Why is Madeline pronounced Madelyn?

[Anonymous]

When did Madeline become Madalyn? Has it always been so? Is Madeline (with a LINE) only french?

I love Madeline (LINE) and strongly dislike Madeline said like Lynn.

[Anonymous]

Oh dear. Though the book starts with “twelve little girls in two straight lines”, a little French girl would not be called MadeLINE. It’s spelled Madeleine and pronounced ma•de•lèn

[Anonymous]

Its not. Madeline is pronounced mad-e- LINE like you said. Madeleine, Madelyn and probably lots of other spelling variations are pronounced with Lynn ending. Like you, I prefer the name Madeline but it is often mispronounced.

[Anonymous]

Got cut off. If you spell it Madeline and people say it wrong (like Lynn), you can just let them know it rhymes with CaroLINE. Should be day to remember.

[Anonymous]

It’s just one of those names. There are a lot of them and people with those names spend their lives correcting others. I have one of those names and as a young adult, I quit correcting people because it didn’t matter to me anymore. I know my name and it’s not their fault they don’t know how my parents chose to pronounce it. When people get to know me, they always realize the mistake and apologize profusely. I tell them- it’s ok. How would you know at first? It’s made life a lot easier. If you love Madeline with the pronunciation of line at the end, do it. The close people in her life friends, teachers, classmates will get it. I’ll bet she’ll even find that her friends are the ones who are correcting others. It’s sweet. NBD. It’s a beautiful name.

[Anonymous]

I think it's odd when people named Jacqueline pronounce it Jacklyn, like on RHONJ
I'd that the "correct" pronunciation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Got cut off. If you spell it Madeline and people say it wrong (like Lynn), you can just let them know it rhymes with CaroLINE. Should be day to remember.

My CaroLINE gets Carolyn all of the time. I didn’t think that would happen, but she’s totally fine with it. They figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it's odd when people named Jacqueline pronounce it Jacklyn, like on RHONJ
I'd that the "correct" pronunciation?

Didn’t Jackie Kennedy Onassis pronounce it lyn at the end? Excepting when she was abroad, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its not. Madeline is pronounced mad-e- LINE like you said. Madeleine, Madelyn and probably lots of other spelling variations are pronounced with Lynn ending. Like you, I prefer the name Madeline but it is often mispronounced.

Nope.

For the etymologists among us, Madeline really SHOULD be pronounced MAD-uh-lyn, not MAD-uh-line. This is because it is a French name originally spelled Madeleine, which, in French, is pronounced mad-uh-LEHN, and is then Americanized to MAD-uh-lin. The spelling Madeline would be pronounced (according to its French roots) as mad-uh-LEEN, which would, again, be Americanized to MAD-uh-lin. See Jacqueline, Catherine, Jessamine. The "English" pronounciation MAD-uh-line is actually a mistake taken from the Madeline books, in which the MAD-uh-line pronunciation was used to create a rhyming scheme.

[Anonymous]

I have a relative named Madeline who is in her 70's...pronounced Madelyn. I tend to think pronouncing it like the book character is a newer way to say it.

[Anonymous]

Madeleine (from which Madeline is derived) and Jacqueline are originally French names. The "lynn" ending sounds closer to the original French.

[Anonymous]

this is a really stupid argument. This name has multiple spellings and pronunciations, no one is "wrong" to use one or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its not. Madeline is pronounced mad-e- LINE like you said. Madeleine, Madelyn and probably lots of other spelling variations are pronounced with Lynn ending. Like you, I prefer the name Madeline but it is often mispronounced.

Nope.

For the etymologists among us, Madeline really SHOULD be pronounced MAD-uh-lyn, not MAD-uh-line. This is because it is a French name originally spelled Madeleine, which, in French, is pronounced mad-uh-LEHN, and is then Americanized to MAD-uh-lin. The spelling Madeline would be pronounced (according to its French roots) as mad-uh-LEEN, which would, again, be Americanized to MAD-uh-lin. See Jacqueline, Catherine, Jessamine. The "English" pronounciation MAD-uh-line is actually a mistake taken from the Madeline books, in which the MAD-uh-line pronunciation was used to create a rhyming scheme.

Madeline and Madeleine are different names. Yes Madeline is derived from Madeleine- but it is a variation pronounced MadeLINE. (Like Caroline)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Its not. Madeline is pronounced mad-e- LINE like you said. Madeleine, Madelyn and probably lots of other spelling variations are pronounced with Lynn ending. Like you, I prefer the name Madeline but it is often mispronounced.

Nope.

For the etymologists among us, Madeline really SHOULD be pronounced MAD-uh-lyn, not MAD-uh-line. This is because it is a French name originally spelled Madeleine, which, in French, is pronounced mad-uh-LEHN, and is then Americanized to MAD-uh-lin. The spelling Madeline would be pronounced (according to its French roots) as mad-uh-LEEN, which would, again, be Americanized to MAD-uh-lin. See Jacqueline, Catherine, Jessamine. The "English" pronounciation MAD-uh-line is actually a mistake taken from the Madeline books, in which the MAD-uh-line pronunciation was used to create a rhyming scheme.

Madeline and Madeleine are different names. Yes Madeline is derived from Madeleine- but it is a variation pronounced MadeLINE. (Like Caroline)

No, they are not. Madeline is the anglicized spelling of Madeleine. No one, except the profoundly ignorant--would pronounce the name Made-LINE.

[Anonymous]

I have known two people in my life that spell their name Madeline and pronounce their name MadeLINE. Maybe it's the wrong pronunciation (according to PP) but some people do spell it like that so that it will be pronounced LINE. I also prefer the LINE pronunciation vs the Lynn pronunciation. But I wouldn't name my daughter that because clearly their is a lot of confusion surrounding this name!