We’re a French American couple and both like the name Salomé. As accents cannot be printed on most documents, we’re concerned about whether people will be familiar with the name or get it wrong all the time. We’re also wondering the pronunciations we can expect without the accent?
Thank you all.
Oh! This is especially fun because I am only slightly familiar with the name: I have never encountered a Salomé in person, or in a way where I would have heard it pronounced (e.g., on a character in a television show). Before I look it up, I will make note of my first guesses. I know it makes no sense, but it’s a data point: even WITH the accent mark, I somehow first read it sah-LOME. Then I noticed the accent, and my second attempt was sal-oh-may.
I looked it up online and found some helpful guides that would read it out loud for me, the first of which aligned closely with my second guess: they spelled it out as sal-uh-may, and said it with more uh than oh, but very similar.
The second link pronounced it sah-LOH-mee, which…can that be right? Like the word salami, but with a LOH instead of a LAH?
The third link pronounced it SAL-oh-mee. Same sounds, different emphasis.
Well. My guess is that this will be a name that will be mispronounced fairly often, if so many internet sources have different ideas even about how it SHOULD be pronounced. But I further guess that although people may stumble when they first encounter it, they will quickly learn it. My own favorite pronunciation is sal-uh-may.
Commenters: If you have not encountered the name in person before, how did you initially think it was pronounced? If you HAVE encountered it in person before, how did that person pronounce it? Would it throw you off if you encountered the name in writing but without the accent mark?
I had a Salome as a student. She pronounced it SAL-ah-may. She said everyone always reads it as Suh-LOAM first, before she corrects them.
I’ve never encountered the name on an actual person, so my only point of reference is Salome in the Bible, which I’ve always heard pronounced as SAL-oh-may. So that would be my first instinct, regardless of whether there’s an accent over the final E or not.
Sa-luo-MAY.
I live near Quebec though so that might be a factor.
I also have a student with this name. She is 4 years old and pronounces it SAL-oh-may. There is no accent mark on her name.
I’m going by the biblical/artistic significance and I always knew it as SAL-oh-may, but I do know one (70yo) woman with this name and she pronounces it sah-LOW-mee (salami but with a different middle syllable)
I used to have a coworker named Salome, I believe without the accent but I could be wrong. She pronounced it SAL-uh-may. I don’t think I’d ever heard the name before I met her, but I don’t recall pronunciation ever being an issue—which means I either got it right on the first try, or I said it wrong at first but she corrected me and it wasn’t a big deal (I can’t remember which).
I have never heard of the name and my instinct is to say it Sah-low-may. (Now that Swistle pointed out how close to “salami” it is that’s all I hear.)
Without the accent, my instinct would be Sa-lohm like “shalom.”
My daughter is named Soleil (French for sun) and has to correct people about 75% of the time. People call her So-leel rather than So-lay. (I thought it was somewhat familiar due to actress Soleil Moon Frye, the razor brand and a local tanning salon using the name.) My daughter says it’s not a big deal and loves her name. She’s 14.
I grew up watching Soleil Moon Frye and reading her name a million times over the years and until this very moment, always pronounced it “So-leel” in my mind, never realizing the actual pronounciation. LOL
How funny! My daughter is named after Soleil Moon Frye. I was obsessed with Punky Brewster.
I have never met a Salome. I did read a book that had a character with the name (American character, no accent). I don’t know how I know, but I know it is pronounced Salomay.
It’s hard to decide how you pronounce something when you’re thinking about the word.
I think I would pronounce the name Sa-LOE-may, until I was told to pronounce it differently.
Congratulations on your baby!
Melissa
Never met someone in person, but studied the Oscar Wilde play in college, and have seen the original Death on the Nile 2 or 3 times as well as reading the book (Salome Otterbourne is a character).
I’ve always said SAL-uh-may, though it’s a little between SAL and SAHL (maybe when we read the Wilde play, the professor said SAHL-uh-may? Decades ago). The middle sound is a schwa.
The accent over the e here has me wondering if sal-uh-MAY is intended.
I wonder if Swistle has ever done a reader poll to see how many readers have difficult-to-pronounce names and how much it bothers them to have to correct people. It seems like something we all worry a lot about as namers but my own experience is that mispronunciation causes a brief moment of embarrassment/correction and then everyone moves on and there is one more person in the world that knows how to pronounce the name (no shade to anyone more affected by it, I just hope it doesn’t prevent someone from using a name they love!) I have a cousin named Salome with no accent and she pronounces it SAL-uh-may.
I don’t know anyone with this name. I’ve always thought it was pronounced Sa-LOE-mee, never occurred to me that these other pronunciations were out there, but I don’t think about this name much, either! Spelled with the accent, I think I’d guess Sa-LOE-may.
I don’t know anyone with the name but always read it as SALuhmay.
No matter how you slice it, boy, it’s still suh-LOH-mee. :)
i would pronounce both SALuhmay unless instructed otherwise :)
My first instinct is “suh-loam” but I would feel hesitant about it and after clarification wouldn’t have trouble I do not think.
Australian accent. I’ve only encountered this in church or Bible study not on a person. I say Sa-Loh-mee with emphasis on the second syllable.
I always thought it a beautiful name.
Apropos of nothing we always liked the name Selah but couldn’t agree on pronunciation for much the same reason.
I know a preschooler with this name. Her parents spelled it Salomae, perhaps for pronunciation clarity. Only I can’t remember if they say SAL-oh-meh or Sa-LOE-meh. SAL-oh-meh, I think. They call her Mae sometimes.
Despite that anecdote, I have a high tolerance for correcting name pronunciation so it seems usable and lovely to me.
update: it is SAL-oh-meh for them, so the usual pronunciation despite the spelling variation.
I once had a boss who mostly went by Sally, but her full name was Salome and she pronounced it SAL-oh-may (emphasis on the first syllable). She was from an Eastern European country–I no longer remember which one–so I’m not sure if that had an effect on how she pronounced her name. For what it’s worth, whenever it comes up at church the liturgists all also seem to also say SAL-oh-may. So if I saw the name on a roster, that’s how I would pronounce it, accent or not.
I had a student with this name (from Figi, if that makes a difference), and she was suh-LOH-mee.
LW, I think it’s relevant that the average American doesn’t know what French accents do (unless they studied French). Without looking it up, I know there’s an accent mark that goes up and one that goes down, and I have a vague idea that they change the pronunciation of the vowel (as opposed to Spanish accents indicating emphasis), but I don’t actually know which sounds é and è make in French.
My first instinct for Salomé is “sa-lo-MAY”. If there’s no accent, I guess I would say “sa-LO-may”, but I would think maybe there should be an accent somewhere.
I think this seems like a pretty small pronunciation correction that most people will be able to remember once it’s explained to them, so if you love the name I think you should go ahead.
sal-OH-may
But I wish it was like shalom but with the ‘s’ instead of the ‘sh’. We wanted to use this name, but it seemed too unknown.
Pretty!
I would default to the Spanish pronunciation with the stress on the last syllable until or unless told otherwise.
I’ve always heard the Biblical Salome as “SAL-o-may,” and that would ordinarily be my first attempted pronunciation, with or without the accent. If I knew in advance it was being used from French, I’d probably say “SAHL-o-may” with a rounder sound for the first “a.” (Like in bra instead of apple.)
I’ve never heard or saw this name before.
I pronounced it mostly right on my own, but immediately thought of salami.
I haven’t seen it with the accent aigu before nor have I heard it spoken aloud. Without the accent, I’d have assumed it’s two syllables and pronounced SAH-LOME. I speak French, so with the accent, I would have guessed SAH-LOW-MAY.
It’s a lovely name and unique, which is great. I think correcting pronunciation will definitely be part of the package. But it could be worth it. The built-in icknames are great: Sal! Sally! Lo! May!
Beautiful name! I have acquaintances with a daughter called Salome (early teens now). None of us have any problems pronouncing it- we’re mostly English teachers with good knowledge of Biblical stories, and most of us have learned a little French language.
I would think it was Sal-oh-MAY. Pronunciations are such a pain, but idk if it would make me rethink a name. I have a Maria and you can’t imagine how many times people put an imaginary H on the end and call her Mariah! I have an Anthony Joseph and lots of people called him AJ when he was an infant and now people call him Tony out of nowhere! I think it can be good practice for people to let people know what they want to be called.
This is a family name in my family, and at least for us, we’ve pronounced it SAHL-oh-may. Across both countries and languages of our family, it’s been generally pronounced correctly with the occasional “sah-LOME” and siblings making fun of other siblings by pronouncing it salami.