French Baby Names - how would you pronounce them?

[EllaWt]

Hi Everyone
My husband and I are both french and we're thinking of names for our first baby expected later this year. For boys names we love

• Léandre
• Hilaire
• Jacques

We're Aware that it might be really hard for people in the UK to pronounce. So we thought we'd ask you ? How would you pronounce them and do you find it impossible?

Thank you so much

• Léandre- Lee-undre (As in Peter Andre)
• Hilaire - Hill-air
• Jacques - sshack (like Jack but with more of a ‘ssh’ instead of a ‘j’) so ‘Jack with a French accent.

Lee-on-dray
Hill-air
Zzzzyac (the French way of saying J)

I think Jacques would be the easiest for non French speakers - most people know Jacques Cousteau and how it’s pronounced. Alternatively he’d just be called Jack by a lot of people anyway.

Lee-and-re
Hill-air
Jacks or Jack-eu
?

1. Lee- andre 2)Hill -air
2. Jax

Ah lochjess said it much better that me with Jacques!
What about Mathieu or Thierry?

Lee-ondr
Ill-air
Zhack

But I don't speak French at all, so I'd ask "how do you pronounce that?" If I saw it written down! I'd assume I'd get it wrong!

Oh sorry looking for more suggestions!

Le Ann dray
Hill uh ree
Zjack

not looking!

Lay-ond-re
Hill-air
Zhack (I’m not sure if the zh bit is quite clear.)

I’m guessing the ‘H’ of hilaire isn’t pronounced though.

Ley-ond-re
Hill-air or Hill-ary
Zhack

I know it’s not on your list but Etienne (et-ee-Ann) is my favourite French boys name ever! I think it’s really cool and wanted to call ds it but dh wouldn’t have it at all!

Out of your list I like Jacques the best but I don’t really know how to spell how you pronounce it - it has a kind of long Jjjjj-ack!

How about Etienne so gorgeous, I wanted this name and Johan so much.

Jacque is easiest for UK pronunciation.

1. Lay-ondr (not quite Lay, but would pronounce it as an e with an acute accent)
2. Ee-lair
3. Zhak (zh is French way of saying J)

I think this thread has proven anything but Jacques will be mispronounced. I also think Hilaire is too feminine for English speakers. Leandre - people have already shown you they think this ends is dray so don't do it.

Lay-arn-druh
Ill-air
Zhack

Johan is lovely.

Although I also love Axel but definitely not with the English pronunciation.

My DH is French and I'm a French teacher. We live in England.

The 're' at the end of Léandre is hard for a lot of English speakers to pronounce. In my experience even fairly good students tend to struggle with words like 'prendre' - and in the middle of an English sentence, people are unlikely to switch to use a French R, even if they can.

Jacques is fairly well known in the UK (Jacques Costeau, Jacques Brel, Frere Jacques). I wouldn't be surprised if he got called Jack a lot though.

Our DC have names which are quite popular in both the UK and France. We decided this would make our/their lives easier than choosing beautiful French (or English!) names that they would have to explain every time.

Jacques is probably your best bet if you want people to pronounce it vaguely frenchily.

Hilaire (1) is very dependent on the vowel sounds - I'm not convinced I'm doing it properly and I'm trying hard; (2) is going to make everyone (even those of us who have heard of Hilaire Belloc) think of Hilary which is now considered exclusively a girl's name.

Léandre has that back-of-the-throat r that English people find tricky, and will be Leander (with the first syllable Lee) by the time he's six. This may not bother you - it's quite a nice name, I think.

Lay-arn-druh
Thank you! This is pretty much what i was trying to convey with Lay-ondr (though in my accent I would probably put ahn) but couldn't work out how get across how I would pronounce it.

I agree with posters above.

Jacques will be the most versatile, converts to English easily (should he want to) but also quite easily pronouncible for English speakers.

Hilaire in English is quite feminine sounding. Nothing wrong with that, but just letting you know.

Leandre... English speakers find it very very very hard to pronounce 're' - it just isnt a sound that exists in English, I have tried many times myself and it never sounds natural! Most people would pronounce it Lee-an-dray.

Good luck deciding!

My DF continues to be disappointed that I didn't call my DS Didier so that would get my vote.

NB I appreciate you're not asking for suggestions but I love the name!