[name_f]My[/name_f] husband and I have a little girl name Lu.cille and will be trying for a second baby soon. I am French-speaking and my husband is English-speaking (pretty bilingual now). We live in a bilingual French-English environment. I wondered if [name_f]Françoise[/name_f] would be too complicated to say for English-speakers who are not familiar with the [name_m]French[/name_m] language. Having to precise how it’s pronounced would not be a problem, but I would not want it to be impossible.
As an English speaker who does not speak any French, I am somewhat familiar with how to pronounce Françoise (and not just because I’m a name fan). I think François is well known in the US (in that most people will recognize the name “fran-swah” when it’s said out loud, though they may not recognize it on paper), and Françoise is pretty similar. I can’t speak for it’s familiarity in other English-speaking countries.
However I don’t think people will know how to spell it. Even I wouldn’t have realized it was an “ç” and probably would have just written a C as Francoise. I think the spelling, or pronouncing it from the written form may cause issues, but I think once people hear it said correctly they will realize it’s familiar to them through the masculine François and then get it right.
That said, if you live in a bilingual environment, I wouldn’t worry about it too much anyway. Françoise is a very pretty name and I would assume most people in a French/English bilingual area would be familiar with the spelling and pronunciation.
I pronounce it Frank-Oise
If it’s pronounced Fran-Swah I think you will have many spelling and pronunciation issues
Although people should get the hang of it in a few weeks if they notice the ç and you explain the pronunciation. I personally, after learning the French pronunciation would ask if your daughter’s name was pronounced Fran-Swa or Frank-Oise
Maybe if you spell and pronounce it Frank-Oise people will understand
But only if you’d like to
If you don’t want to, there have been babies called Saoirse & Caoimhe (Sorsha & Keeva)
Another option could be to use Frances or Franceline. Frances is as French as Francoise, and the difference is only a few letters
[name_f]English[/name_f] isn’t my first language but I don’t speak any [name_m]French[/name_m] & I don’t think [name_f]Françoise[/name_f] would be too difficult! Like a previous poster mentioned, a lot of people are familiar with both a) the male version of the name, b) [name_m]French[/name_m] phonetics in general. Especially if you live in a bilingual area I assume people would know how to pronounce an easy [name_m]French[/name_m] name like that! I would pronounce it the way you do without needing to be corrected and like I said I have no connection to [name_m]French[/name_m].
As a completely monolingual [name_f]English[/name_f] speaker I know Francois is fran-swa and I feel like most [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers qould be familiar with the name Francois, if I saw [name_f]Francoise[/name_f], I would hesitate between fran-swa and fran-swas. But as someone who does have a basic knowledge of french pronunciation Im assuming the correct pronunctiation is something more like Fran-swas? And tbh I think that might actually be easier in [name_f]English[/name_f], since it does follow more closely to [name_f]English[/name_f] pronunciation.
Thank you so much everybody! I think you are all correct - the spelling is more challenging than the pronunciation, and thankfully the masculine form is well known. In [name_m]French[/name_m], this name would be pronounced [name_f]Fran[/name_f] - swaz, as the s is said like a z when placed between two vowels. See this video for reference https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQD0mMPBnlg (around 20 seconds in). It is not really challenging to say, but the “ç” (pronounced like s) and the “oi” (pronounced wah) makes it difficult to read for non-French speakers.
[name_f]My[/name_f] husband said he “liked it better” than the other names on my list though, so we will think about it and see whether it would be possible to say/remember for his [name_f]British[/name_f] family.
I do think it might throw [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers unfamiliar with [name_m]French[/name_m] (or just, names), especially with the ç. I hadn’t seen the name before if I’m honest and my guess at the pronunciation as a non-French speaker was “Fran-SWAH” or “Fran-shaz” neither of which is right but not completely out there.
