(no subject)

[laminy.livejournal.com]

How does everybody feel about using names with accents? Whether it's something like an é, í, ö or what have you, do you feel that it's an intergral part of the name, just as important as the letters? Of course, in a lot of countries those are the letters; I guess I'm thinking more along the lines of a primarily English-speaking country.

My friend Renée used to spell it without the accent, until a French teacher spoke to her about it. If your kid had a name with an accent, is that how you would teach them to spell it, and expect others to spell it that way as well? Do accents get written down on the birth certificate, or do parents add them on later?

Only two names that I like are spelled with accents: Renée and Karolína. Does anybody else have a favourite name that uses an accent, or maybe one of their own names has an accent? Are they just too cumbersome in some cultures?

Comments

[tiphanism.livejournal.com]

I think diacritics are important to include because usually they affect the pronunciation of the name in its original language: from that point of view, they're part of the spelling. But in English-speaking countries people are less used to them to the owner of such a name probably has to get used to the accents or whatever being missed out, because they're harder to type, or the person forgets, etc. If I had such a name yes, that would bother me, and I would always try to spell it properly.

[thaaatsmeee.livejournal.com]

i really don't like names with accents, i think it looks trailer trash.

[thaaatsmeee.livejournal.com]

i might note that if you are actually from a country where accents are common, fine. if not, trailer trash.

[stormqueen280.livejournal.com]

In Spanish and Portuguese, accents are rather common, and considered an integral part of the name - without the accent, the pronunciation wouldn't be the same, so...

[sunshinelucy.livejournal.com]

I plan to move to Spain once I graduate, so my list has taken a very dramatic turn from mostly English to mostly Spanish (and if it's not Spanish, it still works in Spain, with the exception of Edmund, which I can't let go of and can't bring myself to like Edmundo :o/). About half the names on my list have accents.

I spell my name Lucia. It's not necessary for me to spell it with an accent where I live. It's still legit without the accent, so I leave it this way. When I go to Spain, I'll likely add the accent and spell it Lucía. It's not a foreign concept to them, and it's a very common name so I don't expect to have any problems with it at all. I didn't like it with the accent for a while, but it has grown on me a lot, and now I kind of prefer it that way. It's much more trouble than it's worth where I live right now, though.
Back home, I lived very close to Québec (and I did my schooling in French) so accents weren't a big deal *but* "í" doesn't exist in French, so it wouldn't have made any sense to spell it that way there anyway.

For my kids, if they were born in Spain (as an example, but this would go for any country where the dominant language, and the language we'd speak has accents in it), I wouldn't hesitate to name them names with accents. My family back home would adjust, and I would definitely press the issue of always spelling the name with the accents. If I named my kid Éloïse in France, and somebody spelled it Eloise (or worse, Éloise), I regard that as the same as misspelling Mackenzie as Mickinzea. They're completely different vowels and completely different sounds, and completely alter the name as a whole.
If, say, Éloïse and I moved from France back to Canada (and not a French region), I'd either encourage her to be vigilant about spelling it with the accents and have people pronounce it accordingly, or that she drop both accents and go by the English pronunciation. I bet I'd still spell it Éloïse myself, and pronounce it that way. I'd leave it officially as Éloïse but I wouldn't have a big issue with her dropping the accents informally because I can't stand it when accents are misused.

Sorry this turned out to be embarrassingly long! I've thought a lot about this in the past few years.

[lind-saay.livejournal.com]

The accents need to be on the birth certificate to be legal, I think. Because the e with the ' over it isn't really an e, it's called something else. So it's really changing the spelling of the name.

I think it's harder to use names with accents in primarily English-speaking countries. My best friend is 100% French and her last name has an ^ over an o and an ' over an e and people always spell it without it, which is really annoying to her because then it doesn't even get pronounced the same way.

If the name HAS to have the accents, I say use it; if they don't, then I'd go for the simpler version. (For example: my friends last name needs the accents, the name Zoe doesn't.)

[skate97.livejournal.com]

Um. That's...interesting.

[velkoria.livejournal.com]

actually I have a name with an accent, my name is Mónica in spanish. I was born in Venezuela so my birth certificate does say Mónica. When I lived in the states though I spelt it Monica and everyone did too... my ID didn't have the accent either... never really thought about it but unless I am writing in spanish I don't use the accent.

[intothefireugo.livejournal.com]

My husband also has an accent in his name - ë - but he never bothers with it.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

That's... bizarre. Would you mind explaining why exactly accents are 'trailer trash'? Do you mean just randomly throwing accents onto names that don't need them? Because otherwise, um...

[thaaatsmeee.livejournal.com]

lol knew i would get flamed for this. who cares

everyone i've ever met with an accent in their name has been trash. pure trash. almost as if their parents named them that just to say "look i used an accent, we're classy! we're sophisticated!"

it's just an opinion from personal expirience, move along

[lava-sharks.livejournal.com]

I see what you're getting at, at least.

[sandtree.livejournal.com]

Please don't accuse me of flaming you when I've just asked an honest question, and not said anything insulting or rude. Thanks.

Some names have accents. I'm not sure how it's trashy to spell a name the way it's meant to be spelled. Like I said, if you're just throwing random accents into a name, that's silly. Otherwise, it's proper spelling. And that's not a flame, either, so there's no need to get further offended.

[tiphanism.livejournal.com]

I like your Eloise example. That's almost saying that you'd be OK with her changing the name to a local version, isn't it? Like, I'm Naomi, but in France I get called Noémie, because that's the local equivalent; if I lived there I'd probably use that myself, for convenience.

[aislincalum.livejournal.com]

I have an accent in my middle name. I use it when writing my legal name, because it is on my birth certificate but if I'm just writing my name out for say, shopping online, then no.

[minga13.livejournal.com]

I like names with accents. I cant think of any in particular apart from Renée at the moment. I went to school with a girl called Renée and ever since she started school she wrote the accent and everything official was printed with it on. I then went to school with another girl called Renee who never added the accent. I also have a cousin called Renee and I don't know if she's officially supposed to be Renée but I always add the accent because it looks incomplete to me without it. Oh I'm a teacher and there's a girl in my class this year called Shante which is apparently supposed to be Shanté but the accent is not on any of the official computerised paperwork, only on the written enrollment form which I was kind of annoyed with as they should have been able to use the e with the accent on the computer! grr.

[sequeena.livejournal.com]

I don't mind names with accents. My best friend's sister's name is Aimée.

[googlebee-ohmi.livejournal.com]

I probably wouldn't put an accent on a name such as Renee because it can stand alone but a name like Anaïs needs the umlaut over the I because it is pronounced with that inflection.

I think that it also has to do with the region you are in. My name is Lauren and I pronounce it Lar-en but but in European countries such as France it is pronounced completely different. I also think that you have to change your name according to where you live if you put the accent. I know in the US accents and umlauts are not all that common and people do not know how to pronounce a name when they see it presented with one.

My Aunt Anjelique is Dutch and she pronounces her name An-jscha-lee-k but now that she lives in the US her neighbors and co-workers are all calling her An-gel-lee-k. Much like Angela. (personally I feel that her pronunciation is much better sounding and prettier)

[calamitysxchild.livejournal.com]

My middle name is Renee, and I added on the accent to it until I was 14 and realized it wasn't on my birth certificate! :P So now I leave it as is.

[blue-suspenders.livejournal.com]

I think it depends where you are. For example, here in Canada, using accents on a French name makes sense because everyone will know how to pronounce it. But putting accents on a Spanish name will probably just confuse people...

[yukonsally]

My mom has an accent her name and I've got an accent on my first and middle names. I love having them but no one ever adds the accents. We both add the accent when we write our names but rarely bother when typing. I mean, most people know how to say Renee. I feel the accent on Elise makes people stop and read the name carefully so they'll get closer to the right pronunciation. (I do accept uh-lise, but that's not my name.)