Alizé/Alizée

[Brazie]

Hi all, DHs mum is French, she moved to the UK as a child but has maintained strong links. To tribute this we are giving our children French names. We have a little boy named Louis Timothée Arthur and are now expecting a second baby.

We were set on Camille being our girls name of choice but are currently on holiday in France and have met someone called Alizé/Alizée pronounced Ah-Lee-say. I think I've fallen in love!!

Full name would be Alizé Camille Inès.

Should we stick with Camille or go for Alizé?

Thank god I'm not the only one who spotted that 😳

I always think of Camille as a male name first because of Thérèse Racquin. Then I think of the Great Garbo film!
I think I prefer Alizé/Alizée it's fairly common in France though, if that makes a difference.

I work with an Alizée, she's maybe mid-20s not sure if she has french heritage but she grew up in the uk. I love her name, it suits her extremely well, she's very effortlessly cool (she sometimes skateboards to work in her designer work wear!). I think the cross of classy and fun makes it a perfect name!

I’ve only ever come across it as Alizée, never with just one e. It’s very pretty. Camille is pretty too.

Hi, congratulations! My DC have French names as they were born there, lived there and my DH is French.

I would always advise speaking to your MIL because she will tell you exactly how to pronounce it (if she’s fluent - I’m assuming she is?). For example, it’s not ‘say’ exactly but a softer ‘zay’ on the end of the name, I believe. My husband (and his family and friends) was also able to tell me when a name I thought would be old lady chic was actually potentially something that was dated in France but not necessarily in a desirable way - rather than an equivalent of something pretty like Martha. Or a name that was the equivalent of something very popular here in the 80s. (I won’t say the names he said as I would hate to cause offence to anyone with that name but it certainly put me off a few absolutely beautiful French names!)

For what it’s worth, I think it sounds a lovely name (and not as popular as the middle names which are used by English people here too) but I’d want to ask a French native a few Qs first.

Alizee is beautiful.

This too OP. Another reason to speak to your other half’s family.

I also learned loads of a French slang from DH in our pursuit of the perfect French name. 🙈 You can’t find this stuff out on the internet generally.

MIL absolutely can't know any names before the baby is born, she has a big mouth and lots of opinions. Even if it was an otherwise lovely name and she just didn't like it she wouldn't be able to be impartial like that.
I'm not too worried if it's dated in France if I'm honest!
The drink doesn't bother me either, loads is alcoholic drinks have human names and we still use them (Jack, Daniel, Morgan to name a few!)
I think Alizée would be the better spelling though.

Came here to say this! If you said Alize to me I would definitely think of the drink. I spent a lot of my childhood in the States though, so maybe less risk of association with that in UK/Europe?

Alizée would be seen as not very classy in France. Perhaps because of the singer, I'm not sure.

But has anyone really called their baby Jack Daniels or Captain Morgan 😅

In my head it's like calling your baby Guinness. Like a single word name brand.

Though I agree Alize is a pretty name!

Chardonnay is a name, I guess. But personally, I wouldn't do it.

@aesopsgables , Daniel as a middle name for Jack is common.

Guinness is often used as a pet name.
It's a surname and surnames as first names are popular. It would get misspelt a lot, i expect.

Pernod or Noilly Prat as a first name?

I'd steer away from anything which has an acute given they are overwhelmingly British living in the UK (I presume - you didn't mention any other heritage?) so for that reason I'd go with Camille.

But surely the reasons you’ve given will mean they’ll just have their name mispronounced as Cah-mill all the time, rather than the French pronunciation.

I wouldn't worry about accents and pronunciation OP. We live in a different time, most places are a lot more culturally diverse and I'd hope that people are better at just quickly asking how to say someone's name if they aren't sure.
We are in the south east and lots of my DCs friends have names I wouldn't know how to pronounce on first look, but you learn fast!

@Mich8 Ahh, apologies - I missed the bit where the OP said Camille would be given the French pronunciation. I still wouldn't go for Alizée and if I really wanted a nod to the French Granny I'd try and insist on the French pronunciation but would be realistic and accept that it's probably going to be Cah-mill on first meeting (and there will be many of those over the years) in the UK.

What’s the French pronunciation of Camille?

Alizeé is pretty but you will need to spend a lot of time explaining how it’s pronounced, not everyone who has English as their first language will know how to pronounce it with the second é

@TheHorneSection, Cam-ee(-uh)

Cah-mee-uh (don’t know how to phonetically write the end though - it’s very, very subtle).

Ha just saw this!

I think Camille is the hardest to pronounce from the names. Alizée not so much. We briefly considered Camille but my DH said most people in the UK won’t be bothered to pronounce properly. He actually said “It feels forced to non natives like saying paella properly” 😂

I noticed. We cross-posted. Thanks for being nice though.

Thinking of it, I think people might mangle Alizée. probably as Alliz-ay. Urg!
Even OP's Ah-Lee-say seems dodgy to mes oreilles.

I’d always steer clear of anything needing an accent not commonly used in English, as so many computer databases in this country don’t allow for them.

It’s pretty, though.