[Opinions] Re: Gillian on a boy?
in reply to a message by Frollein Gladys
I can see that Gillean would have a hard G, and that if one wanted it to have three syllables in English one would probably play safe and use the -ian version, thus also avoiding confusion with surnames like Gilham.
I can't recall ever seeing or hearing about a male Gillian. I've known some Julian people, and of course etymologically Julian was unisex in the Middle Ages and ga e rise to Gillian and Jillian. I'd expect a girl Gillian and a boy Julian. But hard-G Gillian would be a natural spelling pronunciation.
When I was in my fifth year of primary school, a new girl named Gillian joined the class and our teacher, who I think used to speak two European languages at home, English certainly and perhaps one of the Scandinavian ones, asked her how it was pronounced. The child innocently explained that it was actually Gillian with a J sound, but that her mother sometimes used the hard G sound when they were out, to impress people!
I also like soft-G Gillian enough to use!
I can't recall ever seeing or hearing about a male Gillian. I've known some Julian people, and of course etymologically Julian was unisex in the Middle Ages and ga e rise to Gillian and Jillian. I'd expect a girl Gillian and a boy Julian. But hard-G Gillian would be a natural spelling pronunciation.
When I was in my fifth year of primary school, a new girl named Gillian joined the class and our teacher, who I think used to speak two European languages at home, English certainly and perhaps one of the Scandinavian ones, asked her how it was pronounced. The child innocently explained that it was actually Gillian with a J sound, but that her mother sometimes used the hard G sound when they were out, to impress people!
I also like soft-G Gillian enough to use!
Replies
Ah, so the hard-G pronunciation is the "posh" version! ;)