Pronunciation disagreement

lifeonthehill · January 2013

We live in America and I am a fan of giving children the most common pronunciation of a name unless it is for a family member. FI however does not agree. We both love the name Camille but don't agree on how to say it.

I like Camille the English way Ka-Meel and likes it the French way Ka-Mee.

FI is French Canadian but his family has never been big into heritage based names. Would you give your son or daughter a name and then pronounce it in a different way?

WashingtonQueen · January 2013

If you give her the second pronunciation she will struggle with it her whole life.

dande2129 · January 2013

I like Ka-Meel better than Ka-Mee for two reasons; I just like that Ka-Meel is pronounced as the name looks and also because your little girl will forever be correcting those attempting her name, unless someone happens to be of French descent.

KrisM86 · January 2013

WashingtonQueen:
If you give her the second pronunciation she will struggle with it her whole life.

Agreed. Living in America, 99% of people will pronounce her name Ka-meel.

Broadway11 · January 2013

I would use the American pronunciation since that is where she will grow up. I love the name Claudia, but only as pronounced the Spanish way Cloudia. It is not on the list since I wouldn't want my daughter to have to correct people forever.

lifeonthehill · January 2013

That was my thought exactly. It is hard enough with so many alternative spellings to any name in this world let alone a pronunciation I have only heard on one girl who was straight from France. Thank you ladies!

sadie8900 · January 2013

I know someone whose name is Camille pronounced the french way. It is how she introduced herself, so thats what everyone calls her. I live in Canada, so there are a fair amount of french speakers, though I am not in Quebec. Maybe that would change things? She does not seem to have a problem though.

himymlover · January 2013

My friend just had a baby and name her Camille. They say it the way you pronounce it, but her nickname is Cami and pronounced the way your husband says it. That would at least be a good compromise.

guilletskichuk · January 2013

Happy_Yahoo_Personaler:
KrisM86:
WashingtonQueen:
If you give her the second pronunciation she will struggle with it her whole life.
Agreed. Living in America, 99% of people will pronounce her name Ka-meel.
Yep. Never even crossed my mind that it could be pronounced as Ka-Mee.

Ditto!

Elinetrouwt · January 2013

KateB1984:
I don't think it needs to be an either/or. I have a French Canadian friend named Genevieve. English speakers say it Jen-ah-veev. French speakers say it Jean-eh-vee-ev. She says she doesn't expect people with very different accents to say it the same, and likes both versions of her name.

This, my name is pronounced in two different ways by my friends and family, depending on where the person is from. People often ask me which one it 'really is' or which one I prefer, but I don't care.

I think it is very hard for Americans to pronounce Camille in French, it is not 'Ka-mee', there is a third vowl, very soft, but I don't even know how to write it phonetically in English, something like 'Ka-mee-juh'. (I'm living in a partly Francophone country and I have several friends called Camille.)

bawags · January 2013

If you live in the US then I would use the Ka-Meel pronunciation. She will forever be correcting people if you use the Ka-Mee pronunciation and she will probably get frustrated!