Thibault

[Diggersandloaders]

I am part French but live in the UK, as will our child. Does this name work in English (pronounced tee bow)? I guess a nn would probably be Thib or Bo or something, though we would let that naturally evolve.

The main alternative currently is Felix, though I have a real soft spot for Ludovic.

Please help!!

I would pronounce it thee-bolt but I am very uncultured

When I read it I pronunced it like thigh-bolt

When I first saw Niamh I pronounced it Nee-am

Once told how to pronounce it. I remember.

Over your lifetime you end up correcting a lot of people, and most people don't like being corrected

Some people won't accept the correct pronunciation

@LemonMuffins

First time round I would pronounce that Tybalt, as in from Romeo and Juliet a lot of people will say it wrong.

I prefer Felix. Don't like Ludovic at all.

Same.

Some people won't accept the correct pronunciation

What do you mean? They knowingly continue to mispronounce someone's name?

@MerryChristmasToYou

Over your lifetime you end up correcting a lot of people, and most people don't like being corrected

Some people won't accept the correct pronunciation

I spent 26 years living outside of Ireland with an unusual (unusual even in Ireland) Irish name and surname that looks phonetically impossible to foreigners. I never had an issue with repeated mispronunciation or ‘refusal to accept the correct pronunciation’.

What would that even look like? ‘No, your name’s not Aoife (EEF-uh) it’s Ay-o-wife’?

I think it's great.

It might even be easier having a pure French name than Felix which I think is pronounced slightly differently in French and English.

@Blubells, @Clandestin, I used to work with a Théo (Tayo), and there were a few who insisted on calling him Theo, also one called Laoise who some kept calling Louise

(I've used different names as the actual names might be outing)

I don't know why they did it. It seems so weird that someone would call someone by the wrong name or what they think is how to say it.

I've thought of another one - same person as the Laoise example. if you referred to Anthony, she would correct you and say Anthony with a th. If you said, but he says it as Ant, she would say he was spelling his name wrongly and that only Antony gave that spelling.

Her kids had yooneek names

sound not spelling.

I also thought of Romeo and Juliet, but there are worse things!

It’s a lovely name. I probably would have pronounced wrongly (although now I look twice at the name I feel like I should have known how pronounce it) only because my brain started with the similar name in R&J. It’s not a difficult pronunciation and I wouldn’t have got it wrong a second time.

However… Ludovic wins for me. It’s a brilliant name. I knew a French Ludo and always thought how great his name was although sadly, he wasn’t as cool and his name.

I like Ludovic.

All fantastic names, OP.

I know someone with this name and when English people hear the name being said for the first time they often think someone is referring to him as T-bone. Like a nickname. It happens all the time.

I like it. Makes me think of the weirdly attractive actor who play Matteus in Dix Pour Cent!

Felix is lovely too and works in a few languages. So depends what your priorities are.

I've only known Thibault as a surname in the UK.

I've never heard it before but I love it, I really think if it's your first choice you should go for it. Just make sure teachers etc are fully briefed before the beginning of first term on how to pronounce it and it'll be fine.

I've worked with a Thibault, he was lovely! No-one at work had problems pronouncing or spelling the name. It's a very cool name

A question for anyone french/with links to France. Would you say Thibault is dated? Thanks 😊

@Diggersandloaders

A question for anyone french/with links to France. Would you say Thibault is dated? Thanks 😊

I don’t live there, but I don’t think so - it’s not common enough to date and it’s more of a classic because it’s such an old name.

I absolutely love it btw.

In the U.K. I’d probably go for Tybalt to avoid all thigh bolt nonsense.

I consider it an uncommon classic rather than dated.

But I have been out of the country for a while so I would defer to the opinions of others.

I like it. I know someone whose last name is Thibault but no one with it as their first name. I agree it will be pronounced Tybalt though.
I prefer Felix to Thibault but don’t like Ludovic.

I also knew because of Thibaut Pinot. He doesn’t have the ‘l’ in it I think?

Do you need the ‘l’? Without it, it definitely looks French to me, so I think I would automatically go for something at least approximating the correct pronunciation.

I would massacre this name first time round, having only Spanish and English.
But I would learn and not do it twice.