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Original poster

Nickname or alternative name to Aurelie

36 replies

sunrise55 · 19/06/2016 13:15

Hello,

Actually my demand doesn't concern a baby name, but I admit I have the feeling to be like a desperate mum looking for a compromise... I moved in uk recently and I feel very uncomfortable with my name Aurelie. Since the beggining, when I say Aurelie (pronounced as Aw-rel-ee or O-rel-ee) I have the feeling to say "oh really". So when I introduce myself I have always the feeling it is understood as "Hi my name is oh really nice to meet you". Then I discovered also the trouble of "Orally" pronunciation Hmm

Anyway, at each time I feel people here in uk does not understand it and I hate this barrier... I would like to make them and me comfortable...

So I thought of course about Aurelia, but the "oh really" and "areola" trouble is still here. Plus my friends (not british, in uk since 10 years) never heard about it Angry

I am now lost between changing my name for another one close in term of pronunciation or a nickname.

  • if Aurelie is pronounced for you as Aw-ree-lee-uh, I thought about Arielle, which seems similar in the pronounciation and more easier to understand( actually I already tried it and it seemed fine for people in front of me), but to read? And my friends told me it was totally different from my name (but my friends absolutely don't understand how I feel Angry
  • if nickname... it is strange, but I have more difficulties to appropriate it to me. I am used to be called by a name in 3 syllabs starting with A and ending with something light. I have for the moment: Ellie, Laurie, Aurie/Aury, Rory, Ray,Raylee, Riley Blush

Do you have other ideas? What's your feeling about my issue? Many thanks if you can help or just give me your feeling!

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ChickadeeChick · 20/06/2016 20:24

Aurelie is a beautiful name, you're very lucky. If I were you I would just pronounce it in the way you would in France. It's your name, it would be ignorant of others to not learn how to pronounce it.

Original poster
sunrise55 · 22/06/2016 08:40

Thanks a lot for your answers, I feel more confident now Smile You really gave me lots of nn examples and I am convinced I will use one them a day depending of the job I will have to do (ex. international customer service/phone calls etc.).

I also suppressed from my resume and all things written my acute accent (coma) on Aur élie. A friend told me it could be difficult for english people to understand it.

Regarding to your pronounciation of the sound ray, as in french the sound of é would be translated as in eternity. Is it like the "ray" of sun (thus, with the y sound as in rayon) or is it just as in "r elevant"? Because of some of you wrote, I have the feeling you would pronounce it as in ray of sun.

Would a majority of english people pronounce it as ray of sun or eternity ? It is not a big problem, but I am interested to know how does it come naturally for you.

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Original poster
sunrise55 · 22/06/2016 11:43

I mean, if you would choose this name for your daughter, what would be your natural pronounciation?

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1horatio · 24/06/2016 08:50

Aurelie is soo lovely. The nn lee come to mind? For Aurelia the nn Lia (lee-uh, for an English pronounciation) would be cute.
My names is Léontine (but the fam says Leontina and since moving to the UK I've stopped using the accent, it caused people to butcher the name, it sounded like LAAY-ON-tiiin). So, I personally think trying to find a nn makes sense. But pleease don't change your name. It's too pretty!!

Footle · 25/06/2016 06:53

Or you could just call yourself Bob...

Raines100 · 25/06/2016 07:25

Regarding the kind of 'e' sound, the only other Aurélie I've ever met was a French au pair living in the UK, and she pronounced her named similar to 'orally' with a short o as in pot (ô) and the é just became a schwa. It sounded natural in English, but I would advise against turning your beautiful name into anything that sounds like 'orally' as it could have dubious connotations!

Aurélia is becoming much better known over here (and it's the au that causes confusion, not the é!) and we pronounce that au-RAY-lia, stressing the middle syllable. As the é is truest to your name, I would go with that. Au-Ray-lie is perfectly easy to say in English.

nooka · 25/06/2016 07:29

I looked up the proper French way to say Aurelie and I can see how that might be heard as 'oh really' by many English people. I don't think you should change it though, as you may find it hard to recognise that people are talking to you, and most people you work with will pick it up even if they pronounce it a bit differently - most likely Oh-ray-lee. I think the best thing to do is just to change how you introduce yourself, so 'Hi, nice to meet you, my name is Aurelie' is much less ambiguous.

Bex134 · 25/06/2016 08:10

Aurelie is a beautiful name, it does not make me this of 'oh really'.

The sound aur is totally different to oh. I don't think you need to worry or change you name.

Honeybee79 · 25/06/2016 20:34

Keep your full name - it's gorgeous.

If not, Lia?

YokoUhOh · 25/06/2016 20:35

My (French) friend is Aurélie. Her NN is Lili.

Original poster
sunrise55 · 30/06/2016 09:54

Many thanks for all your answers. Guess what, I transformed Aurélie on my resume by just Aurelie and I have now answer calls to my applications! Probably it should inconsciously stop english (or foreigner but not french) people. For the moment english people who just saw my name written (on my resume for ex.) called me Aurelia (or Aureli-uh, but honestly I don't heard a big difference).

So it's pretty much a good news :)

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