The name Adelyn and its short forms?

Lunatique · Dec 20, 2011

The name of one of my MC in the book I'm currently writing is Adelyn, and I have questions about that name.

1) It is pronounced "Add-ah-len"--correct?

2) What are the short forms of this name? I know there's Adele, Adelle, and Addie. Are there more? Can Adel be a short form?

3) How are the short forms pronounced?

Adele/Adelle - Are they pronounced "Ah-dell" or "Add-de-lee"?

If Adel is an acceptable short form, how is it pronounced? "Ah-dell" or "Add-ol"?

waylander · Dec 20, 2011

A French friend's daughter is named Adele pronounced Ah-dell

alleycat · Dec 20, 2011

Nicknames often comes from the family and friends, and some times they can be a bit odd. It's your story, you can give the character whatever nickname you'd like.

I would pronounce Adelle/Adel as A-dell.

If you need to show how the name is pronounced within your story, have another character ask the character or one of the character's friends. Else just let the reader decide.

Lunatique · Dec 20, 2011

Gotcha. Thanks!

jaksen · Dec 20, 2011

I know your question is about Adelyn, which I have seen in my family spelled as Adeline. It was pronounced Add - uh - line.

As for the name Adelle, I have always known it to be pronounced as Uh-dell.

As a nickname, Addie, pronounced A (as in cat) Dee. Rhymes with Maddy.

I can still hear old Adelle's husband: "Get a move on, Uh-dell, we ain't got all day."

(jaksen is from MA, near RI)

blacbird · Dec 20, 2011

A girl in my high school class (many years ago) was named Edlyn, which would seem to be a variation.

caw

Xelebes · Dec 20, 2011

The root is Adel- (Old English: Æðel; Old High German: Adel = Noble), so you have Adelaide, Adelyn, Adeline, Adelle as well as the more English form, Ethel.

The short form is Ada.

lbender · Dec 21, 2011

The only other short name I can think of that might be used would be 'Lyn', for the same reason 'Beth' is sometimes used for 'Elizabeth'.

McMich · Dec 21, 2011

I am assuming the person is female and therefore i would not think it would be common to be Adel (which is a masculine arabic name)
Our daughter is Adelena (Ad-del-lee-na) and we call her Leenie- so if you don't want to use a "A" nickname, I'd go with Ibender on Lyn

Lunatique · Dec 21, 2011

I should mention that the character is a pubescent girl, and she's also not really human. In her realm (which has nothing to do with our world at all), she has a different form of the same name, which is Athelyn. Adelyn is actually a name picked to be used in our realm, because is sounds very similar to her original name.

Xelebes said:
The root is Adel- (Old English: Æðel; Old High German: Adel = Noble), so you have Adelaide, Adelyn, Adeline, Adelle as well as the more English form, Ethel.

The short form is Ada.

Interesting. Ethel and Ada are both quite different from the root form.

McMich said:
I am assuming the person is female and therefore i would not think it would be common to be Adel (which is a masculine arabic name)
Our daughter is Adelena (Ad-del-lee-na) and we call her Leenie- so if you don't want to use a "A" nickname, I'd go with Ibender on Lyn

Adel is probably a multicultural name? I never thought of it as an Arabic name--it sounds more like an Irish name to my ears.

Puma · Dec 21, 2011

So where does Adelia fit into this scheme? It would also seem to me to be from the same root. One of my college friends was Adelia and her nickname was Dee-Dee. Puma

Xelebes · Dec 21, 2011

Lunatique said:
Interesting. Ethel and Ada are both quite different from the root form.

Ethel is the English form, coming from the Old English root Æðel (Aethel.) There are cognates in most, if not all Germanic languages.

The name Adelyn and its short forms?

Lunatique

Fluffy Wolf

waylander

Who's going for a beer?

alleycat

Still around

Lunatique

Fluffy Wolf

jaksen

Caped Codder

blacbird

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui

lbender

McMich

Lunatique

Fluffy Wolf

Puma

Retired and loving it!

Xelebes

Delerium ex Ennui