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I never knew the spelling Madelaine existed, or rather that it was common enough to be in the BtN database. If I saw Madelaine I would assume it was "MAD-uh-lain." But I wouldn't like it. I always thought people who were pronouncing it with a long "a" sound were just mispronouncing the French form, Madeleine. Those cookies have a lot to answer for. :-P

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I love Madeline ("MAD-uh-lin") and Madeleine ("MAD-uh-lin" in English, "mad-uh-LEN" in French). Other spellings / pronunciations don't appeal to me.

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I do like Elaine though. :-)

I say it like ma-d'LEHN, but I've always assumed it was French (like I thought the Îles de la Madeleine was actually Îles de la Madelaine) so I say the "laine" part like the word for wool.
I did check on Forvo, though, and heard mad-uh-LAYN as a pronunciation which is kind of neat.

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The -laine ending looks like a spelling purposefully chosen to influence pronunciation, so I'd pronounce Madelaine like MAD-eh-lain. Lainie would work well as a nickname.

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I don't have strong feelings about Madelaine one way or the other. I like it more than many Madeleine varients (and I love the "Mad Elaine" comment under Madelaine--I picture the Lady of Shalott, locked in her tower), but I think I'm growing numb toward all of them. There was a Madylinn in my son's school's most recent newsletter, and I didn't even flinch when I saw it.

My first instinct is to put the emphasis on the last syllable- mad-eh-LAINE. I'm having an issue with the name because it looks and sounds like "mad Elaine". I guess you could say that about any of the Mad- names such as Madeline= MAD-eh-line (rhymes with swine), but "eh-line" isn't a common name like Elaine.

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Sorry if that's confusing!

I would say MAD-eh-lain. I think it's really pretty and having Lainie as a nickname would be awesome. That way you can have that nature to it, and there a chance they won't fall into the sea of Maddys though you can't guarantee that obviously. It could work.

It's my aunt's name

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We don't live in a english speaking country though, but here it's pronounced exactly as Madeleine, and I guess it's almost pronounced like MAD-eh-lain? I'm horrible with pronouncions though.

This message was edited 4/6/2012, 3:21 AM