So, [name_u]Jude[/name_u] will have a little brother or sister in [name_f]April[/name_f] and I’m already panicking as I am seriously stumped when it comes to names, particularly for another boy!
There are some names I’ve come to love and think would make a good sibset, but as friends have used them on their lovely little ones! [name_u]Remy[/name_u] and [name_u]Rowan[/name_u] for example - what I would call soft boys names as they’re not overtly masculine. I also generally favour shorter names.
A little name lust I have, at least on paper, is [name_m]Etienne[/name_m]. I think it looks lovely and although it’s not (generally) a unisex name, it has that unisex feel to it.
The downsides for me are firstly that the nickname “[name_f]Ettie[/name_f]” I think of as a girl’s name and then of course, there’s the pronunciation…! We are an English/Australian family that will always (as far as the plan goes at the moment) live in [name_f]England[/name_f] or Australia. It wouldn’t sound natural to pronounce the name “ay-TYEN” which seems to be the way it is pronounced in [name_m]French[/name_m]. Would it be super weird to use it (without the acute accent on the first ‘e’) and say “E-tee-un”
I may well be barking up the wrong tree with this name, but OH and I hardly ever like similar names and he is ok with this one because if a link with a band of the same name? Or [name_m]Etienne[/name_m] in it (ok, I wasn’t really listening to him).
I’m also Australian and know an [name_m]Etienne[/name_m], who’s also Australian but of [name_m]French[/name_m] heritage. He and those around him pronounce it eh-tee-EN. To be honest E-tee-un sounds strange to me, or at least not representative of the name as I know it. It is a great name though and I love it as a brother to [name_u]Jude[/name_u]!
It’s a shame [name_u]Remy[/name_u] is taken as it’s perfect with [name_u]Jude[/name_u]…
Some I think would work well with [name_u]Jude[/name_u] are:
I live in Australia too and pronounce it eh-tee-en! I don’t have an opinion on this name as a first, because one of my friends has this as a last name - so I really just can’t picture it as a first name.
[name_f]Lovely[/name_f] to see some people like [name_m]Etienne[/name_m]. I am familiar with it from my family tree. That is the only place I have seen this name. I later leaned the [name_m]Etienne[/name_m] is [name_m]French[/name_m] for [name_m]Stephen[/name_m].
Because the name looks so obviously [name_m]French[/name_m], I think everyone would pronounce it the [name_m]French[/name_m] way.
You could use Tio as a nickname for a boy. Or [name_m]Tenn[/name_m]. I really like the name! Only pronounced the correct way though.
To be honest I would be very surprised to meet someone named [name_m]Etienne[/name_m] who isn’t [name_m]French[/name_m] (or from another [name_m]French[/name_m]-speaking country). It’s one of those very [name_m]French[/name_m] names, like [name_m]Thierry[/name_m] or [name_u]Jean[/name_u]-[name_m]Pierre[/name_m], that has never really been embraced by English speakers.
E-tee-un sounds a bit odd to me. I’d think that people are more likely to read it as et-ee-EN, similar to the way English speakers pronounce names like [name_f]Fabienne[/name_f]. If it’s the E-tee-un pronunciation that you’re aiming for, I would recommend changing the spelling to Etien.