What do y'all think?

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

Hi folks,

I'm not pregnant and won't be for a few years, but I still think a lot about the names of my future children.

I ran across a name that I find really striking even though I've never heard it before - Mireille, pronounced meh-RAY (more or less). It's french/dutch, and means 'miracle' or 'admire' depending on what website you look at.

I love names with the "mir" sound in them for some reason, and I love french names. What nicknames could you use for this name? Does it sound too wacky, is the spelling too crazy? I think it looks beautiful and I love the meaning of it.

- L.

Comments

[pixiequeen112.livejournal.com]

Mireille is one of my favorite names and my friend's name is Mireille too but they call her Oreo.

Another name with Mir is Mirabelle, it means "incrediable beauty"

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

My husband would *never* agree to Mirabelle. I also like Miranda but I don't like any of the nicknames for it.

Thanks :) nice to know that there's someone out there with such a great name.

L.

[home-to-me.livejournal.com]

I don't know if people would know how to pronounce it though. Looking at it, I thought Mee-Ree-Elle

[lolacat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are two versions of the name - Mireille (the one I listed) and Mirielle, which would be pronounced the way you described. That sounds a lot like Mariel, which I'm not a fan of.

But I'm sure that anyone with Mireille as a name has it pronounced that way all of the time!

L.

[estrella-jenita.livejournal.com]

some ppl wouldnt know how to pronounce it, but not all i knew how to say when i first looked at it.
its a great name..very pretty
as for NN's i dunno...srry blank...i dont know if u can much for NN's out of it besdies Rae...
~La Jenita~

[solyma.livejournal.com]

i really like it. reille (ray) could be a nickname.

[castleofsand.livejournal.com]

It looks and sounds really pretty but you would always have to correct people on the pronunciation.

[chapatti.livejournal.com]

Mireille is originally a name from South of France (Provence).

It is actually an invention of 19th century Provencal author Frederic Mistral, who wanted to give the heroine of his book a truly Provencal name, and came up with a nice Provencal version of Marie.
Originally, the name was spelled "Mireio", and was then "francicized" as "Mireille".

It's difficult to find a good way to express the pronunciation in English, but it's more or less "Mee - RAY - (very very slight) y(uh)".

It's still mainly a name given in Provence, but in the 50s, it gained popularity outside of the area and was rather common in the whole of France and Belgium.


(my mom's name is Mireille, and her entire family is still in Provence, just so you know I'm not pulling this out of nowhere ;))