Ok I think we are finally settling in on a name for our baby boy. I personally like the spelling [name_u]Henri[/name_u] a little more, but is it weird for American parents with an American son to go with a more foreign spelling?
i don’t think it’s “weird” necessarily, but i think it would be inconvenient and would commonly be misspelled. i also pronounce them a little differently. i say hen-ree for henry and on-ree for henri
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I don’t think it’s weird at all. Henri doesn’t look like a foreign spelling to me and I actually think the name looks more aesthetically pleasing with the i instead of y. Sorta brings a new life to an older name.
Update: I’m seeing everyone mention that it’s an established French name + spelling with its own traditional pronunciation and I could see how that could cause confusion. I guess it depends where you live in the states bc I feel most people in the South at least would assume it was still pronounced Henry. I’ve never met a Henri (“on-ree”) down here.
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I’m seconding @hannahhh here. Henry is pronounced hen-ree and Henri is pronounced on-ree. it’s french.
so spelling it like Henri but pronouncing it like Henry would be really weird, since you’re taking a name from another language and intentionally mispronouncing it
and on top of that, people would literally never spell it right. I imagine that would be super annoying for the kid (and you parents)
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I don’t think it’s weird, though you should be ready for spelling and pronunciation mistakes.
Seconding (thirding?) the pronunciation issue about [name_u]Henri[/name_u].
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Hmm I think it would lead to spelling and maybe pronunciation issues. With so many boy names being used on girls nowadays I can also see it being mistaken for a feminization of [name_m]Henry[/name_m].
I would stick with [name_m]Henry[/name_m].
It’s not necessarily weird for American parents to use a [name_u]French[/name_u] name, but to use it and pronounce it differently than the established pronunciation in [name_u]French[/name_u] might be confusing.
People hearing “Hen-ree,” will likely spell it [name_m]Henry[/name_m]. People seeing [name_u]Henri[/name_u] on paper may pronounce it On-ree if familiar with the name in [name_u]French[/name_u]. Basically, you would frequently have it spelled or pronounced differently than you prefer.
It may not necessarily be weird, but I would consider whether the potential confusion with both spelling and pronunciation is worth it to you.
I’d be inclined to pronounce [name_u]Henri[/name_u] as on-ree and [name_m]Henry[/name_m] as hen-ree, though I think a lot of non-name nerds would pronounce them the same. Still, I’d probably stick with [name_m]Henry[/name_m] if you want hen-ree
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I definitely wouldn’t do this, for the reasons others have mentioned. [name_m]Henry[/name_m] is hen-ree and [name_u]Henri[/name_u] is on-ree. It’s the [name_u]French[/name_u] version of [name_m]Henry[/name_m]. I’d immediately assume a child name [name_u]Henri[/name_u] was [name_u]French[/name_u] and I’d pronounce his name on-ree. You can always correct people but I feel you/your son would be doing that his whole life.
[name_u]Love[/name_u] the name! I’d lean toward [name_m]Henry[/name_m] since it’s the classic American spelling and you mentioned American. It might be hard always having to correct that spelling.
I know that [name_u]Henri[/name_u] is pronounced on-ree but realistically the average [name_m]Joe[/name_m] who doesn’t frequent this naming website probably will still pronounce it as hen-ree.
However, if frequent misspellings would frustrate you then I would avoid.