My wife is [name_m]French[/name_m]-Canadian and I’m American. Many of the names that we are considering for our future son are pronounced differently in English or in [name_m]French[/name_m]. Examples of two of our choices are [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] & [name_m]Lucas[/name_m]. In both cases, the [name_m]French[/name_m] leave the ‘s’ silent.
I’m wondering what people think about having both parents pronounce the names the same. We also have some names picked out which we would both pronounce the same way ([name_u]Max[/name_u], [name_m]Liam[/name_m] and [name_m]Jack[/name_m]).
I think both parents should pronounce the name the same, it isn’t fair to confuse the child. You could choose the name [name_m]Lucas[/name_m] or [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m], but both of you should agree on one pronunciation to call the child.
Since [name_u]Luca[/name_u] is a great name on it’s own I think you can easily get away with naming him [name_m]Lucas[/name_m] and you both calling him [name_u]Luca[/name_u]/[name_m]Lucas[/name_m] with silent s. As long as it doesn’t bother you that people drop the s when casually spelling it.
Nah, not for something like that—presumably you’ll be teaching him some [name_m]French[/name_m] alongside English, right? So it makes sense that the [name_m]French[/name_m]-speaking parent would use a [name_m]French[/name_m] pronunciation.
If it were alternate English pronunciations, that could get confusing for both kid and family friends. (IE, for a girl, if one parent pronounced the name [name_f]Helena[/name_f] HEL-en-a and the other said Hel-AY-na.) But I understood when people called me [name_f]Brigitte[/name_f] as a child if we were reading [name_m]French[/name_m] storybooks or something.
Well, in an ideal world, the answer would be yes. However, the world is getting smaller and many people are born with many cultures in their family heritage. In your situation, where your child many grow up to be bilingual in English and [name_m]French[/name_m], I don’t think it would be too confusing. In fact, it may turn out to be beneficial for your child to know his name can be pronounced a couple of ways and both are correct!
I don’t think it’s a problem at all. It’s similar to parents using different nicknames or one parent using a nickname while the other parent uses the child’s full name.
I work in a day care and their is a little boy named [name_m]Julian[/name_m] who response to both -Jewl-ee-an- and -Who-le-an- When we asked the teacher which she wanted us to say she said it didn’t matter. It isn’t a big deal for him, and makes a lot of sense actually. He is learning both languages.
Nope, not a big deal. Where I live almost everyone comes from a bi/multicultural background. It’s very common for kids to grow up hearing different pronunciations of their name within their own home.
I don’t think so. My family has never pronounced my name consistently - parents pronounce [name_f]Laura[/name_f] with the first syllable rhyming with the letter “r” and siblings/grandparents/aunts/sometimes my dad pronounce it with the first syllable rhyming with “ore”.
From another angle, if different pronunciations were going to confuse a kid, wouldn’t you think nicknames would do the same since he would have “two” names? Yet many of us would be totally okay with calling [name_m]Lucas[/name_m] [name_m]Luke[/name_m] or [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] [name_u]Nick[/name_u]. I wouldn’t worry about it - it might even be cool to preserve both his [name_m]French[/name_m]-Canadian and American heritage
I don’t think it’s a problem at all either! I’m assuming you may pronounce other words slightly differently as well? If you’re speaking both languages to him, having a slightly different pronunciation of his name may actually cue him to which language he should prepare himself to attend to (complete speculation).
For me having both my parents pronounce my name the same way would be important. To me a name is more than just letters on a page and the meaning behind them, it’s also about the sound. While I think it’s important to choose a name that works in all of your future children’s “native” languages I would possibly consider names that also sound similar. To me there is something about how your name is pronounced - how you roll your “r’s”, where you put the emphasis, the rhythm with which you say it - that truly makes a name yours. (It’s one of the reasons I struggle with my list. I need it to sound great and very similar in English, [name_m]German[/name_m] and Spanish. This has forced me to eliminate names like [name_m]Jasper[/name_m] which I love in English but just loose all sparkle in [name_m]German[/name_m] and Spanish - even if our children will spend most of their lives in the US).
To me it doesn’t matter if other family members or friends pronounce it slightly differently but it’s important for me that both of my parents pronounce it the same.
If you like [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] ([name_u]NIK[/name_u]-ə-ləs) but your wife would pronounce it nee-ko-LAH why not consider the Serbian version [name_f]Nikola[/name_f] (like famous inventor [name_f]Nikola[/name_f] [name_f]Tesla[/name_f])? The same with [name_m]Lucas[/name_m] the italian [name_u]Luca[/name_u] could fit that bill. A lot of classic names have other versions that are very similar but might allow for a more similar pronunciation by both parents. (I’d check out behindthename.com and look at the list of variants at the bottom of the page. I’ve found some names down there that I’ve love more than the original name I would have been considering.)
Nope, I don’t think so. My parents have always pronounced both my names differently, much more differently than how [name_m]Nicholas[/name_m] and [name_m]Lucas[/name_m] sounds. It’s made me much more low-maintenance about mispronunciations. And I think [name_f]Reverie[/name_f] hit the nail on the head with her post.
Hm, I agree that I would want the name to sound good in all the cultures with which I feel a connection and I agree that sound is a very important aspect of a name. However, I think these sound variants, if both equally lovely, could have very deep meaning. For example, I loved hearing my name when spoken by my Dutch grandparents. The ever so slight variation in pronunciation reminded me of this cultural connection that I was physically quite removed from. That being said, I think my name sounds just as nice, if not nicer, in Dutch than it does in English.
NBD! I have a traditional Spanish name which mydad says in a Spanish accent. My mom mostly calls me by the standard associated nn with an American accent. I was never confused! My dad is Spanish, my mom is Southern, they say LOTS of things differently. I mean, we spoke 2 languages in our home & I wasn’t confused. Kids aren’t dumb
I think it’s perfectly fine for parents to pronounce the name differently due to their accents. I mean, you have different accents so there’s going to be a ton of words you say differently. Your kids will be used to that. I’ve seen lots of french/english parents who pronounce names differently. I think it’s sweet when the child has two dif ways of hearing their name. I think it would be different if you were just pronouncing the name differently because you disagreed on how it was said. But in this case, it’s fine.
I think this is totally fine. The only time it would be problematic is if both of the parents had the same accent/from the same region, but merely preferred two different pronunciations (like [name_f]Helena[/name_f] said Huh-lay-nuh & [name_f]Helen[/name_f]-uh for example). In the case of accents, I don’t think it’s that uncommon here in [name_u]America[/name_u] for a child to have a name pronounced one way by one set of grandparents, another way by the other set, and in an American accent by the parents! This is the case with many, many people that I know!
