Naming baby

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jenjen

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Hello,

I am due in September and we are expecting a baby girl. My husband and I feel a strong pull to the name Thérèse (yes with the accents, Rhymes with perez) after St.Thérèse of Lisieux. We both feel this is the baby’s name. It’s not a name we were ever drawn to before. (We have 3 other kids) also I didn’t know much about St. Thérèse of Lisieux before becoming pregnant but now I just can’t get enough of her!

Anyway, when I tell people the name they look at me with weird expressions, ask me to repeat it, give blank stares or say you mean Theresa? I gently comment that we are naming her after St. Thérèse of Lisieux and they ask who’s that? There are only a handful of people that react positively besides us and our priests.

Are we making a mistake? Is the name too unusual? I can just feel it. Her name isn’t Theresa it’s Thérèse. Alright I’m steeling my heart for your replies…
 
🙂 It’s a lovely name: go for it! Don’t worry what other people think because there will inevitably be someone who doesn’t like your choice, no matter what it is. The most important thing is that you choose a name that inspires you and that you hope will inspire your daughter.
 
my mom’s middle name is Therese. I think its a beautiful name. Congratulations!!!
 
You have plenty of time to pray about it. You’ll know when you see her.
 
1)The name is fine. It’s lovely. There’s nothing wrong with it, but you should know that for the rest of her life people will be misspelling and mispronouncing it. Plenty of people in the world have this problem and they survive. So will she if you decide to go with this name.

2)Why are you telling people what you plan to name her? If they ask, just say “Oh, we have a few names we are thinking about.” or “We will see what she looks like first.” IT’s none of their business and you’re just inviting trouble.
 
jenjen said:
Hello,

I am due in September and we are expecting a baby girl. My husband and I feel a strong pull to the name Thérèse (yes with the accents, Rhymes with perez) after St.Thérèse of Lisieux. We both feel this is the baby’s name. It’s not a name we were ever drawn to before. (We have 3 other kids) also I didn’t know much about St. Thérèse of Lisieux before becoming pregnant but now I just can’t get enough of her!

Anyway, when I tell people the name they look at me with weird expressions, ask me to repeat it, give blank stares or say you mean Theresa? I gently comment that we are naming her after St. Thérèse of Lisieux and they ask who’s that? There are only a handful of people that react positively besides us and our priests.

Are we making a mistake? Is the name too unusual? I can just feel it. Her name isn’t Theresa it’s Thérèse. Alright I’m steeling my heart for your replies…
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Just tell them it’s the French version of Theresa and they will say “oh, ok, that’s cool.”

There are a lot of people naming their kids real silly names like “North West” or “Apple”, plus people changing the spelling around and even making up names to be “unique,” so people really don’t have any reason to bash a traditional French name.

My Father-in-law thought we were picking a strange name when we named my daughter Isabella, even though her name turned out to be one of the most popular girls names the year she was born. When he saw the rankings, he changed his mind and started liking the name. :rolleyes:

Btw: non Catholics and even many non-practicing cradle Catholics may have never heard of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, and perhaps never even heard of the name Thérèse before. So don’t listen to them.

Point: don’t listen to other people. You are naming your daughter after a Saint like good Catholics should, and a Doctor of the Church at that.

God Bless you and your family
 
Name your baby whatever you want. There is nothing wrong with Therese as opposed to Theresa. She’ll probably be called by a nickname like Terry most of the time anyway. The name is not that unusual - I worked with people legally named Cedar and Oak so Therese is quite normal by comparison.
 
jenjen said:
Hello,

I am due in September and we are expecting a baby girl. My husband and I feel a strong pull to the name Thérèse (yes with the accents, Rhymes with perez) after St.Thérèse of Lisieux. We both feel this is the baby’s name. It’s not a name we were ever drawn to before. (We have 3 other kids) also I didn’t know much about St. Thérèse of Lisieux before becoming pregnant but now I just can’t get enough of her!

Anyway, when I tell people the name they look at me with weird expressions, ask me to repeat it, give blank stares or say you mean Theresa? I gently comment that we are naming her after St. Thérèse of Lisieux and they ask who’s that? There are only a handful of people that react positively besides us and our priests.

Are we making a mistake? Is the name too unusual? I can just feel it. Her name isn’t Theresa it’s Thérèse. Alright I’m steeling my heart for your replies…
Click to expand...
Love the name, drop the accents. Seriously, drop them.
 
All 7 of my kids have unusual names (or unusual for the US). My wife and I grew up in an era where most boys were named Sean or Michael and girls were generally named Jennifer or Michelle. We decided not to use names that were popular, but that told a story about who we hoped they would be.

People are always trying to insert or drop sounds into my kids names, but they live with it. We asked my oldest daughter (she’s 21) if she wished we’d named her something else, and she said (to paraphrase) “no, why would I? It’s my name and it’s not my problem that people can’t read.”
 
I agree, you should do what makes you happy and fits her.

But people will forever call her Theresa. Therese with the accents is my middle name, my mom was going to use it for a first name, and I am FOREVER grateful she did not.
I can’t stand Terry, Teresa, Tre, Tessa, Tressa, Teresita, or any of the other ways people change up others’ names.
You will just have to stand firm. Many people have to suffer through, correcting “nicknames”.
You’ll do fine if you are firm.
 
jenjen said:
Hello,

I am due in September and we are expecting a baby girl. My husband and I feel a strong pull to the name Thérèse (yes with the accents, Rhymes with perez) after St.Thérèse of Lisieux. We both feel this is the baby’s name. It’s not a name we were ever drawn to before. (We have 3 other kids) also I didn’t know much about St. Thérèse of Lisieux before becoming pregnant but now I just can’t get enough of her!

Anyway, when I tell people the name they look at me with weird expressions, ask me to repeat it, give blank stares or say you mean Theresa? I gently comment that we are naming her after St. Thérèse of Lisieux and they ask who’s that? There are only a handful of people that react positively besides us and our priests.

Are we making a mistake? Is the name too unusual? I can just feel it. Her name isn’t Theresa it’s Thérèse. Alright I’m steeling my heart for your replies…
Click to expand...
If you like it, go for it. 👍 Everyone is different and you should do what you want and feel is best for you child with regard to the name, don’t let anyone dissuade you.

My wife and I had our own conceptions about what we wanted in our daughter’s name when we chose it a few months back and we got a few raised eyebrows as well in part because we chose something simple and fairly common (it’s on all those Top 30-50 lists and the like) which were the exact reasons we chose it.

Other folks I know who’ve named kids recently went with the recent trend of gender neutral names (Avery, Riley, etc…) or even gender bending (Kayden, James, etc… as a girl’s middle name). I’ve heard both criticized for one reason or another, but if the parents like it and feel it fits their kid, that’s all that really matters…

Except Khaleesi, don’t name your kid Khaleesi 😃
 
jenjen said:
Anyway, when I tell people the name they look at me with weird expressions, ask me to repeat it, give blank stares or say you mean Theresa? I gently comment that we are naming her after St. Thérèse of Lisieux and they ask who’s that?
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Maybe.

She’ll definitely have to spell it for people. And many people won’t know how to say it (Tear-eze? Ter-ezz? Tur - eze? Tur - ezz? Tur - ees - eh? Thur-ess? There’s eh?), so she’ll be correcting pronunciations her whole life. In fact, here’s a discussion where people come up with 4 different pronunciations:

behindthename.com/name/the10re11se/comments

This site lists several pronunciations as well - rhyming with with Perez, Bernice, etc (scroll down).

pronouncenames.com/pronounce/therese

And hopefully it doesn’t bother you seeing it as Therese instead of Thérèse, since you’ll probably see it like that 99% of the time.

Do a test - tell 10 people (who don’t know you) the name and ask them to spell it. Then show 10 different people the name and ask them to pronounce it.Then ask yourself if this would get annoying.
 
PhiloMed said:
1)The name is fine. It’s lovely. There’s nothing wrong with it, but you should know that for the rest of her life people will be misspelling and mispronouncing it. Plenty of people in the world have this problem and they survive. So will she if you decide to go with this name.

2)Why are you telling people what you plan to name her? If they ask, just say “Oh, we have a few names we are thinking about.” or “We will see what she looks like first.” IT’s none of their business and you’re just inviting trouble.
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x2
 
Please take it from one who has hated her name her entire life–please consider either using the Anglicized version of Theresa or use it as a middle name.

My name is fairly a fairly simple Biblical name, and I would have given anything to be named Susan. No one ever knew how to pronounce it or spell it. I always mumbled when I introduced myself (often do even today) and started using a made-up simplified version in HS, with the result that people I knew from my early life call me that while those I met after I began working and was called by my legal name call me that. I named my DD a plain, simple four-letter name, and she always liked it.

Therese (can’t do accent marks on my iPad) is a lovely name. But so is Theresa and it’s a lot easier for a child to live with.
 
Padres1969 said:
If you like it, go for it. 👍 Everyone is different and you should do what you want and feel is best for you child with regard to the name, don’t let anyone dissuade you.

My wife and I had our own conceptions about what we wanted in our daughter’s name when we chose it a few months back and we got a few raised eyebrows as well in part because we chose something simple and fairly common (it’s on all those Top 30-50 lists and the like) which were the exact reasons we chose it.

Other folks I know who’ve named kids recently went with the recent trend of gender neutral names (Avery, Riley, etc…) or even gender bending (Kayden, James, etc… as a girl’s middle name). I’ve heard both criticized for one reason or another, but if the parents like it and feel it fits their kid, that’s all that really matters…

Except Khaleesi, don’t name your kid Khaleesi 😃
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When people ask me what we are naming this new baby I just make something up. I’ve used:

Moon Unit
Dweezil
Cheese Doodle
Katelyn Jenner (we’re having a boy so I enjoy the reactions to this one)
Peach Pit
Chunky Monkey depending on what he looks like
Cashew
 
Book_Worm said:
Please take it from one who has hated her name her entire life–please consider either using the Anglicized version of Theresa or use it as a middle name.

My name is fairly a fairly simple Biblical name, and I would have given anything to be named Susan. No one ever knew how to pronounce it or spell it. I always mumbled when I introduced myself (often do even today) and started using a made-up simplified version in HS, with the result that people I knew from my early life call me that while those I met after I began working and was called by my legal name call me that. I named my DD a plain, simple four-letter name, and she always liked it.

Therese (can’t do accent marks on my iPad) is a lovely name. But so is Theresa and it’s a lot easier for a child to live with.
Click to expand...
If I ever have triplets I’ll name them Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego.
 
PhiloMed said:
When people ask me what we are naming this new baby I just make something up. I’ve used:

Moon Unit
Dweezil
Cheese Doodle
Katelyn Jenner (we’re having a boy so I enjoy the reactions to this one)
Peach Pit
Chunky Monkey depending on what he looks like
Cashew
Click to expand...
Oh you thought I was joking 😃

I actually have a friend whose daughter’s middle name is Khaleesi. Even the parents are starting to regret it as Game of Thrones is getting long in the tooth.
 
PhiloMed said:
When people ask me what we are naming this new baby I just make something up. I’ve used:

Moon Unit
Dweezil
Cheese Doodle
Katelyn Jenner (we’re having a boy so I enjoy the reactions to this one)
Peach Pit
Chunky Monkey depending on what he looks like
Cashew
Click to expand...
Before my oldest son was born, my mom kept bugging us about what we were going to name him. We finally told her we were going to name him Ragnar Furry Pants. We even started to refer to Ragnar even a few months after he was born.
 
Usige said:
Before my oldest son was born, my mom kept bugging us about what we were going to name him. We finally told her we were going to name him Ragnar Furry Pants. We even started to refer to Ragnar even a few months after he was born.
Click to expand...
Ragnar? Wasn’t that a planet in Battlestar Galactica?
 
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