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

Definitely Juliette. Esme is overused where I live.

Oh congratulations OP! Juliette gets my vote by a mile. There are far too many Esmes, you don't need to add to the number

Juliette! I have a niece with the name and it's beautiful, classic and not used very often. She's a lovely little girl too

Esme being overused must be a regional thing, I've never met one and I work in a primary school

I don't like Ezmay pronounciation as I grew up with an Es-me which to me sounds far prettier.

I didn't them all and go with Madeleine as a first name. Underused and beautiful.

Congratulations!

I’d go for Juliette as that will be pronounced as you want it. But if you are in the UK I would consider spelling it Juliet, if misspellings are going to bother you.

Esme is nice but more popular, and you are going to get misspellings and mispronunciations either way.

Definitely Juliette! Love it

I commented on your other thread, but now understand why you used the Juliette spelling.

If you are likely to spend a lot of time in France, use Juliette or Esmée, but be prepared for the name to be written as Juliet or Esme.

I personally don't like Esme, it's not a nice sound to my ears, but Juliette is lovely. Congrats on your long awaited baby :)

Juliet

Juliette 100% and with that spelling I would call her Etta/Ettie to avoid the Julie diminutive!

Juliette! Gorgeous name 🥰

Juliette

Thank you all so much, looks like a clear landslide for Juliette (or Juliet) which I actually wasn't expecting but has very definitely swayed me! The reason we'd go with the Juliette spelling is the subtle difference in pronounciation (although very much accept that it will be misspelled and mispronouced all the time!) and to me, it just looks nicer... but appreciate some might see it as a little flowery!

Not keen on Julie as a nickname though so will have a little think about Ettie/Etta as someone suggested!

Julie is pretty in a French accent.

Juliette, it’s beautiful.

I honestly wouldn't worry about Julie as a shortening. I have 3 great friends (my age) called Juliet (te) and not one of them was called anything other than Juliet until their teens. Then one chose to go by Jules and another is called Ju by her very closest friends and family but still Juliet in every day life - the other has still always been Juliette. I can't imagine anyone shortening it to Julie. It's a totally different name.

If you call her Juliette then it will get shortened to Julie and she will get called 'me Julie'......

Julie might seem dated to some but I do know a young person with a Julie-type name - Julianne - who chooses to go by it. However, I have never known a Juliet to be shortened to Julie.

I was coming on to say Esme, but after reading your DH is French, then definitely Juliette! It's a lovely name and nice to have a French name which doesn't get massacred in a British accent.

Juliette is gorgeous.

I don't know why people on MN obsess about nicknames though. Just call your DC their given names without lumbering them with a twee diminutive.

@TheQueenRaven, because long names usually get shortened, and on MN, everyone planning on a short or twee name needs to bare [sic] in mind that when little Evie or Alfie become high court judges they will probably prefer to go buy their BC names, Genevieve/Evangelina and Alfaeus/Alfonsino.

I’ve heard Juliette being shortened to “Jules” which is cool. It doesn’t have to be Julie!

I’m French myself and I love both so fantastic choice!!!
Esme would be my choice for my own DD but DH refuses to put an accent as it should be in my opinion as he says it would be an administrative nightmare since there is no accent here. I would tend to agree. That and the fact that Esme is much more popular (number 40 I think) would make me sway in favour of Juliette.
Would you spell it Juliette or Juliet?
Congrats ☀️

Juliette 100%