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 😬

Maybe just say, 'oh you may be better spelling it Celine, as saline is a wound cleaning fluid over her!' Just be honest and explain! She'll probably be thankful. Good luck! x

I’ve lived in England for 30 years and London for 10 and I would never have made that connection tbh.

I was about to post exactly this. As a Fifer it's Sah-lin to me.

Yup, I too would tell her.
As personalised blanket ( presumably!) going to waste is far better than a life-time of her DD having such a strange name to live with.

I'd mention it and suggest she looks at Salina, which is as Greek name or Selena.

Please say something.

distant friend, stranger or otherwise. Tell her! It’s the right thing to do.

It’s no worse than Candida ….

Candida is a name though.

@03cg73 I've only had time to read the first and last pages, sorry.
So if someone else has already made this point, I apologise.
What struck me as soon as I read your opening post, was that by telling us the name your friend had chosen for her little girl, it is such an unheard of name that surely this is somewhat "outing"?
Whatever Mumsnetters think about the name, and whether you should/should not have revealed it, it only takes someone your friend knows being on this forum, (or even your friend herself), to know exactly whom you are referring to in your post.
Just a thought......

I think you should say something. Get into the mind of a 5 year old learning phonics
Mum to be is picturing
s leen
what people will read it as is
say line
They are different words entirely. That's before you factor in that Saline is actually another word with a meaning in it's own right!

If she's a close friend I'd ask her if she knows the English meaning of the word Saline. You could suggest maybe changing the spelling to Salene or Saleen so it's not as bad.