Spelling of name

[essexmuma]

We've decided to call our daughter, due soon, Esmèe. We're decided on the name & love it so please no hate, but we can't seem to decide / agree on the spelling. We want it to be pronounced Ez-may not Ez-mee hence the accent use. Whilst I agree Esmè looks a bit neater, I can't shift the thought that I know Esmèe is the correct feminine spelling of the name and Esmè is masculine ( I speak French although am not French ) & thought if we're going to use it we should it properly but now I feel unsure. Thoughts?

If it helps OP in my head when I read these I read "Esmee" as Es-me and "Esme" as Es-may. If UK systems are likely to lose the accents you might be more likely to get the pronunciation you want with Esme.

I would pronounce those the opposite way.

@LorenzoVonMatterhorn

Esmé is the traditional male spelling, Esmée the feminine spelling. However, in English speaking countries Esmé is definitely more used for feminine.

Theres no y sound at the end. It is more like ez-mae.

I know a few now and nobody has any issue with knowing it is pronounced Ez-mae. It has increased so much in popularity in the past 15 years I would no longer class it as a name people couldn't cope with pronouncing. People cope perfectly well with Tresemmé and café.

Great examples thank you

@Ikeatears

Dh is useless at languages. He reads things as he sees them. I asked him: Esmé - he said EzMay Esmeé - he said Esmee

Haha love this, the best way to tell! Thank you

@HettieHelvetica

Appologies, I really should learn to proof read. One E would equal Ez-MAY, two would equal Ez-MEE.

This

I would assume Esmee is Ez-may because of the French spelling, even if it does not have the accent. Esme would be Ez-mee because that’s the British spelling.

I’m not a stupid person, quite computer literate, and not bad a languages.

However, I wouldn’t be sure of how to type the correct accent if I was inputting it into a form. With the accent, I think you’re setting her up for a world of pain with official forms / email addresses / banks / bills etc when she grows up.

Clearly it wouldn’t be impossible, but it would be more difficult.

Also the use of the accent, is very very unlikely to make British people pronounce it any more correctly. They say it in all of the possible ways - whether you write with an accent or not.

If you love the accent, go for it, but the fact that even you as a person who wants to call their child that name got it wrong, speaks volumes about what will happen as she tries to use it in her life.

Also the use of the accent, is very very unlikely to make British people pronounce it any more correctly.

Really? I would think that most people have learned In French lessons how to pronounce é?

Esme without the accent reads as Es-me.

@Blubells

Also the use of the accent, is very very unlikely to make British people pronounce it any more correctly.

Really? I would think that most people have learned In French lessons how to pronounce é?

Esme without the accent reads as Es-me.

The most common spelling of the name in English is Esme - and is most commonly pronounced Es-May. English isn’t a language which is always pronounced phonically and so doesn’t need an accent to do that.

We could take a straw poll, but given the number of kids taking GCSE french has HALVED in the last 15 yrs, I think the likelihood of people when she is a grown up thinking “oh yes - I know, that must is a top right / bottom left accent - so I must pronounce it ay” is very very small and apparently getting significantly smaller.

I’m pretty sure if you’re not well informed enough to know how Esme is pronounced, you’re unlikely to be be well enough informed to know what to do with an accent (which doesn’t exist in the English language).

As I said above - even the mother thinking of using the name didn’t know which way the accent went. That’s not a criticism of her (I didn’t know either) but just the reality of the use of the accent.