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ArchivesNames with double vowels
...that are pronounced separately. Like Na'ama or Meira. In English the only common one I can think of is "ee-uh" - as in Gabriel or Maria. I've noticed other names like Raphael that have the exact same source as Gabriel (a biblical angel) aren't nearly as popular, and my guess is that it's because the ah-eh sound of Raphael is less natural in English. In Hebrew there is much more variety, almost any vowels can be found next to each other. What about other languages? Can anyone speak to what vowel pairs are common in your language?
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In French, accents usually tell the reader how double vowels should be pronunced if they are together. For example, the name Raphaël is written with the ''tréma'', to tell the reader that the two vowels are supposed to be said separately. It usually indicates a pose between the two letters. Another example woulb be Adélaïde. If the accent wasn't present, the pronunciation would be quite different. It would be similer to English: A-de-layd. But with the accents, the french pronunciation is A-deh-la-EED.
Here is another example: Héloïse/Éloïse has a ''tréma'' on the ''i'' because it needs to be pronunced Eh-lo-EEZ. If there was no tréma, it would be said as Eh-lwah-z.
In fact, thinking about it, French has a lot of names with double vowels (and accents). Anaïs, Aliénor, Éléonore, Léandre, Léon/Léonie, Théodore, Loreleï, Maël/Maëlle, Gaëtan, Léopold/Léonard/Léo, Léa, Chloé, etc.
I know some people in English just put accents on names to look fancy or think it looks snobbish. But in French, the accents actually have purposes.
Here is another example: Héloïse/Éloïse has a ''tréma'' on the ''i'' because it needs to be pronunced Eh-lo-EEZ. If there was no tréma, it would be said as Eh-lwah-z.
In fact, thinking about it, French has a lot of names with double vowels (and accents). Anaïs, Aliénor, Éléonore, Léandre, Léon/Léonie, Théodore, Loreleï, Maël/Maëlle, Gaëtan, Léopold/Léonard/Léo, Léa, Chloé, etc.
I know some people in English just put accents on names to look fancy or think it looks snobbish. But in French, the accents actually have purposes.
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The technical term for this is hiatus. In German, such names used to be rare, but not unheard, besides Biblical Names like Michael, Gabriel, Samuel, Raphael, Matthias and Matthäus there are some more like Theodor, Dorothea, Leopold, Leonhard, Theodolinde, Andreas, Beate. However, current German naming trends prefer names with hiatus with new creations and imports from everywhere, typical examples are Lias, Liam, Lian, Matteo, Noah (m), Noa (f), if you can read German, you may enjoy this interview:
https://blog.beliebte-vornamen.de/2022/12/namenstrend-hiat/
https://blog.beliebte-vornamen.de/2022/12/namenstrend-hiat/
This message was edited 1/23/2023, 9:56 AM
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