I’m back again with another question about the name we’ve picked out. We’re definitely much closer! We’ve decided on [name]Magdalene[/name] [name]Sanne[/name] (woo hoo! I love the middle name and am so happy DH is on board!) The issue of late has been the pronunciation of [name]Magdalene[/name]. Because DH’s native language is Spanish, he pronounces is Mahg-da-[name]LAYNE[/name], which I think is really pretty, but not necessarily intuitive for English speakers.
Today at lunch, DH suggested we spell it Magdalenne to help with the pronunciation. At first I was hesitant because I don’t like “made-up” spellings. I told him if I couldn’t find the name when I googled it, it was out. But lo and behold, there it was, being used by none other than a doctor, among others! So my question is, do you think Magdalenne is too “out there” or “made up” looking? The more I look at it, the more it’s growing on me, but I’m not sure if I’m just desperate to finally get this all resolved.
In my opinion, yeah, it’s too out there. But that’s me. I also hate made-up spellings. Honestly, I’d keep [name]Magdalene[/name]. Your husband is in the minority of those who speaks Spanish natively (right? or maybe not). I’m not sure it will be easy for many people to say, actually – my instinct said [name]MAG[/name]-duh-leen. But still. Why not [name]Magdalena[/name]? That way it’s more Spanish and people won’t say it wrong?
No, don’t mess with the spelling of such a classic, elegant name! To me, it does look trendy (and unfamiliar. The pronunciation problems may be cleared up, but I don’t that spelling is at all intuitive, so she’ll have to deal with spelling issues instead). It’s not hard at all to specify pronunciation-- all you have to do is say it once, and people will get it.
Another thing: I would pronounce Magdelenne like mag-da-LEHN. Is that what you’re going for, or did you want to pronounce it mag-da-[name]LAYNE[/name] or mag-da-[name]LYNN[/name]? Either way, definitely stick with the original spelling! There’s also [name]Magdalen[/name], which is a legit spelling, but to me doesn’t look as nice visually.
I agree with the poster above, don’t mess with the spelling. I actually think your husband’s spelling suggestion leads away from the pronunciation that he wants more so than the original spelling would.
I don’t think spelling it Magdalenne will make any English speaker more likely to pronounce it with a [name]LAYNE[/name] at the end. I like the idea of going all the way to [name]Magdalena[/name], which I think maybe half of English speakers would pronounce [name]Mag[/name]-da-[name]LAY[/name]-na. But [name]Magdalene[/name] is really lovely too and though you may have to correct pronunciation to get people to say it your way, I think the effort will be worth it – and a lot less confusing than also fiddling with the spelling.
I would pronounce [name]Magdalene[/name] as mag-da-layn anyway (in UK, not spanish speaker). I would say mag-da-lenn for Magdalenne… I wouldn’t think about it too much and go with the original and yes you may have to correct people who get it wrong but even I get that occasionally and my name is [name]Rachel[/name] (fairly intuitive you would think…). Think the point is that it isn’t a big deal and the name is lovely!
Well Magdalenne is actually more confusing imo. -lenne seems like it would be prn [name]LEN[/name], kinda like how -lynne is [name]LYN[/name]. I would stick with [name]Magdalene[/name], the pronounciation makes sense to me
