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It's pronounced mud-LEN and mud-eh-LEN in French and as it is a French name that would be the correct pronunciation. I am French and it doesn't bother me when you pronounce it MAD-eh-line at all, though. I think it would be fine. After all Jacqueline is pronounced JACK-lyn in English even though the correct pronunciation is zhuk-LEEN and it works alright. I would just say that MAD-eh-line is the English pronunciation of a French name.

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I do however prefer Madeline. I just think that it looks very sweet. Madeline would also not be pronounced the way you want it pronounced in French but again you could go with the English pronunciation.

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I don't know, I just think it's a name that can be pronounced many ways in many countries and you should pronounce it the way you like it.

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They both sound nice.

I'd pronounce Madeleine as MAD-ə-lien. If you click on it, you'll see that on this site that's listed as a correct pronunciation. It doesn't much matter anyway since it's a middle name. You won't often have to correct peoples' pronunciation of it. Although I do think that in the combo Chloe Madeleine Christine, MAD-ə-lin rolls off the tongue easier.

This message was edited 3/31/2009, 4:51 PM

I answered on the other post, but Madeleine is -len, not -line, choose whatever you want for a middle name, it's just a middle name, but if you want it to be correct, -line is not correct.

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I think Chloe Mad-e-len Christine sounds better, but I prefer Madeline vastly over Madeleine, and Madeline will lend you the -line ending, and it's just prettier than Madeleine.

I think it's fine to say Mad-e-line, especially since it's a mn and not a first name. Imo, Mad-e-line and Mad-e-len are equally pretty in the combo.

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Mad-e-line is a legit pronunciation of Madeleine, as far as I know. It's just not the most common. I usually pronounce Madeleine as mad-e-LEN, Madeline as either MAD-e-line or MAD-e-lin, and Madelyn always as MAD-e-lin.

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Well, pronouncing Madeleine or Madeline with LIEN at the end always seems a bit strange to me, because I've never met one single person that did it like that, probably. I also tend to dislike -line endings pronounced LIEN because they seem like weird diminutives to me. Since the pronunciation is listed on BtN as an English one, I guess it's fine. I still prefer MAD-e-len Christine, though.

Chloe Mad-uh-len Christine would be my choice.

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Convention (at least my understanding) is Madeleine "MAD-uh-len", Madeline "MAD-uh-line".

Chloe Madeleine (Mad-e-len) Christine flows better, IMO.