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It's fine if the bearer is French. Otherwise it comes across as pretentious, and is also a minefield for people unfamiliar with French; they would try to sound the LL, and who can blame them?

Don't really like it

I'm not a fan (Mira, Mirèio, Mireya, Esmeray sound better to me), but I prefer it to Mia, so I'd replace that with it on the charts, if I could.

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Mimi and Ray / Rei / Rey seem the natural NNs.

This message was edited 9/22/2020, 12:09 PM

I like how it looks, but...

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...it evaporates immediately after it's uttered.

It seems it would be mispronounced in English, probably as “Mirelle.”

I’ve always liked Mireille - so elegant and melodious. I feel like non-French-speakers would mispronounce it as "Mirelle" a lot, though.
But it and Mirèio are very pretty nonetheless. I love the meaning.

I sometimes confuse Mireille with Mirielle, but I do like Mireille (nn Miri?)

I doubt it would ever enter the Top 1000 in the U.S., given just how so very French it is. Francophone pockets of this country are small, so the pronunciation outside of them would likely be butchered. I think Mirela / Mirella has a better chance of charting since the pronunciation is less "foreign" to most Americans.

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That said, I remember seeing Mireya a few times growing up (large Hispanic area), so I checked the popularity statistics for that. Turns out, Mireya did chart: 1996-2006, plus 2008. Highest year was '97 at #447, cracking the Top 500. (Mireia did not chart.)

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Mireille is very pretty, but difficult to use outside of Francophone areas. Honestly, though, my favorite variant of the name is the original Occitan form, Mirèio... though I'd never be able to use it.

I think people would mispronounce it. The ll is not pronounced like an L, it sounds like mee-RAY just like Camille sounds like kah-MEE in French. I mean you could go with the English pronunciation but I'm personally not a fan. The name is nice overall.