We are having a baby girl pretty soon. Although we live in The States we have a European background, and just in-case if we would go back ; I wanted to ask what name would be the best option for Europe ? (I am a bit indecisive about “Aria” because it might be a little difficult to pronounce in Germanic countries, or France.) I would appreciate your contribution to the poll 
Thanks !
Which name would be easier to pronounce in European countries ?
0 voters
Not sure about in Germanic countries, but [name_f]Aria[/name_f] actually ranks in [name_f]France[/name_f] right now, so seems like it works fine there. I think both would work, but [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] would probably work for a few more countries than [name_f]Aria[/name_f] would and the pronunciation may be slightly more consistent.
i’m british and both are fairly easy for me to pronounce, but i think in other countries isabelle would be easier than aria
I live in Europe and I do think both of these are universal enough so that people won’t find them strange at all
But at leas where I live I think Isabelle could cause some writing problems because in portugal Isabelle is only written like Isabel but the sound is the exact same when pronouncing it
Aria is very easy to pronounce even because it is a shorter name and it’s quite simple but once again I can only speak as what I think and about where I live
I find that the letter R causes the most trouble when it comes to international names, because its sound really differs from one language to another. It isn’t pronounced the same in, for example, [name_f]English[/name_f], Russian and [name_m]German[/name_m]. So I’d say [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] is easier pronunciation-wise. You’d probably have it misspelled a couple of times, though. So it comes down to the question: would you like a name whose pronunciation differs or a name whose spelling differs in different languages?
I voted [name_f]Aria[/name_f].
I’m in the UK and both are fairly easy to pronounce but I’d say [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] is probably most accessible
They are both pretty easy to pronounce, [name_f]Aria[/name_f] is a little close to Arier (Aryans) for my liking as the pronunciation is pretty much the same in [name_m]German[/name_m], however, I think most younger people would associate it with GoT nowadays.
[name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] will result in lots of different spellings all over Europe, however, pronunciation-wise, [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] is still easy to grasp.
It would fully depend on which country in Europe, a [name_u]French[/name_u] accent is very different to a [name_m]German[/name_m], to a Spanish to a Czech one and so on.
The R in [name_f]Aria[/name_f] will sound different when said by [name_m]German[/name_m] and [name_u]French[/name_u] speakers but they still have an R sound so it wouldn’t throw them. It would depend whether you had an issue with it being a different sound. For example the name of my oldest daughter is [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f]. It has slightly different pronunciations in [name_m]German[/name_m] and [name_f]English[/name_f] but my daughter responds to both. She’s started learning [name_u]French[/name_u] and is getting used to her [name_u]French[/name_u] teacher pronouncing it a third way but she’s fine with it.
As others mention, an [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] would have to spell her name all the time, but the same is true of the [name_f]English[/name_f] speaking world. In many countries, the I sound in [name_f]Isabelle[/name_f] will be more of an Ee sound like in fleece than an i sound like in ink. The s could be a sound like in hiss or a z sound like in business
Europe is a very diverse term. Something easy in one country might be impossible in another.
I voted based on my own language.
I’m British and I have a [name_f]Juliette[/name_f] and [name_m]Oscar[/name_m] in [name_f]France[/name_f]. [name_m]Even[/name_m] though they’re in that military code as they have pretty universal pronunciation, there’s still a difference on the Ju and the ar.
Both the names on your list are pretty international. I prefer [name_f]Aria[/name_f] with [name_m]Wells[/name_m].
We’re going with [name_f]Daphne[/name_f] this time. I also liked [name_f]Nathalie[/name_f], [name_f]Stephanie[/name_f], [name_f]Erica[/name_f] and [name_f]Marianne[/name_f].
I think both would work, though the pronunciations would be slightly different from [name_f]English[/name_f] of course. I don’t foresee any problem with either of them in [name_u]French[/name_u] (I’m not as familiar with [name_m]German[/name_m] names).
I was wondering, do you pronounce it with or w/out the -e at the end in German?
Yeah, in [name_f]English[/name_f] we obviously say it without the e. A lot of Germans do pronounce the e as an extra unstressed syllable as if it was a [name_m]German[/name_m] name like [name_f]Wilhelmine[/name_f]. Some hear us say it in [name_f]English[/name_f] and try to emulate so then it’s normally like the [name_f]English[/name_f] but with the s more like a z and a [name_m]German[/name_m] r.
So at school(?) she’d be “Zerafina”? [name_u]Or[/name_u] does she correct people to “Zerafien”? In [name_u]Germany[/name_u] having a name ending in -e (that is not obviously German) is really quite difficult sometimes. I’ve known multiple Josephines and they all had different pronunciations.
At school they don’t tend to pronoun the E because her friends try their best to say it how she says it and people got used to it, so it is more like Zerafeen.
It’s more at places we don’t go often like doctors‘ surgeries and stuff, if people are reading her name rather than being told it, or if they don’t know us well that it will get the extra unstressed vowel on the end. It’s better than they manage with my name (Bethany) or my son. Strangely enough there are real problems with [name_m]Alaric[/name_m] (I blame people copying the awful Vampire Diaries pronunciation, it’s often that or pronouncing it Alarich). The one that causes zero problems is [name_f]Isadora[/name_f], everyone can say that!