Eme

[whatausername]

Is anyone aware of the name Eme? I'm reading a Tudor history book and there is a brief mention of a lady called Eme Stowe. I wonder how it was/is pronounced. Eem? Emmy? Em? I'll have a quick search online for the name origin but I know we've name nerds here as well as multicultural posters so I thought one of you might have come across it before.

I wonder how it was/is pronounced. Eem? Emmy? Em?

The problem is that you don't know (neither do I), which means that everybody your child meets/encounters/communicates with also won't know - and they, unlike you, won't be inclined to look it up, they'll just take a vague guess or fumble around.

It's the difference between "Hello, could I speak to Emma, please" and "Erm, hi, yes, I've been told I need to speak to, um, is it Eem? Emmy? Emmay? Sorry, I've never come across that name before," often followed by having to explain again and again how she came to have that name, why her parents chose it, what her heritage is - many, many times throughout her whole life.

There's every chance that it's a lovely, pleasant-sounding name, but nobody wants a name that ends in a question mark every time they meet somebody new.

Sorry, not meaning to be down on it - just trying to think realistically.

The OP doesn't actually say she's thinking about using it for a baby name - just that it's an interesting name she has come across.

I would it was Em-my like Emme but not sure.

Guess*

I’d think Eem

I'm not naming a child it. I'm literally wondering if anyone is aware of the name. I think it's quite possibly Em and down to inconsistent spellings at that time.

I’d go with Emmy, but I wouldn’t give child a name no-one could pronounce.

@ThatIsQuiteACrane

The OP doesn't actually say she's thinking about using it for a baby name - just that it's an interesting name she has come across.

I would it was Em-my like Emme but not sure.

That was how I first read it too. Now I think about it a lot of Es were added back then to the end of words where we now don't have Es. So I lean towards "em" rather than "emmy". Maybe it was a name in it's own right. I'll have a Google this AM and shall post again in nerdy joy if I find anything 😂

If I saw it in a Tudor context, I'd read it as Em.

In a modern context, I'd be confused.

Sorry, that was me jumping high to conclusions - I still maintain what I said to anybody considering it as a baby name, rather than just wanting to know more for historical or literary curiosity purposes, though

Never come across it I think. I’d maybe think it had a french aspect ‘Emmay’ ?? Like esme without the s.

That's a good point - language use was quite different then so it is entirely possible the second e was not pronounced.

I would guess Ee-mee, and that it was a nn for something like Emelia.

I would guess Em-meh.

According to this it's pronounced Em.

Tudor spelling was not consistent or standardised. Individual scribes - and literate individuals (by no means all people) - all had their own quirks.
IIRC, Henry VIII's last wife wrote her name as 'Kateryn' - today, that would be Katherine.

No-one can be certain from just one document (one would need to see the same person named more than once, in different sources) but it's probably just a variant/non-standard spelling of Emma.

Interesting stuff on Tudor names here:
www.britishbabynames.com/blog/2013/05/terrifically-tudor.html

Nerd alert for what follows!!!:
Tudor scholars wrote an awful lot about the need to improve and standardise spelling. This - and how notions of 'correct' spelling became mixed up with ideas on religion and politics - is discussed on in a recent PhD thesis: etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/22907/1/Ji%20Ma_PhD%20thesis.pdf

scottish fascinating.

There was a lot of French influence at court in Tudor times, so I'd suggest it's pronounced Emm, and derives in some way from the French word ending -ême.

That Tudor list is amazing. I'm now seriously considering whether can pull off Griffin if DC3 is a boy...

How about Wilmot and Sindony for girls - wow.

I love those lists.