Séraphine or Seraphine

Girl Names
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Okay guys, if I were to use this name on a baby girl she would either be [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] [name_u]Haze[/name_u] or [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] [name_u]Haze[/name_u] with the nickname [name_u]Seren[/name_u]. [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] / [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f] / [name_f]Serafina[/name_f] etc… these names are so Old World, elegant, and otherworldly to me, I think a teenager and a grown woman would grow into them so well and if she’s anything like me I think she’d truly, truly love and be proud of it.
Using [name_u]Seren[/name_u] as a nickname serves to make it easier on her I guess during her elementary years and who knows if she’ll want to carry it on longer? [name_u]Seren[/name_u] has a mysterious quality and it’s uncommon enough + I think it is pretty intuitive with [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f]. They have the same spirit to me but are apart of different times if you will.
Now, I know that in the US the accent over the first E is only going to show on the birth certificate and most all other documents it will simply be - [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f]. This annoys me a bit and is sorta deters me from using it. But, it is my understanding that that accent let’s the speaker now where to put the emphasis and for that reason I am still inclined to use it. [name_m]Even[/name_m] in the US where I know stuff like her drivers license won’t show her true name it will still be quite simple to correct people once or twice on pronounciation and then they will get it, I don’t think [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] is very complicated at all.
Does any other berry have a dissenting opinion? Should I go with [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] [name_u]Haze[/name_u] or [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] [name_u]Haze[/name_u]? Does it even matter that much in the end or am I overthinking it? I will appreciate any answers I get from the group :blush:

This is a differing subject but what do the berries think about [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] vs [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f]? Which is preferred and why? I’m not thinking of using [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f] - it personally is starting to overdo it to me - but I like starting discussion when/if I can.

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This spelling would be the French name Séraphine; in French, the accent does not determine stress but the pronunciation of the E.
There are several different ones, with é, which English speakers often mispronounce as “ay” and è, which makes a very similar to sound to the E in Sera, as the more common ones.
The stress in french words and names is always put on the last syllable.
So Séraphine would still be se-ra-FEEN.

So based on that I would simply spell the name Seraphine.

Personally, I slightly prefer Seraphina but even more so Serafina, which has a bit more warmth to it and feels more lively in general.

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Wow @OpheliaFlora I’m really accustomed to you posting super insightful responses and this was very informative, I needed it. I kind of feel very ignorant about this now! I think when I first considered [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] / [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] that I approached it as an [name_f]English[/name_f] speaker thinking of the accent from the perspective of what I learned from Spanish years ago (I took 3 years and sadly I retained very little but I’m pretty sure I remember accents changing emphasis). I didn’t stop to consider she is not a spanish name.

So just to be clear, because it’s important to me I get this right as I really will be placing this within the top 10 for potential baby. The name is [name_u]French[/name_u] and in [name_u]French[/name_u] the emphasis is always on last syllable. So the name is going to sound the same either way and spelling her [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] just serves to make the name appear more [name_u]French[/name_u] than [name_f]English[/name_f]? I’m sorry if this is repetitive and sounds stupid but wouldnt the é still change the pronounciation of e? I know you said [name_f]English[/name_f] speakers normally missay it but I’d like to see it broken down if you wouldn’t mind.

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I don’t mind at all and you musn’t feel silly about it; I didn’t know either until I did :sweat_smile:

all about french pronunciation

French pronunciation is quite complicated when one is not used to it, especially the E.

In French (as in Spanish and many other languages) a vowel only makes one sound.

If you say the English vowels out loud, you’ll recognise that, not only in isolation but also within words, most are actually comprised of two sounds. A is ay (make), I is eye (island), O is ow/ou (only), U is you (unicorn).
In French you would need two vowels to get to any of those sounds. That’s why É cannot equal the “ay” sound, for example.

The “regular” French e is pronounced the same as è, unless it’s in combination with other specific letters (and that’s where French gets complicated) here the accent is used to distinguish meaning; this accent can also be placed on other vowels. E/è is very similar to the E in the English pronunciation of Sera.

The é, however, changes the pronunciation to a sound that doesn’t exist in English. Here is how that é sounds in the name Séraphine when pronounced in French:
(not my voice)

And yes, French words, unless they are borrowed from other languages, are always pronounced on the last syllable, however, as the last letter is often silent (sometimes even more than one, e.g. the city Cannes is pronounced as CAHNN, leaving two letters unpronounced), a word that may appear to have more syllables may just have one (like the above example).

However, only the Séraphine spelling is French; Seraphine may be derived from French, however, you can pronounce it with the same pattern as Josephine.
If the name were spelled Seraphine in French (without any accents), it would actually be pronounced very similarly to the English pronunciation, but the emphasis would still lie on the -FEEN sound (you just can’t change that in French).

As you want SE-ra-feen, the Séraphine spelling would be twice confusing as it suggests you want the pronunciation to resemble the French name, which would get you sera-FEEN instead.

I also think that some names look better with accents, however, I think it’s most important to respect the languages you’re borrowing from, which is why I’m also not a big fan of Esmé pronounced ES-may (when, following the language you’re borrowing from, it should be es-MEH) or Chloé when pronounced KLOW-ee (when it should be klo-EH).

I do think it’s fine to dismiss the accents in cases such as Timothée Chalamet’s, where the person speaks both languages and the accents are required in one of the languages; or in cases where the name comes from a language that uses accents to determine the stresses syllable; but other than that, it doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me to use them if they’re being mispronounced anyway.
Does that make sense?

Hope that wasn’t too long and answers some questions, though feel free to @ me again if something’s unclear :blush:

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Seconding OpheliaFlora’s helpful comment about pronunciation! I’d go with [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f]

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Another question lol

For my combo [name_u]Léonie[/name_u] [name_f]Zobel[/name_f] I understand if I did bestow it on a girl the US system of typing would still be just as in place and she would show [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] on almost everything so I suppose it’d be up to her if she would want to spell her name like that on forms and what not.
But in terms of it being linguistically correct I’m assuming now that I read your explanation on [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] that [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] and [name_u]Léonie[/name_u] will both have the emphasis on last syllable. So do you think it is worth it to make her [name_u]Léonie[/name_u] [name_f]Zobel[/name_f] or tweak it to [name_f]Leonie[/name_f] [name_f]Zobel[/name_f]?
Honestly after reading everything you had to say I’m realizing, at least with [name_f]Leonie[/name_f], that my initial reaction is to pronounce her lay-OWN-ee. Thanks to you I now know that an é will not make an ‘ay’ sound. So I’m figuring she is better as [name_f]Leonie[/name_f].

Still, I would value your opinion, I feel like you’re a professional language teacher lol.

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It’s important to remember that only Léonie is the French name, same as only Séraphine being the French name, so you can pronounce Leonie and Seraphine the way you want.

Mind you, my perspective is a European one, having learned French in school, I feel quite strongly about this topic; however, not everyone will share this opinion/feel as strongly about this :sweat_smile:

And while I’m not a language teacher, I do enjoy talking about languages, especially pronunciation as that was always my strongest suit, haha.

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[name_f]Seraphina[/name_f] with the nickname [name_u]Seren[/name_u] has actually been on the top of my own list for the last couple of years. I absolutely love both [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] and [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f], but ultimately opt for [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f] due to the flow with the middles I pair it with… and because of the [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] or [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] dilemma as well. :laughing:

I learned [name_u]French[/name_u]. I love french language, french culture, french names, etc, but I couldn’t say the same for people around me and I don’t live in a place where accents are used. So while I genuinely prefer [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f], I realize the accent will either confuse people or end up not being used anyway. [name_f]My[/name_f] personal rule is that unless I move to a country where the accent is commonly used or have a [name_u]French[/name_u] partner (which brings cultural consideration in choosing the name), the first name will be sans accent.

If only your question is [name_u]Haze[/name_u] [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] vs [name_u]Haze[/name_u] [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f], I’d probably pick [name_u]Haze[/name_u] [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f]. But since it’s [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] [name_u]Haze[/name_u] vs [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] [name_u]Haze[/name_u], I say go with [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] Haze… unless you have a strong reason for wanting the accent aigu there. [name_f]Hope[/name_f] that helps.

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There’s a whole sophisticated rabbit hole of [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] / [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f] variant names I could get swept up in. The first time I was exposed to the name it was hearing [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f] be called but today I adore [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f], with or without the accent, she isn’t too girlish but she has elegance.
I think the angelic background of the name is awesome as well as the sheer number of male & female variations there are - it kinda reminds me of the Basile/Vasile/Basilia/Vasilisa grouping of names in that way! I mean there’s [name_u]Seraph[/name_u], Seraphia, [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f], [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f], [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f], [name_f]Serafina[/name_f], [name_m]Serafim[/name_m], [name_f]Serophine[/name_f], Seraphita… I think I may have even missed one or two. This name is just too striking for me to ever use as a middle so [name_u]Haze[/name_u] [name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] would be out of the question :frowning:
I changed it on my list to be [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] [name_u]Haze[/name_u] mainly because, if the accented e is going to show up on a scant number of papers/identification I started to figure what would be the likelihood of her using the [name_u]French[/name_u] spelling in a classroom or regular day to day setting? Why choose a name with the spelling that will be too obscure in my place of residence? Also, I started to listen to a few audio pronounciations like on YouTube and CharliesNames and the one kindly provided by @OpheliaFlora :slightly_smiling_face: and… (deep sigh here) I got a couple different pronounciations for what was claimed to be the same [name_u]French[/name_u] name, just a headache.
[name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] is easy as pie and pretty as can be itself!

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[name_f]Séraphine[/name_f] or [name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] is also more elegant to me, while [name_f]Seraphina[/name_f] is delicate, sweet, and girly. I love all of them equally and had the hardest time choosing lol. In the end, I picked the -a ending because otherwise, it would make my combo 100% french and I automatically pronounced [name_f]Audrey[/name_f] the french way too even though I want it in [name_f]English[/name_f]. :sweat_smile:

I agree that it’s so striking! There are only extremely few names too that could ever sway me to put Seraphina/Seraphine in the middle. I love how beautiful it is and its plenty of nickname choices, but especially [name_u]Seren[/name_u], as [name_u]Seren[/name_u] means “star”. I mean she gets angelic and nature/astronomical connections in one name, what more could we ask? :smiley:

[name_f]Seraphine[/name_f] is a stunning choice! I agree that it works best (and easy as pie!). :slight_smile:

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