Madeline or Madeleine?

[catscatsallthecats]

Help please!

If we're not French, which spelling of Madeleine / Madeline is most appropriate and commonplace for us to use?

Would you favour one over the other from an 'ease of spelling' point of view, or are we condemning our daughter to a life of spelling her name out loud forever?

I'd choose Madeleine. It's the most popular variant and looks nicer to me. Madeline can also have the ending pronounced like Caroline, whereas Madeleine would be less ambiguous.

I much prefer Madeleine, which I pronounce as "Mad - eh - lehn". Madeline is "Mad - eh -lyne" to me, which I think sounds less pretty.

Madeleine - pushes the French pronunciation which I prefer, it looks nicer written down too.

To be honest, as someone who has always struggled with spelling I don't think either is easy to spell. However, names that have multiple accepted spellings, even if easy to spell, will require confirmation most of the time. Sofie/Sophie, Katherine/Cathryn, Isabel/Isobel. Clare/Claire. All easy to spell, but I wouldn't assume one version above another.

My neice is called Madelaine

The only ones I know are Madeleine, that is how I would instinctively spell the name if someone said it.

Madeleine.
You’ll get mispronunciations with Madeline.

Madeleine = French so Mad eh lehn

Madeline = English so Mad eh lyne

I'd worry that English speakers would mispronounce Madeleine

Yes I would say it depends on the pronunciation you’re going for?

Madeline is the historically more English spelling but it’s been overtaken by the French in terms of popularity as people think it looks prettier.

The English spelling is more common in the US still but in the US both the pronunciations are used there.

I prefer Madeline because I find Madeleine a little bit like calling your kid Xavier when you’re not French, although I know statistically more Brits use the French spelling than the English now!! You can also buy her the Madeline books (which pronounce the rhyme with line way) and it is a step away from the tragic McCann case which people do occasionally bring up.

(DN is a Madeline and my SIL spent hours agonizing over this!)

Oh, and she’s MadeLINE in Keats if you’re a traditionalist! But he does rhyme it with “mine.”

DN gets her name spelled madelAine a lot, so I don’t think people cope with any spelling! It’s a beautiful name though, and people struggle with Sara/Sarah, Kathryn/Catherine etc, so I wouldn’t let spelling worry you!

I'm a Madeleine It often needs spelling for people as they miss the extra E.

Definitely Madeleine. It's a beautiful name.

Madeleine. Lovely name.

Madeleine pronounced the French way is beautiful.

I've heard English speakers pronounce it Mad eh lin which isn't so nice imo (especially when emphasising MAD)

Madeleine. Beautiful. The most lovely lady I ever knew was a Madeleine. Congrats on your baby x

I have a Madeleine. The amount of people who spell it Madeline. She does get Maddie more often then Madeleine now she's at school though.

I'd automatically spell it Madeleine - but I also prefer the ehn pronunciation over ine.

Thanks so much everyone for the kind responses. Me and DH have realised we differ in our pronunciation of the name! I would naturally say MadeLINE (rhyming with Caroline) whereas he naturally says the french way! From everyone's responses I think we'll go for DH's way.

Thanks again I really appreciate it :)

Madeleine x

Madeleine - beautiful name

I'm a Madeline but pronounce it Mad-uh-leen just to be different! No, I'm Irish and it's the usual way of saying it here though the Mad-uh-lyne version is becoming more common. When I spent time in France the French all said Mad-uh-leen too so I think it's the right pronunciation. They did say Madeleine differently. Keats rhymed Madeline with 'unseen' as well as 'mine' and 'divine' so doesn't tell us much really...