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

Lay-arn-druh

Yep, that’s definitely a better written version of what I was trying to say.

You guys are the best ! You've educated us and made us laugh more than once . Thank you 🙏 🙏🙏🙏

Hi! Do you live in France or the UK?
My DH is French and I'm fluent, so I'd pronounce them all correctly.
But... I don't like them - sorry!
Hilaire makes me think of hilarious. It's also close to Hilary which is a girl's name in England.
And Jacques is an old man name. Our parents' generation and older.
Léandre is ok but if you live in the UK, I'd choose something that English speakers would cope better with.

• Léandre- initially would think was a female name. Maybe because I have a friend called Leanne, and on first glance it looks similar. I too thought it might be Lee-Ondrey (Peter Andre) or LeAnn-dree

• Hilaire- Also thought this was a female name, as looks like someone wants the name Hillary, but wants to spell it in a 'trendy' or different way. I could see it being pronounced Hill-r-ee, because it ends in E.

• Jacques- immediately thought of Jacques Cousteau, and had no problems pronouncing it, and knowing it was a male name.

I just used youtube to hear how they should sound- and I was way off!!! I'd stick to something more common to English speakers.

Hilarie is now my favorite if a pp has sounded it out correctly.

Lay-andR
Ill-air
Zhack

I think you will hear
Lee-Andrey or Lee-ander
Hillair or Hilary
Jakes

@OP, How would you say Desombre? I believe it is a french surname.

I would say it as Dussombr or de sombR. Am i wrong?

How would others sayit?

• Léandre - Lay-Ohnd and a short r on the end
• Hilaire - Ill-air
• Jacques - Zhak

How would you say Desombre? I believe it is a french surname.

de-zom-brr is my best attempt at putting it in English!

If you put it into Google Translate (French) and click the speaker button, it will read it to you. I've just checked and it seems to read it correctly.

I'm also French. Hilaire sounds like he's stepped out of a 19th century novel and Léandre will get called Lélé if you ever move back to France...

Thanks Wyf. It was on another thread and when I suggested that the surname would be pronounced like de sombre (som-ber) I was told I was criticising the surname. OP said it was Desom. Her name, obviously she will know better than me.
I was trying to explain that UK people would say it like the English word.
Full name was Noun Desombre.

Without googling or reading the thread, my first thoughts would be:

• Léandre : Lee-on-dray
• Hilaire. : hil-air-ree
• Jacques. : zh-a-cks

I teach so used to coming across various names. I always ask the children first.

I would say Desombre as De sombruh without the uh. Similarly Lay-andruh without the uh
or Sartre as SaRtRuh without the uh, but I'm not English
R to represent the trilly french R

The first name was a nature noun and I said it would look like Noun of Gloom.
Must be me.
;

I don't know the surname but Desombre pronounced Desomb is a bit like the English surname St John being pronounced Sinjun, or Magdalene college being pronounced Maudlin. It's a quirk of pronunciation, not how you would normally pronounce it in that language, which would be de-sombre, with sombre pronounced like the word 'sombre' (dark) is in French.