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Hortensia
Very few like Hortense, but is Hortensia just as bad?
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Bit of a guilty pleasure for me. It's not terrible (neither is Hortense, but only with a French accent). It sounds like the name of a goddess.
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Hortensia - hor-TEN-sha to me, and it's the botanical name of the hydrangea.South Africans are, generally speaking, not good at French, though we did have French Huguenot immigrants in the 17th century, who gave us some fns and lns. I was at school with an Elizabeth who had a little sister Hortense, which they pronounced Hor-tenss and nicknamed Tahnsie. That's as close as I can get, but it was the nasalised French version of -ten-, and then -sie on the end like Topsy or Nancy. I found this unfortunate.
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No, but it's a bit "too much". I don't hate Hortense btw, Napoleonic names are kind of cool.
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Yeah. Don't like it at all
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Ooh, Hortensia is so stuffy and grand, like an ornately upholstered chair or a gilded mirror.I love it.
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I have mixed feelings on Hortense. I love the sound when it's pronounced correctly, but I'm so terrible at any kind of French pronunciation that it feels very affected to me when I try to say it right. Also, I would be very tempted to "misspell" it is Ortense to cut down on its visual ugliness. ;-) Hortensia: neat! Maybe not something that I could find a lot of practical applications for, but it's pretty cool. I'd admire someone's guts if they went for it for real. Thanks for bringing these up. I'd forgotten what I liked about Hortense. :-)
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No Hortensia isn't as bad as Hortense. Not my favourite name, but I do think it's kind of neat.
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I like Hortense - when pronounced or-TONCE, and not 'whore tents'. Hortensia confuses me, as I don't know whether to say it or-TON-sha or whore tents-ee-a. There's something appealing about the first prn, but not so much the second.
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If going the Fr. route (and Hortense doesn't appeal to me w/ Fr. prn either), Hortensia would be more like or-ton-see-a and with a nasal sound rather than the sha sound...
Hadn't really thought of it as whore-tents before... That just makes the name even worse.
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I once knew a woman named Hortensia. Nice person. But I still can't get behind the name (I despise the first syllable, and the middle syllable is "tense").

This message was edited 10/15/2010, 11:59 AM

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Yes. It has the same problem Hortense has, beginning with Hor-, with the added negative of sounding very pretentious.
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No, but I still don't like it.
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maybe... maybe almost and maybe worse.
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I find it a bit heavy sounding, but I don't know why. I also think it is very outdated. In my mind, Hortensia is a posh old lady.
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I like it. I wouldn't name my daughter Hortensia because she'd probably hate me, but I'd use it for a pet or psuedonym.
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me tooI enjoy it but I'm sure a child would not be so enthusiastic. A pity!
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While I like Hortensia more than Hortense (I tend to prefer -a names in general), neither is to my taste. I think I dislike the 'hor' part (same with Horace, Horst, Horatio, etc.). BTW, hortenzija is the Croatian name for the hydrangea flower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrangea) and while I love the flower I can't like the name.

This message was edited 10/14/2010, 10:27 PM

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