Boys names particularly hard
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| Thu, 03-27-2008 - 1:44pm |
Hi there...I'm Fio, mom to Sandrine Leïlou and Nyssa Winter (born at the beginning of winter ;-)). We are due with a surprise in august and DH and I have always had a hard time with boys' names. Luckily neither of the girls ended up a boy as we can't easily figure out names we like. DH (Steve) is French and that is why we have some odd names BTW...
With DD1, we had decided on Thierry Patrice had she been a boy (Thierry, I can most closely describe as being pronounced "Tee-ree" though that's not quite right). We went with that for a couple of months until a mutual friend said she didn't like Thierry b/c it made her think of "diarrhée" (guess what taht means ;-)). Then DH said he absolutely didn't want that name anymore. I told our friend to hush next time we mentioned names we wanted. In the end we agreed on Tristan Jacob had DD1 been a boy. With DD2 we went with either Malcolm Tristan, or Tristan Malcolm. DH says he doesn't like Malcolm anymore and Tristan he's not as fond of as before. Not sure if that's b/c both girls say they're glad they're girls and not boys ;-) or just "because".
So, for #3 we're coming up with possibly Océane Charlotte for a girl. There are others we like but Océane keeps coming up on top. Some others we like are Viktoria, Magalie, Andréanne, Angélique, Charlotte (as 1st name). I like Ceilidh, after my celtic roots but DH refuses to consider it b/c he's sure he'd never learn to spell it *eyeroll*. Maybe as a middle name I could convince him. But he refuses to consider more than 2 names per child either so I'd have to nix Charlotte if we went with Ceilidh. Some of the attraction to Charlotte is that our very best friend's name is Charle (yes, no S on his name) and I could say to a certain extent she would be named after him. But it's not 100% necessary I guess. ;-) As for boys...DH seems to like Xavier. I'm not too keen. I'm hoping for another girl given we can't figure out a boy's name yet again. :-( I'd really like to stick with Tristan; I've always liked that name. And for a middle name I wouldn't mind Olivier which is Charle's middle name too. I don't think DH is totally against either of the names, just he is less hot on Tristan than before. :-( And Xavier Olivier would just be WEIRD IMO... :-(
To a certain extent, he found Sandrine and Leïlou, and Nyssa as well. Winter we agreed upon, but he "found" the other names. Sandrine I said yes to b/c it is a french form of Sandra (it is to Alexandrine what Sandra is to Alexandra) and I can say she's kind of named after my brother who is an Alex(ander) without having 2 Alex' in the family or anything that close. Leïlou and Nyssa we heard in movies. I don't dislike the names but I do think it's kind of *my turn* to have my say. I would also like Dubhghlass (I think that's the spelling), a gaelic spelling of Douglas. I mean, i could go with Douglas but people in English say it differently than in French (where it's said "Doog-lass") whereas if we put the gaelic spelling, I could explain at the same time as explaining the spelling, that it is not said the same as Douglas. Again, DH wants nothing to do with that; too hard to spell. *eyeroll* But anyhow, I do feel it's kind of my turn to come up with the name. The others were mostly his "creations/ideas" that I said yes to. Also, we have 1 French name (Sandrine) and Nyssa just happens to be Greek (we liked it, that's all)...I wouldn't mind something to reflect more my background but Dh refuses to consider names b/c of them being a certain background (or even naming *after* someone in particular; he has to like the name anyhow for it to please him).
So, any thoughts/ideas?
:-)
TIA







Hmm - I'll try to help.
I like Tristan Olivier - It would be very handsome.
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Thanks Donna. I think Kieran is ok too. We'll see what DH thinks. :-)
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Here are some French names that are, as far as I can tell, pronounced the same as their Gaelic or Celtic equivalents.
Boys
Brendan (Gaelic "Breandan")
Brian (Celtic "Brian")
Alain (Celtic "Allan")
Aiman (Gaelic "Eamon")
Sebastien (Celtic "Bastian")... this one's not exactly the same, but close.
Damien (Celtic "Damien")
Girls
Eve (Gaelic "Aobh")
Effie (French variant of Gaelic "Aoife", pronounced Effa)
Jocelyn (Celtic "Jocelyn")
Ana (Gaelic "Eachna")
Cora (Celtic "Cora")
Maeve (Gaelic "Madhbh")
Thanks! I know Brian is out (I love Brianna for a girl actually but DH hates it)...he thinks Brians are impossible children (based on *one* "spoilt brat" he knew, *eyeroll*).
But I like Brendan, Damian, maybe even Bastien.
I like Maeve too; I know DH would insist on spelling it an "easy" way. :-P
Thanks again!
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I'm not sure I followed all the nuances there, but I like Tristan a lot - especially because your DH is French. (Tristan and Isolde is a lovely story).
I also like Douglas - not too common and very handsome. I like the American spelling, though, because I think the Celtic spelling is too difficult -- sorry, feel free to roll your eyes now. :)
I have never been a fan of Oliver, English pronunciation, but I LOVE Olivier with the French pronunciation. Much more grown-up, I think. In that same vein, I like Sebastien in French, but not English. It's less cutesie.
Oceane for a girl is gorgeous. (Hey, by the way, how do you insert accents and special characters on here? I've never been able to figure that out.)
AJ, enjoying life with C.
Well my reason for Dubhghlass (or whatever ;-) I too would have to memorize it correctly) is that it is supposed to be pronounced the same way ppl pronounce it in French. With Douglas people will pronounce it the way they always do in English. But whatever...maybe as a middle name all the same. Douglas also has special meaning for me. When we were married I looked high and low for a bilingual minister in Vancouver and found 3. 2 of whom were unavailable for the date I wanted. The 3rd, I lined up a year in advance. Then, with a week to spare before the wedding, he pulled out saying there was some festival in Montréal he had a chance to go to. Basically, that was more important than my wedding. I was REALLY upset. He found me a replacement *minister* (not a problem) but the guy was obviously not bilingual. A long-time friend of the family who is quite religious and participates in church services at his own church (readings etc.) and who is very well-spoken AND bilingual (enough) was coming to the wedding, so I called him up and asked if *he* would be able to help us out for the French parts of the ceremony (DH didn't speak any english back then, nor did his father who was attending, one of our readers, and Charle, our best man; his mom has some english however). I met with the minister, asked what we had to do to make the ceremony *legal* (and in the end he had to say like *3* parts of the entire ceremony, including "pronouncing you husband and wife" and signing the registry/legal papers). Our family friend, who I've known since I was a wee tot, did the entire rest of the ceremony in english AND french in the end. His name is Douglas. :-) He saved the day. ;-) The way our ceremony was written out, all the important parts like "dearly beloved blah blah is there anyone who has an objection to this speak now or forever hold your peace blah blah" and stuff that everyone needed to hear was done in both languages. Steve said his vows in French and I said them in English. We had 2 readings done, one by Charle's girlfriend (now his ex) and one by my cousin...the former in French, the latter in English. Anyhow, that is the history of Douglas in our family and why I am fond of that person...liking the name too is a bonus. ;-)
I like Olivier enough but not enough to use it as a first name. It is actually *very* common in Québec right now as a first name. ;-) There is an awesome website with vital statistics (names) dating back the last 6 years that says what rank any given name is, if it is given even once in a year's span, and Olivier is pretty high up there. ;-) As an aside, there was no recorded Nyssa before 2002 when there was 1 (ours). In every subsequent year there have been 1-2 Nyssas in Québec. ;-) I figure someone looks through the "least popular names", sees it, and likes it...starting with the year ours was named. ;-)
AS for accents...I have a French keyboard which makes them easy to insert, but if you are on an IBM/compatible machine, holding down the Alt button to the left of the space bar while typing in 130 gives you the é. There is a character map in the "accessories" of windows and it outlines them all...there are ones like è which I believe is Alt138 and ê = 136 and ç = 133. :-) I used to have them memorized but with the French accents handy to use on my keyboard I don't remember as many anymore...I've been typing (touch typing) since I was 16 (I'm 32) and 14 years of that have been on a French keyboard. I have a hard time using the English keyboard now when I go to do so! ;-)
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