Juliette or Esme?

[Anametolove]

Baby girl due in June and we were set on the longest time on Esme, a long time favourite.

But this weekend someone from my family mentioned Juliette and I love the name!

It helps I am French, so a nod to my heritage (although Esme is as well).

DH loves Juliette and really likes Esme.

Which one is your favourite and why?

DD1 is Lucy

thanks!

Don't like Juliette

Esme is nice

I have a Juliette and it doesn't get shortened a lot. I also have a Madeleine which never gets shortened to Maddie.

Esmé

I prefer Juliet so you get the stress on the JU and the liet bitten off, as in the Shakespeare play. The other spelling will get Juli ETTE.

Juliet
If you spell it Juliette it will be (correctly) pronounced as Giulietta (hard T, soft A).

The Juliette I know is known as Lettie.

The Juliette I know is known as Lettie.

Why?

Why not just call the poor kid by her actual name?

I love Juliette so much. It's not really my style of name but I've always loved this it's so beautiful. Different league to esme

I'd shorten it to Ettie rather than Jules which I don't like

Oh I love lettie as a NN!

Juliette in is beautiful.

The only Juliette I know gets the full 'Juliette'.

I'm a registrar. I've registered a few Esmé in the last few years, always with the accent.
And only one Juliet, which I think is a lovely name - but if you are French heritage,, Juliette is lovely too. But your eldest has the English Lucy rather than Lucie? Juliet would be a better "match" to that IMO.

I did once meet an older person with the accent the other way on their birth certificate, so Esmè. I didn't know how to pronounce that 😆

Don't be afraid to use the accent though! 😁 Correctly....

In general I think names in the Uk tend to get shortened as it can be less formal and a more friendly thing, which is why a lot of teens will want to shorten whether you like it or not, as they won't want to be put on an overly formal or less cool footing with their peers. If it's not Jules it'll be some other shortening. Is there any you like? The classic parent trying to get everyone to call their teen by their full formal name is worth avoiding.

I'd go for a name where you like the full name and the shortening.

Lettie from Juliette seems a leap and I'd wonder why have the full name at all. Ettie is nice but again seems quite different from Juliette to me. I quite like Jules. I suppose the classic would be Julie but that's a bit unfashionable these days.

To me Juliette is pretty but will definitely be shortened. Esme might not be, but does seem to be one of those names of the moment so that might be worth bearing in mind. Also teens can "shorten" names anyway due to the stuff I was saying above. She may end up as Essie or Ezzie or something. In the end, you can't control these things and maybe you shouldn't try as people often have slightly different nicknames with friends than with parents. But if you really dislike the main shortenings of Juliette, that is probably worth thinking about.

Are there are any other names where you like the full name and possible shortenings equally?

@bohemianmullet thanks and yes I agree, she will shorten it to anything she wants, if she wants it shortened.
I have a real issue with this as I dislike most shortenings, it's just not the done thing in France at all, if anything we lenghten names as a form of endearment (think Juju for Juliet, or Anoushka for Anouk).
There are many names I love the long form of: Alexandra, Francesca, all dismissed because the short version is not the name for me and I just don't like the sound of it (eg Fran, Frankie).
It's really a barrier to many names here! Luxkily Lucy is too short for it to be shortened even though my Ils have already started on Luce...

Of the two I much prefer Juliette/Juliet, there's an awful lot of E names around at the moment (Ella, Ellie, Emma, Emily, Erin etc).

I'm Julia and my name wasn't shortened till I met my DH. I was well over 20 at that point! He and his friends are the only ones who call me Jules.

It won't necessarily be shortened.

Have to admit my DDs both have names that can't be shortened. Their friends still found a way!

@WithASpider please PM me the names of your daughters! I'm desperate to find names that can't be shortened at this stage :D

Love the name Julia btw

Thanks everyone for the answers - I might be leaning a bit towards Juliette now (I would keep this spelling, it doesn't bother me much that one DD has an English name and the other one a French one, even though it is less of a match written down) - which is surprising as I have been calling the little one Esme in my mind all throughout pregnancy.

Juliette seems more cheerful to me. Juliette Esme, and in this case I would actually put it as Juliette Esmée.

But I will seek reassurance from DH that he wouldn't shorten it to Jules (I like Lettie!), so we can at least keep the full name in our household. Outside is out of my control.

Both are beautiful but I would choose Juliette. There seems to be widespread ambiguity on how to pronounce Esme so I feel she would always have to correct people who call her Es-mee. (Evelyn has a similar issue in the U.K.)

I will make sure to update this thread with the chosen name! I always like when posters do :)

@Anametolove That's interesting about longer "shortenings". On here someone will come and wrap me on the knuckles about talking about shortenings versus "diminutives" which is the correct term. It might be something to do with the way the languages work. Spanish names can be super long and have several surnames. I was told four by one of my Spanish friends. On top of lengthy first names. But Spanish is also one of the fastest languages there is, so I imagine this speed is a factor. English is far slower and therefore more plodding (in a way). The other thing about English is it tends to land on the first syllable and I think the rhythm of the language kind of pushes this whether we like it or not. Hence Juliet from Juliette. (I like Juliet though and Harriet.) The stressed and lengthened Ette that works so beautifully in French seems to cause a slight stop in English so doesn't run into the next word as easily. Maybe this is why French derived names often end up with stressed first syllables and swallowed endings in English. Margaret which is rather lovely in other languages with three syllables but can become something more like two syllable Maar-gret or even Maar-grut in English. So I do think a lot of the names that come from the French can sound rather nicer in the original French form, but the rhythms of English will tend to push towards a name with the first syllable stressed anyway and that might happen anyway no matter what you do.

But even in English some nicknames are longer than given names. Like adding y or ie to everything. Andy is no shorter than Andrew. Robbie or Bobbie rather than Robert. That sort of thing. But I think it's the formality or finding something less formal. There is the classic thing in English of someone using your full name when you're in trouble for example "Alexandra!". I don't know if it's the same in France. I know that parents insisting on long names for friends when I was a teen could come across a bit pompous and embarrassing to their offspring, which is why I think it's worth avoiding.

Friendliness can be signalled by a less formal name, as long as the owner of the name is happy with that. So family might call someone Ruthie or Roo rather than Ruth. Even though Ruth is about as short as you can get.

Which is why it might be worth picking a name where you like the possible shortenings too as I would say it's almost part of the culture to try and shorten or add a "y" even on a short name! (Lucy and "Luce" being a brilliant example).

On the other hand, maybe don't overthink it. If your daughter has friendly or cool shortenings from her friends and she likes them, it's only a nice friendly thing usually.

@bohemianmullet thank you for this thoughtful message - of all the cultural differences between France and the UK, it is funny that this is the one sticking out for me, and the only one I struggle with, now that I have a child.
You are absolutely right about why shortenings or diminutives are as prevalent in the UK; I never thought about it in depth but firstly, the UK has a more informal culture than France (Brits address everyone as 'you', whereas Frenchies have a formal 'vous' and informal 'tu' way of addressing people). And the emphasis on thje first syllable for most words tends itself to shorten it a lot more (eg Jules for Juliet).
In France you would never introduce yourself as your diminutive, for instance I have a friend called Justine who everyone in her friends and family calls Juju. That is her nickname and she would never walk around at work and tell colleagues 'Hi my name is Juju'. It's for the intimate circle only.
I am definitely overthinking it, and i would hate to be one of these parents who insist on the long form, it is not for me to say but rather for my child to choose.
Maybe calling my daughter Juliette, disregarding the short forms it may have, would be a great step in completely embracing the UK as my own and espouse all of its cultural differences!

Juliette.

Can shorten to J or Etta/Ettie when she is little.

When she’s a teen though, she’ll choose her own shortening, which may or may not be Jules!

That's interesting about people never introducing by a shortened form in France. I think in English there are shortenings that are plain and sort of unfussy like Pat for Patricia or Jan for Janet or Pam for Pamela. These sorts of shortenings I'd associate with grownups and would entirely be normal for people to introduce themselves this way. For example it would actually be odd for someone called Thomas to call themselves Thomas to acquaintances rather than Tom. But it would probably be used on formal documents or if an author or whatever. A name like Tom or Pam or Pat is not a pet name. It's just a workaday name, so much so that I'd find it quite odd if someone insisted on being Thomas or Pamela. But these are different from pet names or informal names. Tommy for example. Or Patty. There are a lot of Stephens but it's unusual for someone not to be called Steve. There are a lot of Roberts but it's usual for that not to be shortened. Bob or Rob might be the grownup workaday plain version. Robbie or Bobby might be younger or the more informal versions.

This is why it can be a bit of a shame with names in English to chose something long and rambly and beautiful and for it to be shortened to one uninteresting syllable! Patricia to Pat for example.

There seems to be a trend of putting an s on instead of ie nowadays. Like Jacks not Jackie. Jules not Julie. Perhaps because it's more appropriate for young adult, wanting to get away from the versions that would be used for a child. Katy? Tends to go to Kate as someone gets older and so on.

There is probably a class thing to all of this too as there tends to be in Britain. But that would take a much longer post!

Interestingly in my family tree there are quite a few Esme's two or three generations ago but hardly heard of since recently. So perhaps it had a popularity wave then as well.

The syllables are stressed more evenly in some languages. Juliette in French is more Zhu-Li-Et, whereas in English is more Ju-li-ET.

PAM-e-la, LIL-y, NIC-o-la, MOLL-y etc
Rebecca (Re-BEC-ca) shortens to Becky or Bex, Patricia (Pat-RISH-a) to Trisha, Geor-GI-na to Gina etc

Juliet is pronounced very differently to Juliette. The later is French and stresses the last syllable.