babynames | (no subject)

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So my husband and I are TTC and and I always have a short list of favorite names. i have boys name picked but like with my son's pregnancy I have the hardest time finding a girl's name I love. Recently I ran across Isabeau in book and I kind of love it. Nickname Beau (a mild Lost Girl reference maybe?). What do you guys think about Isabeau?

Also I met a woman named Arika yesterday. Her mother named her Erica but when she was 22 she legally changed the spelling because she was "too special" for a normal spelling.

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I don't like Isabeau at all. I kind of hate it, actually. I get that it's a male version of Isabelle or Isabella (which is, what, the #1 girls' name in the U.S.??) but ... it sounds really odd to me and IMO will be misheard as Isabelle all the time.

Beau is totally totally 100% OK though. Kind of nice, even.

OH ... Isabeau for a GIRL ... whoops, I must have skimmed there at first, sorry.

No, I don't like that either, haha. (a) I think it'd be misheard, etc., as Isabelle 24/7 and (b) Beau is a boys' name.

Isabeau is one of the older forms of the name Isabelle.

Isabeau was the name of a 14th century queen of France, so it has been a feminine name for hundreds of years.

http://www.onceuponatimebabynames.com/2013/04/isabeau_26.html

I was just coming to post the Once Upon a Time link! I think Isabeau is lovely and very feminine and princess-y. Beau is cute, but I'd be unable to stop myself from calling her Beauy (Bowie?). Not that that's a bad thing. I worry a bit about constant mispronunciation, but that shouldn't be a deal breaker.

My southern mama would say Beau is a "good ol' boy" name, but that wouldn't really be an issue out west, would it?

Arika is very...special. And even more special that she actually TELLS people she changed her name to be more special. Wow.

LOL to the woman to changed her name to the special spelling. I hope she is special enough to spend her life explaining to everyone she meets how to spell her name.

I am not a fan of Isabeau unless I am saying it wrong. Is it pronounced ISA-bow with a long O at the end? It just sounds kind of harsh to me.

Yes. You are pronouncing it right.

(And she is special enough to explain it to everyone.)

I foresee a lot of "What's your name dear?" "Isabeau." "Isabelle?" "No. Isabeau. I-S-A-B-E-A-U." conversations in her future.

Isabeau is not my style. Reminds me too much of Beau which I hear as a very very male name. So that would go for the nickname of course too.

I get that it is a real name with historical context and everything, so at least it has that going for it. But I'd never consider it for my own children.

Isabeau? Isadon't. Sorry. :(

I like the sound of it, and the look is okay, but when I actually think about it too much, the beau-is-masculine thing kind of bothers me. I feel like I shouldn't mind Beau as a nickname because I like masculine nicknames on girls in a number of cases (Jo/Joey for Josephine, Lou for Louise/Louisa, Billy/Billie for Wilhelmina, Georgie for Georgia, etc.), but I'm not sold on it. Maybe if it was spelt Bo, but then, it doesn't make much sense to change the spelling on the nickname when "beau" is so clearly in the name.

Did she really say she was "too special?" LOL.
I wanted to say uh-REE-kuh when I first read it.

I'd love to use the name Beau for a girl but lots of cultures would see it as entirely masculine. Similarly, I think that Etienne would make a beautiful girl's name, but we live too close to France to pull it off.

Yay, Lost Girl reference!
That said, I always found Isabeau to be weird. Beau on the other hand is better.

I like Isabeau a lot actually. Beau however seems silly for a girl, in my opinion, because I see it as a very masculine name. Then again, I don't even particularly like Beau for a boy.

Arika - she did it to herself. I have no problems with it since she is an adult. I do feel bad for her mom. Everyone will assume her mother did that to her.

I don't mind Isabeau, but it will always make me think of Ladyhawke

I'm kind of indifferent. I think it rolls off the tongue but I think it has a lot of "what if" qualities. Mispronunciations could be killer.

Isabeau makes me think of the movie Ladyhawke.

I love that movie.

I love Isabeau!

Arika is a Japanese and aboriginal Australian name. I know both an Australian girl (aged 2) and a Japanese girl with this name/spelling.

At least I know the Japanese Arika is pronounced differently from Erica.

A long while back, I think someone in this comm mentioned Isabeau and I thought it was frigging horrendous, but then later when I started reading about Isabeau of Bavaria, I liked it a lot more. Knowing that it was someone's name in the 1300s, it made it seem less trendy and ugly to me. Although, I think that just Beau can work on a girl.

I don't like Isabeau at all.

Arika and Erica don't even sound alike to me. I wound pronounce Arika "AH-rih-ka" but Erica like "EH-ri-ca".

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