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Avril
I did a poll and Avril scored very unfavorably. I feel this situation needs further exploration, because Avril strikes me as very beautiful and exotic, yet comfortable and a bit retro-chic.

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It's the singer. That's probably why.A lot of people hate her because they consider her a "poser" (just Google "Avril Lavigne poser" and see what I'm talking about), plus she's accused of still presenting herself as a teen even though she's 30. But I think the real reason why she's so hated is because of all the hype she got ten years ago (same think that happened to the Backstreet Boys, N*SYNC, and Britney Spears before her). As for the name Avril itself, I don't like it. It's not used here in France, at least not traditionally.
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I don't see a reason behind it being rated lowly. I love Avril! I think it's a name with feistiness and personality to it, and very beautiful.
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Avril's never gotten very good reviews here.I used to love it, it was in my top 10 (usually top 3) for a long time. I still kind of like it, but I just sort of grew out of it, I guess. It's still my favorite version of April though.
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I want to like Avril, but in your poll I gave it a 2 because it's so, so harsh sounding. Avvvvrrrrr is just not attractive to me. I like April better than Avril and Abril (ah-BREEL, bonus points for a flipped R; it's Spanish for April) better than both.
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I like Averill, but Avril doesn't do anything for me. It's too "Lavigne," maybe, and it feels lightweight and bratty. I'm not surprised it scored low, tbh. Even April, though I know it's dated, appeals to me more.
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On a US person, it's just April, only with a sheen of superficial Frenchness and a vague celebrity air, which make it seem less dated than April... for now. It also sounds almost exactly like Averill in my accent, so it's like it's borrowing some spunky spunk from the unisex surname Avery trend, too. It's not bad. I like it more than April, and I do like April. But it's not better than, say, Alizée or Gemma.

This message was edited 12/29/2014, 12:57 PM

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Alizée is a ratchet alcoholic beverage -- I don't see the appeal there AT ALL. Gemma's cute.
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Alizée is also the name of a French pop singer of the same vintage as Avril Lavigne. I'm imagining that French folks have heard of her (and of Alizé Cornet, a French tennis player I just discovered by googling) about as much as we have heard of Lavigne ... it also has a word meaning in French that I assume makes it namier there. I personally know a woman who is French - born and raised in France, moved here after her daughter was born - who named her daughter Alizée in 2006. She is not "ratchet" or anything like that, either; she's very much a professional. I've barely heard of Alizé the beverage, and I'm only vaguely aware of the cultural associations it carries. I guess it matters that people think of that, if you live in the US and want to use the name Alizée - but if that matters, then surely Avril Lavigne's image might taint Avril as much. Because unfortunately that's what I personally think of first when I see the name Avril - her eye makeup. I don't know if ratchet describes it, but wretched might. =( These kinds of associations are dismaying, because I think both these names should just be nifty.

This message was edited 12/29/2014, 3:31 PM

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As a resident of France, I can assure you that the name is in fact derived from a vocabulary word and it's not after the beverage. The word alizé means "trade wind". The singer's parents probably added an E at the end to make it sound more like a feminine name. (The accented é is usually masculine; i.e. Aimé, André, René)I can also share some info about Alizée. She's one of our most successful singers here in France. She does have a sexy image, but overall she's well-liked by the public and for a long time she hardly ever talked about her personal life. Personally, I'm a fan of her myself.
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I like it. Someone at work calls me Avril and I don't mind.
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It does come across as somewhat dated, since most people associate it with singer Avril Lavigne, whose career peaked a while ago. However, famous celebrities aside, it's not a bad name. I really like the French pronunciation.
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To me, it's too connected to Avril Lavigne, who's music I absolutely abhor. Normally, I don't let bad associations ruin a name for me (for example: I like Saddam and Hussein regardless of Saddam Hussein and I also knew a James and a David who were reprehensible assholes, but I love those names regardless), but Avril doesn't have enough worth liking for me to separate it from Lavigne.
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She's all right.
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