What do you think of the name Esmée?

[kankuraon]

We will find out next week if we’re having a boy or girl but seriously considering this one if it’s a girl!

For context, my husband is French but we currently live in an English speaking country. Our baby will grow up speaking both English and French.

Also curious to hear what nicknames come to mind :-)

@UnderMyOwnVineAndFigTree, It's the correct French spelling and is 'esmay'.

I like it... but may I also present Audrey? So gorgeous and overlooked - with Coronation Street connotations - but in France it is lovely and vibrant name.

What I think is that it’s really popular, there are loads of Esmes.

Love it

If you both like it, go for it. It can be hard to agree on a name and meets all the needs: you both like it; it works in both langauges.

Don't worry about the spelling/pronunciation. Plenty of people deal with more difficult names. French speakers (and there are plenty of those in the UK) will recognise that it's spelled correctly and know how to pronounce it.

I know too, and their nicknames are, imaginatively, Es and May.
it’s very popular at the minute and there are about four or five or six different spellings going around so she will have to spell it out constantly.
and just make sure you’re happy with people calling her Es-me rather than Es-May because there’s very little you can do about that.

Esme (Es-me) was on my list but when I was floating lots of different baby names people kept saying it back to me as Es-May and funnily enough we have an Esme in a baby group and the mum pronounces it Es-May. Anyway I’m waffling but in a nutshell I think it’s a pretty name but the pronunciation issues would put me off!

Just an aside, my French friend has an Elodie which is pretty too!

How would you spell it? If it is to be spelled Esmée, how much will it annoy you if people spell it Esme (with or without the accent)?

Where do you live? I think it's one of those names that sounds lovely spoken with a French accent but terrible in my south coast accent.

Very popular. My niece is called it, Ez for short.

Very popular around these parts. One of my sons knows 3, all Esme, but 2 pronounce it Esmay, and one Esmee. 🤷‍♀️

I like it, but it seems very popular with the primary school age kids I know/know of.

I think it’s on the classic side rather than dated even though it was trending ages ago. (For non Francophones, the correct pronunciation is more Ez-meh than Ez-may). Pretty name.

Beautiful.

@fatphalange , (For non Francophones, the correct pronunciation is more Ez-meh than Ez-may) What do you mean? I've never heard anyone say Ez-meh.

What I said is what I mean. I don’t know how else to say it. Obviously people will anglicise French names as they usually do.

I thought it was Es meh. It's beautiful.

I thought exactly the same (Granny Wetherwax!)

The name Esme is typically pronounced as:
/ˈɛz.meɪ/
Here's the breakdown:

• /ɛ/ as in "bed"
• /z/ as in "zoo"
• /m/ as in "man"
• /eɪ/ as in "day"

So, it sounds like "EZ-may."

Es-meh would be Esmè not Esmé

Weird, unappealing.

I’m French. Ez-meh is the closest way I can describe the correct pronunciation to English speakers.

Lovely and not common place

What an unpleasant thing to say.

My 10y daughter is Esme. We pronounce it Esmae. However people do call her Esmee and she is constantly correcting them so we wish we’d spelt it Esmae. Shes called Ez for short.

@fatphalange , 'eh' is the e in English bed, ɛ in IPA.
The é sound isn't 'ay' but that's the nearest English transcription. The IPA is e. The ay sound is eɪ in IPA.