and French pronunciations, that's all (as with many names eg Catherine).

I think it's a beautiful name, I wouldn't be put off by the Biblical association at all. However I do dislike the name Sally, so I would worry that she might want to call herself that. That's just personal to me though! :)

SA-LA-MI (yum)

It's Sah-loh-meh. It's rooted in Shalom, so pronounced similarly and in Hebrew e is pronounced as eh/ay sound. My DD1 has never had an issue in having it and the only person to bring up the Christian connection was my American Evangelical Christian mother (and the only person to bring up the meat was my hard of hearing pork loving stepFIL).

Also, pet peeve here, but Salome is nowhere is the Christian Bible or in other Christian texts (as not all made it to the Bible). It was a name given to an unnamed young woman (pushed into the activities by her mother) by an unreliable writer who was being paid by the Romans to write about Jewish people in a light more favourable to the Romans. It was likely chosen by them to discredit Queen Salome Alexandra, who was the ruler many in Judea still longed after (she brought great stability to the area during her reign which her stepson then lost and sold out to the Romans). Due to its meaning (peace) and royal connection, it has a long history of use.