(no subject)

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

 What do you think of the names Béatrice and Noémie? It would be the French versions (since we're french Canadians), so "Bay-ah-trice" and "No-ay-mie."  

Comments

[chillinbabejodi.livejournal.com]

I really like both names with the French pronunciations, Béatrice is my favourite :)

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

I like both, love Noémie. I had never heard it before I moved to France.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

And this is why I hesitate with Noémie. We presently live in a city that's predominantly English and I'm afraid they would hear "Naomi" all the time. I was actually leaning towards Naomi at first but lately I really love Noémie.:)

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

Hmm good point. I'm from the US so my hypothetical child would have to switch between both cultures. Could be a problematic name, but darn it's pretty.

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

Pretentious unless you live in a French speaking country.

[doxerssoldout.livejournal.com]

that's my problem with noémie - english is my first language, and it sounds like a mispronunciation of naomi to me :\

i like béatrice though, and i think it would be much less problematic for english speakers.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

We live in Canada, in a bilingual province so no problems there...

[coendou.livejournal.com]

I'm an English speaker in the US and I would take Noemie over Naomi any day!

[feelslike-2day.livejournal.com]

not a fan of Béatrice but i do love Noémie, esp the NN Noé!

[frost.livejournal.com]

I don't like either.
Of the two... I guess I prefer Noémie. I really, really dislike Béatrice (English or French).

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

I know, I love the nn Noé.:)

[vanish.livejournal.com]

I like Beatrice and Noemi. I'm afraid I'm no good at French.

[solitudete.livejournal.com]

As an American who lives and works in France, I'm always really intrigued when people insist that using French names/words/pronunciations is pretentious. Would it be the same if I used a Swedish name, or a German name?

[rosabelle.livejournal.com]

Love both.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like your name "Rosabelle." Is that your real name?

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

It's pretentious because of the accents and pronunciation. Americans pronounce Beatrice a certain way, if you give your child the French version, she's going to be constantly correcting people. However, if you live in a French speaking country, have at it.

[rosabelle.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :) It is similar to but not actually my real name, but I'm considering using it when I get around to legally changing my name.

[laminy.livejournal.com]

I prefer Béatrice; Noémie reminds me too much of a surname I don't like, but if it wasn't for that, it'd be just as pretty.

I just got back from doing the 5 week Explore program in Montreal, and was just happy to be surrounded by gorgeous French names all the time.

[cremepuff.livejournal.com]

Beatrice and Noemi/Noemie are both on my list! I think I like the French pronunciations even more.

[snoglobel.livejournal.com]

As an American, who only took high school French, I'd be worried about the pronunciation of Beatrice. Perhaps this won't be an issue with the accent and since you are in a bilingual location, but I'd be worried about it being Bee-ah-trice instead of Bay-ah-trice.

Noemie I got "correct", didn't think of Naomi at all actually.

[snoglobel.livejournal.com]

Actually - with a second thought - doesn't Noemie sound a lot like no friends?

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

"No friends" in French would be "Pas d'amis." I know what you mean though, it could sound like "no"-"amie" but it's a fairly common name (although not so much in the last 5 years which is why I'm considering it) and I've never ever heard any such correlation.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

My daughter has an accent on her name, a lot of French names do, and it's never been an issue. I would think most people, Canadians or not, know what the "é" sounds like. I've seen a lot of Renée and Chloé, etc, in English speaking communities.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

Just curious, would you pronounce it No-ee-mi in English?

[snoglobel.livejournal.com]

It's probably not a valid concern for you being in Canada, but I don't have an easy way to type é. I'd type Beatrice instead of Béatrice (I had to copy and paste the e from your comment to get it) and would be more inclined to mispronounce it since Beatrice is the more common (at least here) pronunciation and spelling.

[deathofrats.livejournal.com]

One of my daughters has Renée for a middle name and we live in Ontario. The accent is real common here, I could not imagine using a French name without it. Everyone seems to get the pronunciation of the accents considering we have to take French until grade 9.

[octobre09.livejournal.com]

I don't have a French keyboard (they confuse me), so I do alt followed by 130 to do "é". You can do all the accents that way. I usually don't even type the é if I'm in a rush. I guess it's just known in French Canada that Beatrice and Noemie come with the sound é. Like my name is Emilie (Ay-mee-lee) and I don't even have an accent on my name but people would know how to pronounce it. But really the difference in pronunciation are so much more than just the accent, our "r" as I'm sure you know sound completely different...I don't expect people that don't speak French to pronounce the name perfectly.

[sakuya-baby.livejournal.com]

OP said they are French-Canadian.

[sakuya-baby.livejournal.com]

How ethnocentric of you.

[sakuya-baby.livejournal.com]

I think that's lovely!

[sakuya-baby.livejournal.com]

English is my first language, although I did live in Montreal for quite a while with an ex, so I recognize the actual pronunciation of Noemie. From an American English POV, I'd say it would probably be assumed that the Noe was a "No" (sort of like 'toe') instead of a No-ee, so it would probably be pronounced 'Nomi'.

[becomingun.livejournal.com]

I like them both a lot in theory, but they just don't sit nicely in my mouth and sound terrible when I say them.

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

Hah. I love labels. Calling me "ethnocentric" makes it seem like SERIOUS BUSINESS.

Call it what you'd like, it's still pretentious to saddle your child with a name that is usually pronounced one way and expect everybody to pronounce it another.

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

Yes, my opinion was general, not specific to the OP.

[sakuya-baby.livejournal.com]

I didn't label you, I informed you that you were acting in an ethnocentric manner. If I had called you an ethnocentrist, then I would have been labeling you.

My name is in my lj name. My parents weren't called 'pretentious' because it's my heritage. It's where my family comes from. OP has said they are French-Canadian. The names they want for their kids are French. Where is the pretention?

Similarly, I don't find it pretentious to expect people to pronounce your name the way you tell them it is pronounced. A simple correction isn't pretentious, it's life. I correct people on my name constantly. Even people with common names sometimes have to correct people. I just dont see your point.

Eta: corrected typo.

[beepandetch.livejournal.com]

Okay.