Melisande -Help my friend!

[DRAGON30]

My friend (French) wants to call her soon-to-be DD this. Her DH says it is poncey, and will always be shortened. It's really growing on me, -unusual, lyrical and adult. What does the MN jury think? It's pronounced Mel-i-ZOND (ish!)

I like it but if she lives in the UK I imagine people will not pronounce it in that attractive french way but rather meli-sandy.

or shortened to Mel, but it's lovely in French !

it is very pretty

my SIL is called Melissa and i like that a lot too (underused name IMVHO)

It's gorgeous - I would have pronounced it MeliszAND. Melissa is nice too, and the Turkish name Meliz.

Think its lovely though... Will prob be shortened to Mel by some people butwhat can you do?!!!

Said in a French accent it is lovely but Brits will mangle it, I originally read it as Melis-and-de. To avoid embarrassment most people will call her Mel which IMO is dull (and v 80s).

I like it, and don't see why it would be shortened unless the parents ahorten it

The only Melisande I knew of was in Enid Blyton's 'Six Cousins at Mistletoe Farm'.

I think it a pretty name but at one point in the story, her brother calls her 'Smelisande'!!!

Interesting. It seems that everyone likes the sound of it, but pronouncing it may be an issue. I don't expect them to go back to France anytime soon - despite my friend's best efforts! I feel that she might get her way - her DP wants to call the baby Lisa after his Mum. They're both digging their heels in, so I may avoid their house for a while!

Comerscroft, that was my first thought too.
I loved that book.

"pronouncing it may be an issue"
People may get it wrong at first but they'll get it eventually - very few of the multicultural families around here use English names for fear of their "local" names being mispronounced. She'll get used to correcting people after a while.

Since your friend is French, it's not poncey to use a French name.

ohhhh I read that book too!

Good book

Bad name choice for the UK

I think it's a lovely name. There is an opera by Debussy called Pelléas et Mélisande.

Soupdragon - I agree with you. I don't see why you should disregard a name just because English people struggle with. My name poses occasional problems for people, - so do all my kid's names. It doesn't matter, and I think they quite like giving corrections! As my friend IS French, I think that she should be able to chose a name that reflects her heritage. Stick to your guns, I say!

It is nice but I will admit to reading it as mel-ee-sond

It is 40 million times better than Lisa.

It's a fab name - but if you live in England your child will, I guarantee, spend her life spelling it and correcting people who pronounce it wrong. This is deeply boring and tedious, and, for some children it's very difficult to correct an adult.

It's not a matter of "sticking to your guns" about a name you like even though English people have trouble saying it. It's about whether it's a good idea to name a child something that the VAST majority of the population of the country she lives in will get wrong - not because they are cruel or stupid or don't care, but because it's a tricky word in a foreign language.

I agree with the dragons.

Yes, they live in England but why should that stop a French woman chosing a French name for her DD. It is not at all poncy.

My DD has a Scottish name that the majority of our German friends and relatives stumbled over at first, but they got used to it and learned how to pronounce it.

Even MIL who said, "Catriona? I can't say that, I will call her Katharina". To which BIL replied, "Since MmeLindt gave up her fab Scottish name to take on our strange German surname, the least you could do is learn to pronounce her DD's name"

DD said to me recently that she is glad that we gave her an unusual name as she would not want to be called Sophie like so many other DCs in her Kindergarten.

Lisa is in Me lisa nde anyway so could they not call her Melisande and her nickname be Lisa?

could also have lissie or sandy as a nickname.

We live in Belgium and have called dd1 an english name and dd2 a flemish name. It's not poncey at all to call your child a name from your own country.

Of course a Frenchwoman can choose a French name for her dd wherever she lives. But if she lives - and intends to continue to live - in England she should be aware that, if she chooses a name that is unfamiliar to English speakers, her dd will have to correct the spelling/pronounciation several times a day for the rest of her life - and this will be somewhere on the scale of vaguely irritating to hugely embarrassing depending on the circumstances and the child. The same would apply to a English name in France - French speakers would have trouble getting their tongues round Elspeth, for example.