I've had a few people ask so I figured I'd write a blog post to answer the questions about our newest daughter's name.
Firstly, her full name is Chloé Rose Morrice, and her middle name is taken from her paternal grandmother, RoseAnne Greig. Chloé will call her Granna like her older siblings, but her name is Rose Anne, and we felt Rose sounded best with Chloé. We love the tradition of using a family name for middle names. Lily's middle name is taken from my mom's name (Catherine) and we always hoped for another daughter so we could also honour Brad's mom in the same way. When we found out Chloé was a girl one of our first thoughts was how excited we were to tell Brad's mom we were naming the baby after her! Should Chloé have been a boy, we had narrowed the name down to two options - Oscar Allan or Hugo Allan (Allan being my dad's name).
Secondly, the pronunciation depends on who's talking. We live in Quebec and so have deliberately chosen French or bilingual names for all of our kids, along with French spelling (with the exception of their middle names because they're named after Anglophones!) Because of this, we chose to spell Chloé with an é instead of an e at the end. Our French friends all pronounce the é (so Chloé sounds like Klo-ay) and when we're speaking French that's also how we say it. Our English friends and family (alongside us when we're speaking English) don't pronounce the é (so Chloé sounds like Klo-ee).
What about Olivier? With Oli (which he goes by 99% of the time), I was/am really insistent that everyone call him Olivier if not using his nickname. Brad never cared and still doesn't, but to me, hearing him called Oliver is frustrating because it's literally a different name. It's not a matter of pronunciation, it's a different name with different spelling (there's an extra i if you look closely). When we were deciding on his name we knew we wanted it to be Olivier for the same reason Chloé has an é, but since we have so many English speaking friends and family, we loved that Oli was an easy nickname for anyone to pronounce whether they're francophone or anglophone.
So while I want Oli to always be called Olivier if you're using his full name, I don't mind if English speaking folks call Chloé "Klo-ee", and when I'm speaking English I do, too! Mais pour les francophones, bien sur c'est Chloé :)
I know it's confusing and I don't blame anyone who gets it wrong. Oh the joys of raising a child in another language!
Secondly, the pronunciation depends on who's talking. We live in Quebec and so have deliberately chosen French or bilingual names for all of our kids, along with French spelling (with the exception of their middle names because they're named after Anglophones!) Because of this, we chose to spell Chloé with an é instead of an e at the end. Our French friends all pronounce the é (so Chloé sounds like Klo-ay) and when we're speaking French that's also how we say it. Our English friends and family (alongside us when we're speaking English) don't pronounce the é (so Chloé sounds like Klo-ee).
What about Olivier? With Oli (which he goes by 99% of the time), I was/am really insistent that everyone call him Olivier if not using his nickname. Brad never cared and still doesn't, but to me, hearing him called Oliver is frustrating because it's literally a different name. It's not a matter of pronunciation, it's a different name with different spelling (there's an extra i if you look closely). When we were deciding on his name we knew we wanted it to be Olivier for the same reason Chloé has an é, but since we have so many English speaking friends and family, we loved that Oli was an easy nickname for anyone to pronounce whether they're francophone or anglophone.
So while I want Oli to always be called Olivier if you're using his full name, I don't mind if English speaking folks call Chloé "Klo-ee", and when I'm speaking English I do, too! Mais pour les francophones, bien sur c'est Chloé :)
I know it's confusing and I don't blame anyone who gets it wrong. Oh the joys of raising a child in another language!
beautiful name! did not realize it was pronounced differently in french! :) When Penelope was in my belly we considered Chloe, and I have always loved it! Even though we don't have the added confusion of a second language, many people butcher Penelope's name. I have all but given up and sometimes even introduce her to strangers as Penny, since people often give us confused stares or totally butcher her full given name.
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