My husband and I love the name [name]Beatrice[/name], but as he is French we would like to pronounce it the French way (bay-a-treece), with the nickname Béa ([name]Bay[/name]-a). I know people at school will call her [name]Beatrice[/name] and trying to get everyone on board with a french pronunciation will be hard. Are we being unrealistic? At the same time there are several pronunciations of [name]Beatrice[/name] in English so maybe telling people how to pronounce it come with the territory?
If I were you I’d spell it the French way; Béatrice. Then people are more likely to understand the pronunciation, or at least that it is pronounced differently than [name]BEE[/name]-tris, [name]BEE[/name]-uh-tris or bay-uh-TREE-che. I don’t know where you are, but in [name]England[/name] if spelled the French way, most people would understand the right way to say it.
I agree with [name]Ottilie[/name]. The accent over the e in [name]Beatrice[/name] will help a lot. If you live in a very English area, especially if french isn’t common there, it will involve a lot of correcting people. We live in a french area and some people, especially the older generation, have a hard time with my son’s name ([name]Luther[/name]). Yesterday, I had to repeat his name three times to an elderly french lady before she got it. Not a big a deal though.
Thanks. We would definitely spell it Béatrice. We live in [name]Boston[/name], so some people may be familiar with French accents and pronunciation but probably not as familiar as in [name]Britain[/name]. The other name we are considering, Céline, will have a similar problem. But for some reason I feel the difference between [name]Celine[/name] and Céline is not as large as between Béatrice and [name]Beatrice[/name]. What do you think?
If pronunciation issues are a dealbreaker, then I’d probably go with Céline, because I agree that the different between [name]Celine[/name] and Céline is only very slight.
If you don’t like the American/English pronunciation of [name]Beatrice[/name] and you live in an English speaking country, I would not use the name. I think it’s difficult to insist on a specific, foreign pronunciation when there is a widely accepted and well known pronunciation of that name in English (or substitute any “other” language here). This is even more true when the person is not clearly foreign, and I am assuming that your future daughter will not have a French accent. I knew a girl in college named [name]Elise[/name] who insisted that her name be pronounced the [name]German[/name] way. This always caused a scene when she had to correct people and I know a lot of people would roll their eyes at her when she did (it came off as quite pretentious).
I’m sad to have to write this, as I agree that so many names sound so much better in French - my name included. I think [name]Celine[/name] is a nice choice as the differences between the two pronunciations are not too drastically different.
