Hi everyone! I’m having a daughter and my husband and I are really struggling with names. We both have French roots and would love to name our little girl a French name, but one that is pronounceable in British English. We really love classical, timeless names. Both my husband and I are historians settled around the Golden Age of Piracy (we love that era and lot of our research went into 18th century names). Below is a list of names we are considering, but I haven’t fallen in love with any of them just yet. Some of our favourites have been Ciel, Odette, Zephyrine, and Elodie, but I’m worried about their pronunciations in English. I would love any suggestions to add to this list as well as thoughts about the listed names! Middle names would be a lovely suggestion as well.
[name_f]Perrine[/name_f] - distinctive and lovely
[name_f]Odette[/name_f] - snappy and stylish
[name_f]Constance[/name_f] - elegant and strong
[name_f]Margaux[/name_f] - warm and elegant
[name_u]Celeste[/name_u] - sleek but cosy
[name_f]Josette[/name_f] - snappy and stylish - sharp but sweet
[name_f]Elodie[/name_f] - lively, bright and bouncy (for what it’s worth, it’s in the UK top 100)
[name_f]Coralie[/name_f] - lively and lovely
[name_f]Estelle[/name_f] - sleek, starry and swish
[name_f]Cora[/name_f] - bright and cool
[name_f]Zephyrine[/name_f] - distinctive and celestial
[name_u]Ciel[/name_u] and [name_f]Zephyrine[/name_f] aren’t unusable, but they are much more unfamiliar.
[name_f]My[/name_f] personal favorites from your list are [name_u]Marie[/name_u], [name_f]Cecile[/name_f], [name_f]Josette[/name_f], [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f], and [name_f]Estelle[/name_f]! I am from [name_f]Louisiana[/name_f] so we have a lot of [name_u]French[/name_u] names here too. Here are some that I like that also work well in an English-speaking context:
[name_u]Welcome[/name_u] to NB! [name_u]Love[/name_u] this genre of naming! [name_f]My[/name_f] husband aren’t historians but love the gamut of history and are currently TTC for our first!
Pronunciation-wise (USA [name_f]English[/name_f] speaker here, not so sure about British) I think the only one that might be a tad difficult is [name_f]Zephyrine[/name_f] but even that one seems doable to me. [name_f]Odette[/name_f] and [name_f]Elodie[/name_f] certainly ought not be a problem.
I will add [name_f]Georgette[/name_f], [name_f]Suzette[/name_f], [name_f]Allaire[/name_f], [name_f]Amelie[/name_f], [name_f]Juliette[/name_f], and [name_f]Adrienne[/name_f].