Do I tell her?

[03cg73]

i have a slight situation with a friend of mine and the name she has chosen for her little girl

my friend is French, living in London where this child will grow up. She’s 39 and this is a very much longer for baby

shes been saying since the start that she wanted a Latin name. Her partner is Spanish and they thought the Latin influence would connect them. All lovely. Very excited for them. Until this afternoon when she sent me a picture of a baby blanket she’s had personalised to reveal the name to me and the name they have chosen is Saline.

I’ve checked and it genuinely is a Latin girls name. I asked the pronunciation thinking it could be said like Celine or something. But no. Pronunciation is Saline. Like the wound wash

normally I’d just keep my mouth shut but years ago a friend of SIL (again, English was not this persons first language) named her baby Chanel, thought it looked better spelled with 2 N’s and ended up naming her poor kid Channel. No one said anything, and when it came out months later she was annoyed that no native English speakers had pointed this out at the time and has since removed the extra N

so do I tell my friend she is naming her daughter after a surgical wash? Or keep my mouth shut and hope the the kid doesn’t grow up getting the piss ripped out of her? friend absolutely loves the name and has been gushing about how perfect it is 😬

I think I would have to say something.

If she’s a proper friend I’d let her no, if she’s more of an distant friend then no I wouldn’t

I think you should say something

Oh you have to say something. A personalised blanket isn't that expensive to replace. Better than a lifetime of teasing for the poor child.

I would definitely say something or the little ones in for a life time of Mickey taking

Tricky! I was ready to give the standard ‘none of your business’ baby name reply, but I do wonder if there could be a case in this instance, given she may not know the English meaning. That said, you can imagine it as quite an elegant sounding name. Maybe worth putting it like that but that you wonder if she knows she might be buying saline to spray up Saline’s nose in a few months when she gets her first cold!!

I would say something but only the once, because it’s possible she knows and doesn’t mind.

There are plenty of names that have other meanings and it doesn’t stop people still loving them for their child eg Flora or Honey.

As well as the spelling, does she know how English people will pronounce? Because she might not like that and Celine might come closer to what she is imagining

Yes, tell her. Suggest Selene or Salina if she must use a ‘salty’ name.

Yes but those have positive connotations!

I think you should definitely tell your friend.

Thank you. I think I’m going to gently bring it up. Might use the flora and honey thing and come at it from the angle of names that are also other things

Ask her 'do you mean Celiine? because Saline is a medical product. It would be like calling a child 'Doliprane'

Doliprane is basically calpol in france.

I think the name is fine. Yes it’s salty water, but it has lots of medical purposes, calling it “wound wash” has deliberately negative connotations and not the first thing I associate with it. Naming your kid after IV fluid doesn’t seem that bad. I teach in Birmingham secondary schools and tbh it wouldn’t even register as being weird with me.

No one will think it that way.

I like previous suggestion of telling her friend once.

This sounds like a good idea!

I take it the baby isn’t here yet? I would definitely mention gently.

I was friends with a lad who’s surname was Clark and was invited to their daughters christening.
I felt uneasy about the choice of her name but couldn’t think why until we went to “wet the baby’s head”.
In the pub toilets I was drying my hands and suddenly realised why you shouldn’t call your baby Kimberley Clark!

But "saline" does not mean "wound wash". It means salty. In English and surely also in French - so she'll know?

You could say "some English think of that word in medical terms" and just see what she says.

What really doesn't make sense here is that the vowel sounds in Saline are pronounced nothing like the salt solution in either French or Spanish (the a would be short, and the i would be an ee sound). So her name is weird in English and equally weird in both the countries of her heritage!

Maybe she’s a mumsnetter 🤞

You could tactfully say that Celine is probably the spelling of the name she likes.

Reading that, I assumed she was going to pronounce it like Celine (very pretty and easy to keep the same name) so I do think you need to tell her. I would probably send her a picture or link so she realises it’s an everyday word and not something obscure that people won’t recognise

Ask her 'Le deuxième prénom de Saline est-il Solution?'.

The blanket could be easily adapted to Satine maybe?