I live in a [name_m]French[/name_m] part of [name_f]Canada[/name_f], and it is my mother tongue. It is important to me that my children have [name_m]French[/name_m] names (or at least pronounceable in [name_m]French[/name_m]). However, having a uniquely [name_m]French[/name_m] name that’s not pronounceable in English, I want their names to be easy to pronounce and understand in English as well.
So basically, I would like your opinion on whether or not these names are pronounceable / usable in the English language. I’d also love if you could tell me your opinion of them! In [name_m]French[/name_m], we use accents, so I wrote the names how I’d spell them (which means the links probably won’t work) but feel free to suggest alternate spellings or other ideas you’d think are similar to my list!
My family is partially from [name_m]Quebec[/name_m], and I am fluent in [name_m]French[/name_m], so I’m an exemption from most difficult [name_m]French[/name_m] names (I can normally say them just fine), but here’s what I think would go over well.
Amélie - Definitely easy to read, however, most English speakers would say it as [name_f]Emily[/name_f] with an ‘[name_m]Ah[/name_m]’ sound at the start.
[name_f]Arianne[/name_f] - Might come out sounding a bit awkward, but not too bad.
[name_f]Arielle[/name_f] - I know an English speaking [name_f]Arielle[/name_f], it’s not too difficult to say at all.
[name_f]Audrie[/name_f] - definitely ok, it’s a commonly used spelling of [name_f]Audrey[/name_f] in some places.
[name_m]Audr[/name_m]ée - if this is said similarly to [name_f]Audrey[/name_f], it would be ok.
Aurélie - This would likely cause teasing in an English speaking location, because it is usually said as ‘Orally’. [name_f]Aurelia[/name_f] would be fine though.
[name_f]Camille[/name_f] - easy to say and read, I have a friend who was born to Scottish parents named [name_f]Camille[/name_f], I went to school with her.
Élia - easily pronounced and spelled.
Éliane - might cause a few pronunciation/spelling problems, but shouldn’t be too bad,
Élodie - Commonly used in the UK, so it should be fine, no confusing letters in it.
[name_f]Emeline[/name_f] - Pronunciation of the ending could be difficult.
[name_f]Emma[/name_f] - [name_f]Emma[/name_f] is the top name in all of [name_f]Canada[/name_f], and one of the top names in the US, definitely ok.
[name_f]Emma[/name_f]-[name_f]Jeanne[/name_f] - [name_f]Jeanne[/name_f] might cause a few issues, but not too many.
Geneviève - Easy to read and commonly used on English speaking children.
[name_f]Isaline[/name_f] - more likely difficult, but not too bad:)
[name_f]Juliette[/name_f] - Commonly used on English children.
[name_f]Madeline[/name_f] - Commonly used on English children,
Maélie - One of the more difficult ones - I believe this one’s [name_f]May[/name_f]-lee/My-lee though? Might be ok without an accent on the first e.
[name_f]Marguerite[/name_f] - easy to say in English
[name_f]Mireille[/name_f] - One of my favourite [name_m]French[/name_m] names, but anyone who isn’t familiar with [name_m]French[/name_m] would likely have a problem.
Mylène - lovely, and I know of a famous Mylene (spelled Myleene)
[name_m]Sol[/name_m]ène - might trip a few people up, accents become a bit tricky.
[name_f]Sophie[/name_f]-[name_f]Anne[/name_f] - definitely easy to say.
[name_f]Myriam[/name_f] - perfectly fine, but the common spelling here would be [name_f]Miriam[/name_f].
Amélie
[name_f]Camille[/name_f]
Élodie
Maélie – prn Muh-ay-lee? I also love Maëla and Maëlys. You will probably get some Maylee pronunciations with this one, but that particular accent is more commonly recognized by english speakers, still…
[name_f]Marguerite[/name_f]
[name_f]Mireille[/name_f] – English speakers will probably say [name_f]Murielle[/name_f], but the true pronunciation of this is so lovely and worth the correction I think.
Like:
[name_f]Juliette[/name_f]
[name_f]Madeline[/name_f]
[name_f]Emeline[/name_f]
[name_m]Sol[/name_m]ène
[name_f]Myriam[/name_f] – though I’m not sure, is this pronounced like [name_f]Miriam[/name_f]? Or is the My pronounced as with english “my”
p.s. I think that if you choose a name that has more traditional French spelling, then you should stick with the French spelling and not anglicize unless there is already an established version that suits you in English. Miriam/Myriam may be an example of this or Amelie/Amélie.
I agree with all the comments above, except [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] will be pronounced the English way, 3 syllables w/accent on the first–[name_f]JEN[/name_f]-eh-veev (a shame, because it’s so lovely in [name_m]French[/name_m]).
Thank you so much Lawsonhaley! I appreciate your help. I never thought of Aurélie / Orally, that’s pretty bad now that I notice it. Maélie is pronounced Mah-Ay-[name_u]Lee[/name_u], so the accent is pretty important for the pronunciation I’ll also write that down for [name_f]Miriam[/name_f], I hadn’t considered this spelling.
@Aym : Thank you! I also love Maëlys, but I’m a bit iffy on the -iss ending. Eek, I really don’t like [name_f]Murielle[/name_f], so that’s definitely something to consider with [name_f]Mireille[/name_f]! [name_f]Miriam[/name_f] is the same as [name_f]Myriam[/name_f], though I realise now that the [name_f]Miriam[/name_f] spelling might be better.
@Rkrd : [name_m]Even[/name_m] though the English pronunciation is very different, it’s nice too, so I don’t mind too much for that one. Thank you!
No problem! I used to love Aurélie, until I caught on to the Orally problem haha. That’s true, but I think in [name_m]Ontario[/name_m], accents are left out of legal documents, so the accent might be lost occasionally.
I have my accents on all my legal documents and I live in [name_m]Ontario[/name_m], so I’m not too worried about it But even if they get lost in some documents, it’s not a big deal to me.
This is how the names would most likely be pronounced in [name_u]America[/name_u].
[name_f]Amelie[/name_f] - [name_m]AH[/name_m]-mel-ee
[name_f]Arianne[/name_f] - are-ee-[name_f]ANN[/name_f]
[name_f]Arielle[/name_f] - [name_f]AIR[/name_f]-ee-yell (like the mermaid) or ARE-ee-elle
[name_f]Audrie[/name_f] - AWD-ree
[name_f]Audree[/name_f] - Same as above
[name_f]Camille[/name_f] - CUH-meel
[name_u]Elia[/name_u] - ell-EYE-uh or [name_f]ELL[/name_f]-ee-uh
[name_f]Eliane[/name_f] - [name_f]ELL[/name_f]-ee-ann or misread as [name_f]Elaine[/name_f]
[name_f]Elodie[/name_f] - [name_f]ELLE[/name_f]-oh-dee
[name_f]Emeline[/name_f] - [name_f]EM[/name_f]-muh-leen or [name_f]EM[/name_f]-muh-lyne
[name_f]Emma[/name_f] - [name_f]EM[/name_f]-ma
[name_f]Emma[/name_f]-[name_f]Jeanne[/name_f] - [name_f]EM[/name_f]-ma-jean
[name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] - [name_f]JEN[/name_f]-uh-veev
[name_f]Isaline[/name_f] - IZZ-uh-leen or IZZ-uh-lyne
[name_f]Juliette[/name_f] - JU-lee-ette
[name_f]Madeline[/name_f] - MAD-uh-lyne or MAD-uh-lynn
[name_f]Maelie[/name_f] - [name_f]MAY[/name_f]-lee
[name_f]Marguerite[/name_f] - [name_f]MAR[/name_f]-ger-eet
[name_f]Mireille[/name_f] - MEER-elle or MEER-ee-elle
Mylene - MY-leen
[name_f]Solene[/name_f] - SO-leen
[name_f]Sophie[/name_f]-[name_f]Anne[/name_f] - SO-fee-ann
[name_f]Myriam[/name_f] - MEER-ee-um
I hope that was clear enough…[name_f]Baha[/name_f]. I think most of them would be fine to use, with the exception of [name_f]Mireille[/name_f], Mylene, [name_f]Solene[/name_f], [name_f]Eliane[/name_f], [name_f]Maelie[/name_f], and maybe [name_f]Isaline[/name_f].
totally usable:
Amélie
[name_f]Arianne[/name_f]
[name_f]Arielle[/name_f]
[name_f]Audrie[/name_f]
[name_f]Camille[/name_f] - I disagree with pp; the [American] Camilles I know of pronounce it cuh-MEEL.
Élodie
[name_f]Emeline[/name_f]
[name_f]Emma[/name_f]
[name_f]Juliette[/name_f]
[name_f]Madeline[/name_f]
[name_f]Marguerite[/name_f]
[name_f]Mireille[/name_f] - no one would say it right just from reading it but they’d be able to say it easily after being told how.
[name_f]Sophie[/name_f]-[name_f]Anne[/name_f]
[name_f]Myriam[/name_f]
maybe usable:
Aurélie - you’d have to reinforce the proper pronunciation, and then I think people would say it [close to] correctly.
Éliane - would definitely get misread as [name_f]Elaine[/name_f].
[name_f]Emma[/name_f]-[name_f]Jeanne[/name_f]
Geneviève - if you’re okay with the widely used [name_f]JEN[/name_f]-uh-veev pronunciation.
[name_f]Isaline[/name_f]
[name_m]Sol[/name_m]ène
probably not usable:
[name_m]Audr[/name_m]ée
Élia
Maélie
Mylène
I’m learning [name_m]French[/name_m], and always loved [name_m]French[/name_m] names, so I feel pretty confident with all of them (save Maélie/Maëlie–or is the ë with [name_f]Maelys[/name_f]?), but I think the general public would have troubles with [name_f]Genevieve[/name_f] and maybe even [name_f]Madeline[/name_f] (in [name_m]French[/name_m], wouldn’t that spelling be mad eh lean?). [name_f]Emeline[/name_f], [name_f]Isaline[/name_f], Mylene, and [name_f]Solene[/name_f] might be tricky, too…
I love [name_f]Arianne[/name_f], though! One of my favorite girls’ names.
I have absolutely NO talent with [name_m]French[/name_m] names, and reading through the only ones I had issues with were [name_u]Elia[/name_u] (with accent) and Mylene (with accent). I hope I was pronouncing the rest right! Pretty much anything with an accent could be pronounced completely wrong, probably. Most things without accents are easier though.
Amélie - everyone will associate her with the one fr movie they know.
[name_f]Arianne[/name_f]
[name_f]Arielle[/name_f]
[name_f]Audrie[/name_f]/[name_m]Audr[/name_m]ée
Aurélie - This is sort of popular in [name_m]Quebec[/name_m] according to some stats from 2013. We considered using this for our daughter, but my Friends and family are all english, so they say it ORALLY. I switched it for Aurélia which is a tad more dignified for when she’s older. Can call her Aurélie as a nn. We pronounce it the way a [name_m]French[/name_m] person would say a Latin name - Au-rrel-ee-ah (rolled R). The accent isn’t really pronounced in fr, but it really throws English people off. The panic at the sight of any sort of accent. A polish worker painting the baby’s room pronounced it O-rail-ee-a today, I tried not to grimace. That will probably happen a lot. [name_f]Elodie[/name_f] has less hassle.
[name_f]Camille[/name_f] - pretty in Fr, not so much in eng
Élia
Éliane - much nicer in Fr. Eng- [name_f]Elaine[/name_f]
Élodie - this one is a win. Everyone can say it, and it’s very pretty.
[name_f]Emeline[/name_f] - [name_f]Emmaline[/name_f] in Eng
[name_f]Emma[/name_f]
[name_f]Emma[/name_f]-[name_f]Jeanne[/name_f] - english people will make this sound backwoods and hick.
Geneviève
[name_f]Isaline[/name_f] - sort of tricky to wrap the tongue around
[name_f]Juliette[/name_f] - instant conotation of [name_m]Romeo[/name_m] & [name_f]Juliette[/name_f]. Nice chocolate chain place in Montreal though
[name_f]Madeline[/name_f] - very sweet name in either language
Maélie - Eng people won’t know what to do. Might call her [name_f]Miley[/name_f], like [name_f]Miley[/name_f] [name_m]Cyrus[/name_m]
[name_f]Marguerite[/name_f] - nn [name_f]Margot[/name_f] (margo) super chic. [name_f]Margareta[/name_f] in german has the nn [name_f]Gretel[/name_f], which is so cute on a toddler.
[name_f]Mireille[/name_f] - Might be pronounced [name_f]Muriel[/name_f]
Mylène - My-leen in eng? Not so pretty
[name_m]Sol[/name_m]ène - [name_f]Lovely[/name_f] name in fr. What’s with Eng people naming their kid’s [name_f]Soleil[/name_f] though?
[name_f]Sophie[/name_f]-[name_f]Anne[/name_f] - hyphens are trés Quebecois, a lot of english people think it’s unwieldy, like -[name_f]Marry[/name_f]-[name_f]Sue[/name_f], or [name_u]Billy[/name_u]-[name_m]Joe[/name_m] the girls at the truck stop.
[name_f]Myriam[/name_f] - Also used by Arabic speakers.
I’ll also write that down for [name_f]Miriam[/name_f], I hadn’t considered this spelling.