I prefer names including these accents, ie Maëlle, Esmé, but I wonder if including the accents poses any problem or difficulty down the line? On legal or government documents for example, if they don’t write it properly, and it doesn’t match an ID or birth certificate, does that cause a problem? Is it better to just forego the accent for simplicity’s sake?
If you live in the US you cannot have diacritical marks on official paperwork such as social security cards, passports, and in most states, birth certificates.
This.
[name_f]My[/name_f] cousin is Desirée but on every piece of government paperwork imaginable, she is [name_f]Desiree[/name_f]. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though her mom still spells her name with the diacritical mark, my cousin never does.
It depends where you live. I’m in [name_f]Canada[/name_f], and I have an é in my middle name. It’s always included on government paperwork. I rarely use my middle name in my day-to-day life, so I’m not sure if it would be an issue.
What dindlee said. I worked with a little [name_f]Zoe[/name_f] with the umlaut on the E and she had a horrendous time. [name_m]Even[/name_m] in our systems her name was missing the umlaut. When I was looking to name [name_f]Persephone[/name_f], I remember having a conversation about this sort of thing with her (before we knew it was a girl and were thinking about [name_m]Soren[/name_m] with the dash through the O) and she regrets the umlaut. [name_f]Zoe[/name_f] doesn’t spell her own name with it, no one [name_u]EVER[/name_u] does, it’s not on any of her paperwork or in any of the doctors files or anything. It’s basically just [name_f]Zoe[/name_f]'s mom who uses it. It doesn’t add anything to the name and she’s had such a hard time with it.
I’d suggest just leaving the marks off unless they are absolutely needed.
I’m originally from Germany, and although my first name doesn’t have any diacritical marks, my last name has an umlaut over the O. I’ve never even met anyone who knows what an “o with two dots over it” means. And it isn’t on ANY of my official documents in the US. However it is on all of my [name_m]German[/name_m] official documents including my birth certificate and passport. Although technically my last name would be spelled with an OE if it doesn’t have the umlauts the US doesn’t recognize this either as on my birth certificate it just has an ‘O.’ Honestly it’s a mess and really frustrating that my last name isn’t actually my last name. I do sign everything with the umlaut, but I’m sure nobody notices or knows what it means.