Hello Everyone!
We are having issues narrowing down our name list for #2. Our first choices where thrown out the window after we opened the topic for discussion with our families.
Here are the current choices and some background on our family. Thanks for your help!
We are a French/American family living in [name]France[/name]. Our 2 year old daughter’s name is [name]Maeve[/name]. Our last name is also typically French sounding. What do you think of these choices? Please be honest.
first name:
[name]Berenice[/name]
[name]Clothilde[/name]
[name]Ottilie[/name]
[name]Freya[/name]
[name]Aria[/name]
[name]Thalia[/name]
[name]Clothilde[/name] is beautiful and very chic next to [name]Maeve[/name]. [name]Love[/name] it. [name]Ottilie[/name] is full of fun and would make a lovely little sister name. She would be energetic, I imagine. The rest of your choices are a little plain, I think you have two winners there.
[name]Ottilie[/name] is adorable and definitely my favorite. It is a bit more girly and frilly than [name]Maeve[/name], but I don’t believe siblings names have to match to the tee. I also really like [name]Berenice[/name] and that would be my second pick.
I know [name]Clothilde[/name] is used quite a bit in [name]France[/name], but I don’t really like the sound of it, or the CLOTH beginning. I imagine it would be harder to pull off in other countries too, while your other names seem like they would translate better internationally. (not sure if that is a concern or not).
[name]Freya[/name] is lovely and maybe the best match with [name]Maeve[/name], although it is quite popular in the UK.
[name]Clothilde[/name] is a family name but the spelling can always be changed a bit. I wasn’t aware that [name]Freya[/name] was so popular in the UK until I reviewed the statistics today. Wow!
Having the names sound OK internationally is always a plus, but right now we are just concerened with how our families would pronounce it. I never imagined we could have such difficulties with [name]Maeve[/name].
[name]Ottilie[/name] is my favorite. It’s so sweet and charming and chic, and I really like [name]Maeve[/name] and [name]Ottilie[/name] together. Besides, the nn [name]Tilly[/name] is so cute!
[name]Thalia[/name] and [name]Ottilie[/name] are my favourites. [name]Freya[/name] is overused in the UK, which isn’t a huge problem in [name]France[/name], but I still see it as a little plain. [name]Clothilde[/name] would have been my 3rd choice - very French chic sounding, but I don’t quite like it as much as the others. [name]Berenice[/name] is so cute, but I don’t think it goes particularly well with [name]Maeve[/name]. I don’t personally like [name]Aria[/name].
A few suggestions: Thylane? [name]Miri[/name]? Théa?
Bérénice Cécile would be a great name imo and easy to pronounce in [name]France[/name] and stateside which is a concern I understand! Also, since the movie the Artist has been so successful in the states Bérénice Bejo makes the name less obscure.
My second favorite is [name]Clothilde[/name] and [name]Ottilie[/name] is third but I think people outside of [name]France[/name] would struggle with [name]Clothilde[/name]'s pronunciation and everyone seems to think Otillie is “oh tilly” which imo takes away from the beauty of the name but its your decision and theyre still good names!
Would like to know what names were on your original list. Also, journaldesfemmes.com has a great name database as well as aufeminin.com.
Originally we had names like [name]Tamsin[/name], [name]Berit[/name], [name]Eleanor[/name], [name]Romy[/name], and Berangere on our list.
[name]Tamsin[/name] has a great pronunciation in English, but in French it didn’t work.
The same went for [name]Berit[/name]. The good ‘t’ and ‘n’ sounds get lost in the pronunciation.
[name]Eleanor[/name] and [name]Romy[/name] are super common here and Berangere happens to be an estranged family member.
Though I love getting feedback from our French family and friends (as I sometimes miss pretty obvious cultural associations, it has made the search much more difficult.
@saint[name]Jean[/name] Bérangère is one of my favorite names! I love the old bcbg French names, maybe this alternative spelling would work for you? I love your name choices, if your open to suggestion you might like ombeline.
