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Baby names

Find baby name inspiration and advice on the Mumsnet Baby Names forum.

How do you pronounce Juliet?

36 replies

Amethyst24 · 26/04/2014 00:40

I ask because my sister is called Juliet and I think it's a beautiful name. My parents intended it to be pronounced, she pronounces it, and all the family pronounce it, JULy't.

However her whole life she's been called Julie-ETTE and has given up correcting people. It seems like such a popilar name on here and I wondered how people think it should sound.

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Doinmummy · 26/04/2014 00:41

Joo lee et

LackaDAISYcal · 26/04/2014 00:51

IF french I would say Jule-ee-ay but generally its pronounced Julie ette in the UK.

Not sure how to pronounce is as JULy't

ThingsThatShine · 26/04/2014 00:57

The French don't say jule ee ay, they do pronounce the T (The French spelling is Juliette)

OP i say joo lee ett but I think all syllables stressed roughly the same, not Julie ETT nor JOO lee ett.

And fwiw I love the name

Greythorne · 26/04/2014 00:59

I would say JUlie-et

LilQueenie · 26/04/2014 01:01

as in jewel E et same as shakespeare wrote it.

sleepywombat · 26/04/2014 08:07

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TheOneWithTheHair · 26/04/2014 08:10

Sort of Julie-ut but the 'ut' is very soft. Emphasis on the Julie part.

Lovely name.

Alisvolatpropiis · 26/04/2014 08:27

Joo Lee ett - same weight on each syllable.

PostmanPatAlwaysRingsTwice · 26/04/2014 08:35

Oh hell, DD is due any day now and we are planing to call her Juliet - now I am having a crisis over how I pronounce it!

I think the emphasis on the first syllable. Lengthening the 'et' makes it sound like the French version. However DH is a fool disagrees Hmm

Catflap1 · 26/04/2014 09:00

Julie-et

Nestabee · 26/04/2014 11:22

Julie-et

Where does your parents pronouciation come from?

Amethyst24 · 26/04/2014 14:08

Interesting - thanks all. As far as I can tell Shakespeare intended it to be pronounced with the emphasis on the JU and a neutral vowel rather than an ET sound at the end. Like Harriet. But yes, the -ette pronounciation does seem to be quite common and I think that's a shame - it makes the name a bit naff and overly girly imo.

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TheOneWithTheHair · 26/04/2014 17:45

I agree, like Harriet. That's what I was clumsily trying to say up thread.

PenguinsLoveFishFingers · 26/04/2014 17:57

I have never heard it pronounced like Harriet Confused

Tenrec · 26/04/2014 18:02

Joo-Lee-et.

HolidayCriminal · 26/04/2014 18:03

JUlee-ette.
I don't like it, though. ... Pretentious maybe?

IsabellaRoarsome · 26/04/2014 18:12

Ju-li-ette is always how I've pronounced it but got told off for doing so by my drama lecturer years ago because it is supposed to be Julie-utt as Shakespeare intended.

MrsTamkin · 26/04/2014 18:34

Yes as a drama practitioner I'd argue Shakespeare's Juliet is closer to Harriet in emphasis

Coconutty · 26/04/2014 18:39

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JulesJules · 26/04/2014 18:43

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Prettyfilou · 26/04/2014 18:52

As in this song:

nooka · 26/04/2014 19:03

I think it's really difficult to talk about pronunciation on paper, so I looked up some audio files, and see that it is apparently an issue (possibly because of people doing productions of Romeo and Juliet?)

I haven't found any sites (yet) that have an 'English' pronunciation (and in any case I imagine that it varies significantly across English accents) but here are two sites with audio files for Juliet:

www.forvo.com/word/juliet/

www.pronouncenames.com/search?name=juliet

On the forvo site the second pronunciation comes closest to how I would say Juliet (even though it's from an American)

We have a Harriet and a Juliet in the family and I'd say that they sound pretty similar, but then I might say Harriet differently to other people too Grin

nooka · 26/04/2014 19:05

Oh and I wouldn't expect to pronounce Juliet and Juliette differently (assuming they were both English). I thought that the ette spelling was just a variant.

Amethyst24 · 26/04/2014 20:15

By the way my DSis has survived more than 50 years of mispronunciation so this is in no way a matter of urgency.

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Alisvolatpropiis · 26/04/2014 20:53

Is it mispronunciation if the majority of people say it that way?

I think it's a bit difficult to know how Shakespeare intended the name to be pronounced given he's been dead quite some time and generally speaking made up quite a lot of the words he used.

Also standardised spelling didn't exist when he was writing his plays and didn't until Doctor Johnson's dictionary.