Baby name help - Juliette or Esme/Esmée??

[Snuffleupagus2021]

Hi ladies,

Some help please - after a crap time with IVF I'm very happy to be expecting a daughter in late April/early May. First child and stuck between the two names above.

We've been calling her Esme/Esmée but really love Juliette as well. The issue the Esme/Esmée thing is that technically Esme is a boy's name in French and if you want to feminise it, Esmée is correct. My husband is a French speaker and is open to Esme because it's simpler, easier and probably less pretentious... but he also shudders a little as it is incorrect. We definitely want it pronouced Ez-may rather than Es-mee.

Middle name would be Madeleine which is a family name.

Appreciate any thoughts - not asking any family or friends for obvious reasons

Juliette, times a million!

Big congratulations! I love Esme! And it goes beautifully with Madeleine

Both gorgeous. But there were over 1k Esmes last year, and only a few dozen Juliettes. That would decide me for Juliette.

Juliette!

Juliette

Juliette for sure!!!

Juliette. Love it!

Juliette. Beautiful name.

Juliette! No contest

I've recently come to love the name Juliette, it's beautiful!

In England Esme will be Es-May

Love it, also love Juliette

Juliette - as a person who has a name that was popular at the time (like Esme has been in recent years) I would say that I hate my name as its so boring and lacking imagination (cheers ma!)

I'd stick with the gorgeous Juliette to avoid the Esme/Esmee thing personally. If you live in the UK, Esme is quite popular and I think mispronunciations and misspelling of Esme/Esmee/Esmay/Esmae could annoy you and your DH (and your daughter).

Having said that (just to confuse things), despite the French heritage I'd use the more common Juliet spelling rather than Juliette as (unless you live in a French speaking country) imo most people will still think of "Romeo and Juliet" and automatically spell it that way.

I love the name Juliette, it might've been my son's name if he was a girl. Esme is a lovely name to but more common so I'd go Juliette.

Juliette! Love it❤️

This is fantastic feedback, thank you all!

Whoops didn't mean to kill the comments by thanking people - would still love more opinions if possible!

Juliette. And congratulations!

I also had Esme on my girls list but reading through some of the threads on here for this name totally put me off to be honest. Opinion is so divided on pronunciation and spelling so I went for something more straightforward for my DD. I know people say that you just correct people when they mispronounce (or pronounce it the other way to what you like) but personally I would find this annoying. As it happens Juliette or Juliet are both lovely, so sophisticated and a great choice so you can’t go wrong. Massive congratulations also on your pregnancy.

I would pick Juliette, it's beautiful, well known but not overly used.

Juliette is gorgeous. Congrats op!

Juliette for definite. Such a gorgeous name.

Juliette. But I’m wondering why the longer spelling? Is it not pronounced the same as Juliet?

Juliette is really pretty and could have lots of nice options for shortening. Esme is pretty too but agree with others about pronunciation problems etc. Good luck!

I prefer Juliette. I assume you are using the French pronunciation. It’s nice.